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00:00When Wesley Ward's first Breeders' Cup champion, Hootenanny, needed a new home a few years
00:07ago, the leading trainer didn't hesitate to take him in.
00:11But now, the stallion's first crop of three-year-olds are succeeding on the racetrack.
00:16We stopped in at Ward Ranch to visit Hootenanny and speak with Wesley Ward about his stakes-producing
00:21stallion.
00:22We've got Hootenanny here.
00:24We had him as a yearling and we broke him and trained him and won his first start here
00:30at Keeneland.
00:31I took him over to Royal Ascot with Victor Espinosa and he won a nice race over there.
00:37We ran him in the morning, group one, and he was second.
00:43Frankie DeTore beat me.
00:45And after the race, Frankie said, if I had been on yours, I would have won.
00:51So I brought him back and from that race, we trained him up and he won the Breeders'
00:55Cup at Santa Anita.
00:57Frankie wrote him and he came true to his word.
00:59He said, if you put me on them, I'll win.
01:01And he did.
01:02He won my first Breeders' Cup for me.
01:04Luck of the kitten tries to keep them at bay, but Hootenanny gets the lead and it's going
01:08to be Hootenanny, perfectly ridden by Frankie DeTore.
01:13We ended up racing him until he was well into five years old.
01:18He just needed a home to go to, wasn't quite, he's got a sway back.
01:25So it's just for breeding purposes, something that usually the commercial breeders don't
01:30really like.
01:31But so far, all of his progeny, you know, he hasn't put that trait onto his babies.
01:38And they're all nice runners.
01:40They all have great minds like him.
01:42You know, they're all real kind of docile horses and they're all fast, essentially just
01:48about the only one breeding to them is me.
01:50But you know, they're all, they're all running and running very well.
01:54His best colt this year, Hixie, was up in Canada, you know, hopefully he's in the running
01:59for a two-year-old champion up there.
02:02Being my first Breeders' Cup winner, he's very special.
02:05So you know, that's why I want to make sure he had a good home and was able to have a
02:10few mares to breed anyways.
02:11And so he's been coming through since we acquired him on everything, you know, from a racehorse
02:17and now as a stallion.
02:18He's, you know, he hasn't thrown any champions, but for, you know, the limited opportunities
02:22he has, he's had one nice stakes winner up in Canada and a lot of winners for us.
02:29And he's got some very quick, fast ones that'll come in probably later, late spring.
02:35So I'm looking forward to those.
02:38First couple of crops, we just kind of wanted, I wanted to control the raising and breeding
02:44and training of his first few crops.
02:46And now that, now I'm looking to get him out there to, you know, some outside breeders
02:52and see what he can do.
02:54But hopefully, you know, that he'll have some interest and we'll go to a commercial farm.