$40,000 Liam's Map colt lands Classic laurels in Preakness Stakes

Click here to add us to your Google preferred sources or find out more here

Bargain colt Napoleon Solo put his issues behind him when he roared back into form in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park, providing Lane’s End Farm’s Liam’s Map with his first Classic winner.

Trained by Chad Summers, the son of Liam’s Map landed Grade 1 laurels as a juvenile when producing a dominant performance in the Champagne Stakes, a triumph that put him firmly in the picture for the Kentucky Derby.

Returning this season, the colt produced a couple of below-par efforts in Grade 2 company, and following a handful of setbacks, including a heel bruise, his participation in the first leg of the Triple Crown was shelved.

'This is the icing on the cake' - Napolean Solo strikes in the Preakness to give Chad Summers his first Triple Crown race win 

However, Napoleon Solo produced the performance of his career to defeat the Chad Brown-trained Iron Honor by a length and three-quarters.

Bred by John Gunther and Eurowest Bloodstock, the colt was sourced by his trainer for $40,000 from the Keeneland September Yearling Sale draft at Glennwood Farm in 2024.

Napoleon Solo is the only winner out of the speedy Scat Daddy mare Atomic Bomb, whose three career victories were headed by a Listed success. Further afield, this is also the family of Australian Group 2 winner Gallic Chieftain.

Napoleon Solo is one of seven elite-level winners among a cohort that accounts for 33 stakes winners for Liam’s Map.

The son of Unbridled’s Song stands for $50,000, having begun his stud career in 2016 at a fee of $25,000.

Read more:

'Hopefully he has a big future' - Skelton snares the exciting Isaac Of York for a sale-topping €500,000 in Auteuil 

'She's just astonishing' - patience paying off for rapidly progressive Royal Velvet