Gift Box Retied With String of Victories (and Layoffs)

[RolloTomasi]

GIFT BOX RETIRED

Grade 1 winning millionaire Gift Box has been retired from racing and will begin his new career as a stallion at Lane's End starting in 2021.

Somehow I have a feeling this might end up being the only honest statement in the entire press release.

The colt retires as a Grade-1 and three-time graded stakes winner with a record of 18-6-6-2 from the ages of two to six.

Less than 4 starts a campaign. Durable.

In 2019, Gift Box was among the leading older horses in America after a string of graded stakes performances that included a Grade 1 victory in the Santa Anita Handicap.

A string of stakes victories? You mean 2 stakes victories.

Did you have to bust out the abacus to count that high?

He retires as the highest-earning colt by his leading sixth-crop sire Twirling Candy. He will join his sire, along with his grandsire Candy Ride, who both also stand at Lane's End.

…until about 2024 at which point he will either be sold to Korea or transferred to Texas.

“Gift Box was an incredibly talented and consistent racehorse,” said John Sadler. “We ran him back-to-back in graded stakes race after graded stakes race and he was only ever off the board once.

He ran in 5 consecutive graded stakes in the span of one entire calendar year. That’s one start every 73 days.

Who was standing back-to-back exactly? Dom Deluise and Paul Prudhomme?

These are attributes you do not often see in the modern racehorse. He had speed, toughness, sound enough to race on in the handicap division, everything a trainer wants in a two-turn dirt horse.”

“Sound enough”?

-He had a 6-month layoff leading into his 3yo campaign.
-He had a 10-month layoff leading into his 4yo campaign.
-He had a 9-month layoff leading into his 6yo campaign.
-He had a 6-month layoff leading into his aborted 7yo campaign.

And the fact that he was retired today after working several times in August and September suggests he would have had another layoff if he was a gelding.

As a 2-year-old Gift Box broke his maiden at Belmont posting a 93 Beyer before targeting the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes in his next start, where he was beaten by just three lengths into third.

A distant 3rd in Grade 2 race is stallion ad fodder?

I wonder why they didn’t mention that Mohaymen won the race?

In doing so, he became a graded stakes performer in just his third start as a 2-year-old.

So did all the other also-rans…

Gift Box opened his 3-year-old campaign with a victory in a competitive allowance race at Belmont by 4 1/2 lengths, posting a 98 Beyer.

“Competitive”? The favorite was Gettysburg, better known as Creator’s pacesetter. That horse didn’t win another race for over 2 years when he mercifully won a $20K claimer.

His next start that year came in the Curlin Stakes where he was defeated by subsequent Grade 1 winner Connect. Just a month later he finished fourth in the G1 Travers at Saratoga to Champion Arrogate...

So—in the words of the abacus dude—a “string of losses”?

By the way, legend has it that the reason that Gift Box was layed up for 10-months between his 3yo and 4yo campaigns was because he hadn’t crossed the wire yet in the Travers…

“Gift Box represents so much of what we're about at Lane's End. A Grade 1 winner at a mile and a quarter on the dirt, speed, out of a tremendous mare from a sire line we believe in,” said Bill Farish.

Tremendous mare? What does this mean?

The dam was unplaced as a racehorse and aside from Gift Box produced a Grade 2-winning mare that has not produced anything herself. In the extended family, there is a single Grade 1 winner (a Dubai Sprint winner) who never won another graded stakes in his career.

“That's what we've been successful with and I'm appreciative of the opportunity Hronis Racing has given us.”

Huh? “Opportunity”?
Anyone care to guess who owned Gift Box before he was pawned off on Hronis Racing?

Yep, you guessed it…William Farish.

Now they in position to give up on the horse twice when he fails to deliver at stud…

Gift Box's career hit new heights as an older horse when he got a much-deserved graded stakes victory in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita defeating Grade 1 winner Battle of Midway.

Who comes up with this stuff? “Much-deserved”?

The horse hadn’t run in 9 months and hadn’t run in a stakes race in over 2 years.

That’s like saying I got a much-deserved Indy 500 victory at age 18 after taking the bus for all 4 years of high school because of a suspended learner’s permit...

The irony is that Battle of Midway will probably have a comparable stud career to Gift Box with only a dozen or so foals.

This race was the first of four further graded stakes starts that only saw Gift Box off the board once.

Yeah, Sadler mentioned that. Unheard of stuff from “modern horses”. Even the decimated 3yo crop this year has horses with better records.

His next start came in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap where he defeated four-time Grade 1 winner McKinzie.

Using abacus man’s string theory, I guess McKinzie had a whole ball of yarn with 13 consecutive graded stakes between 2 and 4 with only one off-the-board finish. And most of that was with Mike Smith on his back…

In his next start he finished second in the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita, posting a 105 Beyer before winning the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes in his final start by almost 4 lengths, posting a career high 107 Beyer.

You could have at least put a “yadda yadda” in between that Gold Cup and San Antonio. You had 7 months to do it…

“Gift Box was always involved in races of the highest level and as owners we could not ask any more than that,” said Kosta Hronis.

I’ll give him credit on this. For some reason, it seems like he had this horse forever, but in reality, he only owned the horse for the last 5 starts. I guess it only felt like an eternity…

“John [Sadler] always had a tremendous amount of confidence in him, and time and time again Gift Box proved him right.

Credit has been revoked!

“Time and time again”?

Try “three times” he was right. Or rather:

“Time and time and time again”…

We are going to stay involved in his next career as a stallion at Lane's End, where they have a proven track record of nurturing a young stallion's career.”

I’m semi-illiterate…is this an example of mixed metaphor, a redundancy, or just a poor choice of words.

Freddy?

Bred by Craig and Carrie Brogden of Machmer Hall, Gift Box was a $135,000 Keeneland November purchase.

ahem...by Will Farish.

He is out of the Unbridled's Song mare Special Me. His pedigree is free of Storm Cat and A.P. Indy which will be appealing to breeders as both have been a proven success with Candy Ride and Twirling Candy, producing the likes of Grade 1 winner Collusion Illusion.

Proven success by crossing amongst 4 stallions with…ahem…one horse listed. Man, these guys are tight with the examples. I know “two” of anything is considered a gob to abacus boy, but can we please come up with at least one other horse, preferably one that didn’t win his only Grade 1 less than a couple months ago?

Pretty sure Candy Ride and Twirling Candy have been at stud a lot longer than 2020…

Gift Box will be syndicated and available for inspection in the coming weeks at Lane's End Farm and a stud fee will be determined.

“In the coming weeks?” Great…another layoff.

[RolloTomasi]

Alabama,

I wish the fly had landed on you but instead it went right over your head.

It was supposed to be a play on words (gift box, string, re-tie, retire).

[RolloTomasi]

This statement from the Hronis brother has aged well:

We are going to stay involved in his next career as a stallion at Lane's End, where they have a proven track record of nurturing a young stallion's career.

Just a few hours later, Lane's End casts off Frankel's full brother Noble Mission and sells him to stand in Japan.

His oldest runners are only 4yos.

In that first crop he got Travers winner (and Kentucky Derby runner-up) Code of Honor. No mean feat for a European-based runner who is bred for turf.

Maybe they did it to make room for Gift Box. Karma would have Code of Honor winning the BC Classic...