'Breeders will love him' - Travers Stakes winner Epicenter to stand at Coolmore

Impressive Travers Stakes winner Epicenter, who suffered a career-ending injury in the Breeders' Cup Classic last month, is making good progress in his recovery and will stand at Coolmore's Ashford Stud for 2023.

The five-time winner and top-class son of Not This Time was bred by Westwind Farms and sold to Winchell Thoroughbreds for $260,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2020.

Sent into training with Steven Asmussen in the colours of Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC, Epicenter was a wide-margin winner at Fair Grounds at two before a narrow second in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes at the same track in January.

The colt won his next two starts in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes and Louisiana Derby in February and March, before narrowly failing to land the Kentucky Derby, going down by three-quarters of a length to the late-closing Rich Strike.

Also second to another new Ashford sire in Early Voting in the Preakness Stakes, Epicenter then produced a career-best in the Travers Stakes, pulling five and a quarter lengths from multiple Grade 1 winner Cyberknife.

His final start came when pulling up behind the brilliant Flightline at Keeneland, having sustained an injury to his right forelimb.

Epicenter, who retires to stud at an introductory fee of $45,000, is the sixth foal out of the stakes-winning Candy Ride mare Silent Candy and a half-brother to two winners in Escarapela and Silent Congrats. Silent Candy is in turn a half-sister to the Graded-placed Quite A Handful.

Coolmore’s Dermot Ryan said of the three-year-old: "Epicenter is the best son of Giant’s Causeway’s best sire son Not This Time and is out of a stakes winner by the sire of Gun Runner.

"His combination of speed and stamina made him a potent force and he’s a very good-looking horse to boot. Breeders are going to love him.”

Ron Winchell of Winchell Thoroughbreds added: "He was a brilliant horse whose best racing days were still in front of him. Bred on the reverse of Gun Runner’s Candy Ride/Giant’s Causeway cross, he’s a hugely exciting stallion prospect."

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