Hoppertunity to stand at Northview-PA
Hoppertunity will stand at Northview-PA. Photo courtesy of Northview Stallion Station.
From a Northview Stallion Station release
Multiple Grade 1 winner and multimillionaire Hoppertunity will enter stud in 2019 at Northview PA in Peach Bottom, Pa. With career earnings of $4,712,625, the 7-year-old becomes the richest horse ever to stand his first season in the Mid-Atlantic region. His stud fee is $5,000 live foal, with shares and lifetime breeding rights being offered.
In a career that spanned five seasons and 34 starts, Hoppertunity had 22 top-three finishes while consistently racing at the highest level from coast-to-coast. His nine stakes wins were all graded, with Grade 1 scores in the historic Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park and Churchill Downs’ Clark Handicap. He made two trips to Dubai and hit the board in the 2016 Group 1 Dubai World Cup when third behind California Chrome. He won the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes twice at Santa Anita and the Grade 2 Brooklyn Invitational Stakes at Belmont.
Hoppertunity recorded his first stakes win in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park before finishing second to California Chrome in the G1 Santa Anita Derby next out. He went into Derby Week at Churchill Downs as the second choice for the G1 Kentucky Derby until a foot issue forced his defection two days before the race. He returned at the end of the year to nail down the Clark Handicap over older horses.
“I could go on and on about his racing statistics, but everyone can look them up,” said Northview’s general manager David Wade. “What most haven’t seen yet is this horse. I went to Santa Anita to inspect him for purchase and I thought they had brought me the wrong one. How could a horse that’s run 34 times, 31 of them stakes races, have legs this clean and joints this tight? As a group, our breeders are very savvy and inspect our stallions diligently, so conformation is high up on our list when shopping for new stallions. This one certainly won’t disappoint anyone.”
Hoppertunity was trained throughout his career by Bob Baffert for Karl Watson, Mike Pegram and Paul Weitman. The bay recorded 15 triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures, and only twice in his career was he worse than fourth. He won at distances up to a mile-and-a-half, broke his maiden at one mile at Santa Anita, and faced the best runners in training year after year.
“Speed, class, stamina, and soundness will make you a multimillionaire in this business. Hoppertunity has them all,” said Baffert. “He could dominate the breeding industry in that region.”
A son of Grade 1-winning Any Given Saturday from the male line of Forty Niner, Hoppertunity is out of the graded stakes-placed Unaccounted For mare Refugee. He is a half-brother to Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante and Grade 1 Chandelier winner Executiveprivilege, an earner of $999,000 from 10 starts. Refugee’s weanling filly by Tapit sold for $1.3 million at the 2015 Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale. The mare has since had foals by War Front and American Pharoah.
Hoppertunity’s third dam is champion and Hall of Famer Davona Dale, winner of the Filly Triple Crown of Grade 1 races, the Coaching Club American Oaks, Mother Goose, and Acorn, as well as the two other Grade 1 events, the Kentucky Oaks and Fantasy Stakes. Her foals include Grade 1 Belmont Stakes-placed Le Voyageur.
Hoppertunity and the rest of the roster, including the region’s leading sire Jump Start, will be available for inspection at Northview PA’s open house on Saturday, Nov. 17.
“We are going to miss him,” said Baffert. “He was the barn favorite. Everyone loves Hopper.”
