By Frances J. Karon
WinStar Farm’s new stallion recruit Fed Biz has all the proper credentials to succeed as a sire: pedigree, looks, race record, and the backing of a farm that has helped get freshman sire Super Saver, with seven stakes horses in his first crop, off to a great start in 2014.
The attractive and well-balanced bay son of Giant’s Causeway was bred in Kentucky by Colts Neck Stables LLC and sold via agent Lane’s End Farm at the Keeneland September sale to Kaleem Shah for $950,000, making Fed Biz his sire’s most expensive yearling in 2010. Fed Biz was also the fourth most expensive horse sold at Keeneland that September. But his marketability was based not solely on his good looks — his dam Spunoutacontrol, a black-type winner of four of her five starts — is a half-sister, by Wild Again, to European highweight Minardi, Tale of the Cat-G2, and to the dam of two-year-old champion Johannesburg. And if those names are not enough to impress, Fed Biz’s second dam Yarn is a full sister to Preach, the dam of G1 winner and top sire Pulpit. Horse of the Year Round Table’s full sister Monarchy, a stakes winner, is his fifth dam.
On the racetrack, Fed Biz proved that he’s not just another pretty face. Trained by Bob Baffert and carrying Shah’s red, white, and blue silks, he won at least one race every year from two to five, with three graded stakes wins: the Pat O’Brien-G2, San Diego Handicap-G2, and San Fernando-G2, from seven furlongs to a mile and a sixteenth. Twice he set new track records at Del Mar, winning the 7-furlong Pat O’Brien in 1:21 to defeat multiple Grade 1 winner Goldencents by a length; and the 1 1/16 mile San Diego in 1:41 on July 26, 2014. Fed Biz also ran second or third in the Awesome Again-G1 (second by a neck to Shared Belief going nine furlongs), Frank E. Kilroe Mile-G1, Pat O’Brien-G2, Indiana Derby-G2, and Strub-G2, among other black-type races. In 19 starts, Fed Biz won six times, with three seconds, three thirds, and earnings of $770,496. He succeeded on all weather and on dirt, and was Grade 1 placed on the turf.
It will be interesting to see breeders with Pulpit-line mares line up for seasons to Fed Biz. The Giant’s Causeway/A.P. Indy cross is an A eNick and an A+ GeoNick in North America, and it has already produced the likes of Imagining-G1, Chief Havoc-G2, Cameo-G3, Carve-G3, Protonico-G3, Size-G3 (dam by Pulpit), and Worth Repeating-G3 by Giant’s Causeway and his sons First Samurai (with three SWs bred on the cross) and Shamardal. A foal by Fed Biz out of a daughter of Pulpit would be inbred 3×3 to the full sisters Yarn and Preach. 2014 two-year-old SW Croninthebarbarian, by a son of Pulpit out of a daughter of Tale of the Cat, is 3×3 to Preach and Yarn.
Fez Biz stands at WinStar for $12,500.
