Stakes winner King for a Day joins roster for 2021 at Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions. NYRA Photo.
Stakes winner King for a Day, the only horse to beat champion 3-year-old male Maximum Security to the wire in 2019, has been retired and will enter stud in 2021 at Irish Hill & Dutcess Views Stallions LLC in Saratoga.
The 4-year-old son of Uncle Mo will stand for $6,000 live foal stands and nurses.
Bred and raced by Stephen P. Brunetti’s Red Oak Stable and trained by Todd Pletcher, King for a Day won three of seven starts with a second and a third for $260,550 in earnings.
Brunetti plans to remain actively involved in King for a Day’s stallion career and will send several quality mares to him.
King for a Day finished third in his debut as a 2-year-old at Saratoga – behind eventual Grade 1 winner Complexity and Grade 2 winner Harvey Wallbanger – before breaking his maiden in his second start a month later at Belmont Park over a field that included eventual Grade 2 winner and Triple Crown standout Tacitus.
King for a Day raced exclusively in stakes-company from there and he started his 3-year-old season with back-to-back victories at that level. He won the Sir Barton Stakes on the Preakness Day undercard at Pimlico Race Course in his sophomore debut before a victory in the $150,000 TVG.com Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park. He pressed Maximum Security through the opening half-mile of the Pegasus before backing off briefly then putting in a brilliant, sustained effort to defeat the eventual Eclipse Award winner by a length in 1:42.59 for the 1 1/16 miles.
King for a Day outruns eventual champion Maximum Security to win last year’s Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park. Bill Denver/EquiPhoto.
“King for a Day displayed big talent from day one,” said Pletcher, who also trained Uncle Mo. “He not only strongly resembles his sire Uncle Mo but, he had a great mind to go with the talent. King had a high cruising speed just like his sire.
“He was precocious to win at 2 a tough maiden special weight race at Belmont Park over Tacitus and others. His win over Maximum Security at 3 in the Pegasus elevated him to another level and there is no doubt in my mind that this horse had the ability to win Grade 1 races.”
King for a Day joins eight others on the Irish Hill & Dutchess Views roster for 2021 and becomes the latest – and now only – son of Uncle Mo to stand in the Empire State. Uncle Mo is emerging as a true sire of sires, with three of the top four leading North American freshman sires of 2020 including former the New York-based Laoban (second) and leader Nyquist.
King for a Day is out of the unraced French Deputy mare Ubetwereven, who is also the dam of stakes winner and $147,280-earner Feel That Fire and stakes winner and $258,454-earner Ima Jersey Girl. Feel That Fire is the dam of two-time Grade 1 winner and millionaire Mind Control.
For more information on King for a Day – including special incentives for breeders, multiple mare incentives, or to book your mare – please contact Rick Burke at rick@IrishHillCenturyFarm.com or Moe Scavullo at info@IHDVstallions.com.
