NEWS: BREEDING

Veteran sire Bellamy Road retires to Old Friends

Sunday, January 17th, 2021

Bellamy Road, sire of New York-bred Horse of the Year Diversify and two other Grade 1 winners, retires to Old Friends Equine in Kentucky. Susie Raisher Photo.

Bellamy Road, one of New York’s leading stallions and the sire of Grade 1 winners Diversify, Toby’s Corner and Constellation, has been pensioned to Old Friends Equine retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky.

The 19-year-old son of Concerto stood in New York since 2016 – at Dutchess Views Farm in Pine Plains and recently at Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions in Stillwater. He was scheduled to stand the 2021 season for $5,000 before being retired last week.

Campaigned by the late George Steinbrenner’s Kinsman Stable and trained by Nick Zito, Bellamy Road won four of seven starts highlighted by a blowout 17 ½-length win in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial in 2005 at Aqueduct. He started his stud career at Hurricane Hall in Lexington before moving to WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky.

“Bellamy Road has always had a special place in my heart,” said Kinsman President Jessica Steinbrenner, daughter of George Steinbrenner. “His Wood Memorial is the most exciting race that I have ever been to. I remember going back to the hotel afterward and being escorted through the kitchen because of all the people gathered outside. To this day, I still watch his Wood Memorial on YouTube, and to hear the announcer say ‘a dazzling performance by a dazzling 3-year-old’ brings me to tears every time.

“Bellamy is a rock star. He deserves a retirement where his fans can visit and reminisce. It’s exciting to think he will be amongst the other great retired racehorses residing at Old Friends.”

Bellamy Road also won the Grade 3 Cradle Stakes at River Downs as a 2-year-old for trainer Michael Dickinson before being transferred to the two-time Kentucky Derby-winning Zito for his sophomore season. He won a Gulfstream allowance and the Wood Memorial before finishing seventh in the Kentucky Derby. Bellamy Road returned off a near four-month layoff to finish second in the Grade 1 Travers in his final career start.

Grade 1 winner and Grade 1 sire Bellamy Road. Susie Raisher Photo.

“Jessica is following in her father’s footsteps,” Zito said of the decision to send Bellamy Road to Old Friends. “George would have done the same thing. They’re very special people.”

Bellamy Road joins his leading son, the now 8-year-old gelding Diversify, at Old Friends. Diversify earned New York-bred Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male honors in 2018 after winning the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga and Grade 2 Suburban at Belmont Park.

Bellamy finished fifth on New York’s sire list in 2020 with progeny earnings of $1,538,700, a year after he finished fourth on the state’s list with progeny earnings of $2,786,290. He’s the sire of 12 crops of racing age, including 21 2-year-olds of 2021, and 32 black-type winners, 27 black-type placed runners and the earners of $33,499,133 through Saturday.

Bellamy Road’s 2008 daughter Sisterly Love earned champion older female honors in Canada in 2013 after a victory in the Grade 3 Ontario Matron Stakes. He also sired 2011 Grade 1 Wood Memorial winner Toby’s Corner, 2016 Grade 1 La Brea winner Constellation and graded stakes winners Land Over Sea, Position Limit, All Squared Away, Victoria’s Wildcat and Georgie’s Angel.

“We were privileged that Kinsman, WinStar, and the other syndicate members sent Bellamy to us, and have allowed us to stand him in New York for so long,” said Dutchess Views Farm’s Michael Lischin, on behalf of the syndicate manager, Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions LLC. “He is sound and could continue as a stallion but the consensus was that, at his age, it would be in his best interest to retire him to a magnificent facility like Old Friends while he is still healthy and happy. We thank the syndicate and Old Friends for doing what was right for Bellamy Road.”

“We want to thank Jessica Steinbrenner for trusting us to care for her great horse,” said Old Friends’s Michael Blowen. “I know she went out of her way to make sure he’d get to us. Thanks also to Elliot Walden at WinStar who expedited everything, and to everyone at Dutchess Views for taking such great care of him.”

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