New York-bred champion Bank Sting retired

Hidden Brook Farm’s and Joe and Anne McMahon’s multiple stakes winner Bank Sting, recently crowned with two more New York-bred championships, has been retired.

The 6-year-old daughter of leading New York sire Central Banker out of the Precise End mare Bee in a Bonnet won eight of 15 starts with three seconds and a third and earned $664,050. She won five stakes, including the 2022 Heavenly Prize Invitational against open, and placed in the Grade 3 Go for Wand last season.

“Bank Sting is currently being turned out at Hidden Brook Farm in Kentucky,” said Hidden Brook Racing Manager Dan Hall. “She’s remarkably sound and is enjoying retirement.  With the breeding season this far along, we’ll weigh all of our options and possibly point her to one of the November sales as a maiden broodmare prospect then.”

Bank Sting was bred, foaled and raised by McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in Saratoga Springs. She was honored Monday as 2022’s champion New York-bred older dirt female and female sprinter honors, awards she also won in 2021.

“Our partnership is honored that Bank Sting has been recognized twice as champion older mare and sprinter by the New York Thoroughbred Breeders,” said Joe McMahon.

The McMahons originally offered Bank Sting at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern fall yearling sale. When she did not meet her reserve they kept her to race and brought on Hidden Brook as a partner.

“She was a really fun filly,” McMahon said last month. “She really tried, and every time we sent her out to the racetrack she always had a real good shot. She was honest, tough, not without her quirks, but really consistent. Just a real game filly. We’re happy to have her. … She was always tough, quirky in some ways and unfortunately she was plagued by quarter cracks. We didn’t get to run her as much as we would have liked to. … She had those issues but as far as soundness of limb she was made out of hickory.”

Bank Sting is the fifth foal out of the stakes-placed New York-bred mare Bee in a Bonnet. Bank Sting is also a half-sister to three other winners – including the stakes-placed Liberty Island and her full 5-year-old sister Lot of Honey. Bee in a Bonnet is also the dam of the unraced 3-year-old Central Banker filly Busy Banker, who sold for $7,000 at this year’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale, and 2-year-old unnamed gelding by the late Laoban who sold for $100,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale.

The McMahons welcomed another full sister to Bank Sting to the New York-bred ranks this past winner and the 21-year-old Bee in a Bonnet was bred back to Central Banker.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2023/05/12/new-york-bred-champion-bank-sting-retired/

---