Vassar was one of the first mares due to foal at Rosecrest Farm this year.  On March 11, she finally decided to have her baby.  Remember my earlier blog when I said that the average gestation period for a mare is 340 days?   Vassar carried this foal for 405 days….that’s like 65 days “over”, as they say in the business.

She finally delivered a nice bay colt by Majestic Warrior with a star, tipping the scales at 114 pounds.  [Mom and baby are pictured above.]  She’s experienced at this.  She’s 16 years old, produced six foals of racing age, all six are starters (made it to the races), all six are winners, one is a stakes winner, two are graded stakes-placed and one is stakes-placed.  That’s the kind of record all of us breeders are hoping for!

On top of that, her very first foal brought $1.8 million as a 2-year-old in training, and became the stakes winner, named “Shimmering Moment”.  When her now-3-year-old (later named “Stormy Liberal”) was purchased as a yearling, Brisnet wrote, “Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, acting as agent, was the final bidder at $500,000 on Hip 228, a Stormy Atlantic full brother to the Grade 1-placed Coast Guard and a half-brother to the stakes-placed Garlfine (Belong to Me). Consigned by Dromoland Farm, agent, the son of Vassar (Royal Academy) is from the family of Irish highweights Henrythenavigator (Kingmambo), Sequoyah (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells), Listen (Tirol) and Saffron Walden (Sadler’s Wells), German highweight Dolphin Street (Bluebird), and Grade/Group 1 winners Beethoven (Ire) (Oratorio [Ire]) and Insight (Fr) (Sadler’s Wells). Further back, this female family produced 1969 juvenile colt champion Silent Screen (Prince John).”

That gives you an idea of the strength of Vassar’s, and this colt’s, pedigree!  She’ll be bred back this  year to Distorted Humor, who is already the sire of 127 stakes winners and twice been North America’s Leading Sire.