'He's a perfect fit' - Air Force Blue relocates to Pegasus Farm in South Korea

Pegasus Farm in South Korea will stand three-time Group 1-winner and European champion two-year-old Air Force Blue beginning with the 2022 breeding season, the farm's owner Peter Hill announced on Wednesday.

Pegasus Farm will stand the eight-year-old son of prominent international sire War Front alongside one of Korea's leading young sires Thunder Moccasin.

"I saw Astronomer win on the Breeders' Cup undercard and was really impressed," Peter Hill said. "Air Force Blue's pedigree and race record are a perfect fit for Korean racing and breeding and the versatility of his early crops is very encouraging.

"Nearly 70 per cent of his runners win on the dirt or synthetic, and they win over a wide range of distances. Precocious horses have done very well in Korea as stallions, and we desperately need an out-cross for the plethora of A.P. Indy-line stallions and broodmares currently in Korea for which Air Force Blue is perfect."

The Korea Racing Authority, owners of leading Eclipse Horse of the Year candidate Knicks Go, have decided to stand the multiple Grade 1 winner at Taylor Made Stallions in Kentucky, so Hill said he sees a lot of opportunities for Air Force Blue in Korea. Hill added that Air Force Blue will be the highest-rated horse to be imported to Korea.

Air Force Blue previously stood at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky. The international breeding and racing operation has supplied several successful stallions to Korea, including European champion One Cool Cat, the Classic-placed and multiple Group 1 winner Hawk Wing and US champion Hansen, who is the second-leading Korean sire by earnings this year behind the late Menifee.

A second-crop sire this year, Air Force Blue ranks in the top 12 by progeny earnings ($2,601,326) and is a top-ten sire by number of winners this year with 48.

As a freshman sire last year, he ranked in the top ten by progeny earnings and was the third-leading sire of 2020 by number of winners with 17, which included three black-type performers - Chief Little Hawk, Take Profit and Twilight Blue.

Air Force Blue's top performers to date include Canadian Classic winner Haddassah, who won the Prince of Wales Stakes; Astronomer, the winner of the Golden Mile Stakes at Del Mar; turf stakes winner Fighting Force; stakes winner King of Dreams, and two-year-old stakes winner She's So Beautiful, who won this year's Khozan Juvenile Fillies Sprint Stakes at Gulfstream.

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