Jersey Town ready to hang up the saddle and retire to Darby Dan Farm
The high-class miler, and also a grade 1 winner 6-year-old horse by Speightstown, Jersey Town’s racing career is about to come to an end, and the Charles E. Fipke owned and bred runner will retire to stud at John Phillips' Darby Dan Farm near Lexington.
Jersey Town will make his final start in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile Handicap at Aqueduct race track on 24 November, 2012. Out of Jersey Girl by Belong to Me, Jersey Town won the Cigar Mile Handicap 2 years back in 2010, which was his only grade 1 victory.
Trained by Barclay Tagg, Jersey Town will stand for a fee of $10,000, and will go on to participate in the Darby Dan’s “Share the Upside” program for breeders.
"Jersey Town is an extremely fast and high-class miler by one of the hottest stallions around in Speightstown," Phillips said. "It's pretty incredible how he's been able to maintain his soundness and form at the highest level of racing, which is a tribute to Chuck Fipke's program. We've been proud to stand grade I colts Perfect Soul http://www.equineline.com/dotReportProductSelectionDisplay.cfm?horse_name=Perfect+Soul+(IRE)&YOB=1998&breed_type=TB&horse_type=I&ASCID=1443262 and Tale of Ekati for Chuck, and we're excited about the opportunity to stand Jersey Town in 2013."
Bred in Kentucky, Jersey Town started his racing career in 2009, and in March he won his maiden claimer at first asking at Gulfstream Park over seven furlongs.
With a lone race in 2009, 2010 was the year when he made four starts, all in graded stakes events, and never finished worse than third in all of them, as he capped off that season with a victory in the Cigar Mile.
He started the 2011 season brightly as well, and went on to post back-to-back runner-up finishes in the Teddy Drone Stakes, and the Grade 1 Forego Stakes to winner, Jackson Bend, in his first two seasonal starts.
Third in Kelso Handicap, Jersey Town finished the 2011 season with a 6th place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, which was the first time he finished off the board in 9 starts.
This season, the incredible miler won the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap, and finished fifth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. He will bow out with an 6-8-3 from 21 starts with earnings of $819,668.
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