Darby Dan unveils stallion roster and fees for 2025

Darby Dan Farm has set 2025 stud fees for its roster of 13 stallions that will stand the upcoming breeding season, led by Flameaway and Dialed In, who will both stand for $15,000. 

The roster also features a trio of newcomers in Blazing Sevens, who will stand for $12,500, as well as Gufo and Shirl’s Speight who will both stand their first seasons at stud for $5,000.

Flameaway, a multiple Graded stakes-winning son of Scat Daddy, was a leading first-crop sire of 2023 and is the sixth-ranked second-crop sire this year. 

Among Flameaway’s nine black-type horses this year are two-year-old filly Ando Soltera, a Group 1 winner in her native Chile; two-year-old filly Dreamaway, winner of the Colleen Stakes at Monmouth Park and third in the Speakeasy Stakes at Santa Anita; Bear River, victorious in the Dade Park Dash Stakes at Ellis Park; Freedom Principle, winner of the English Channel Stakes at Gulfstream Park; and Where’s Marilyn, who annexed the Northern Lights Debutante Stakes at Canterbury Park.

Flameaway is also represented by Graded stakes-placed Northern Flame, who finished third in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

Dialed In, champion freshman sire of 2016 and a perennial leading sire of his crop ever since, is represented by 11 stakes horses in 2024, including two-year-old stakes winners Precise Timing, winner of the W.T.B.O.A Lassie Stakes and the Angie C.S. Stakes – both at Emerald Downs – and Kanojo, winner of the Iowa Sorority Stakes at Prairie Meadows. 

Dialed In’s leading earner this year is Defunded, who has banked $620,000 in 2024, having competed in the lucrative Saudi Cup and the Dubai World Cup. All told, Defunded, who won last year’s Hollywood Gold Cup and Californian Stakes, has amassed earnings of more than $2.2 million in a stellar racing career.

Blazing Sevens, winner of the Champagne Stakes at two and second in the 2023 Preakness Stakes, is a son of the white-hot stallion Good Magic. Blazing Sevens broke his maiden at Saratoga at the first time of asking, winning by six and a quarter lengths. 

In just his second race, he finished a rallying third in the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga over a sloppy track. In the prestigious stallion-making race at Belmont Park, the Champagne Stakes, Blazing Sevens overcame a troubled start, made a sweeping move five-wide on the far turn and stormed by the leaders in deep stretch to score by an impressive three and a quarter lengths for trainer Chad Brown. 

Blazing Sevens: new for 2025 at $12,500Credit: Darby Dan Farm

Blazing Sevens is produced from the winning Warrior’s Reward mare Trophy Girl, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner King David and stakes winner Bertsgoldenmissile. Bred in Kentucky by distinguished breeder Tracy Farmer, Blazing Sevens was a $225,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Sale graduate.

Gufo, a Grade 1 winner at three, four, and five, and a son of Declaration Of War, has relocated to Darby Dan Farm from Ballycroy Bloodstock in Ontario. Gufo will welcome his first foals in 2025. 

In a sensational racing career, Gufo won or placed in 12 Graded stakes, including back-to-back renewals of the $750,000 Sword Dancer Stakes in 2021 and ’22, and the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes in 2020. 

Gufo set a new nine-furlong course record at Delaware Park in 2020, winning his Graded stakes debut in the Kent Stakes. Remarkably, Gufo finished in the top three in 18-of-21 lifetime starts and retired with earnings of $2,176,530. Out of the Petionville mare Floy, Gufo is a half-brother to multiple Graded stakes winner and millionaire Hogy, who banked more than $1.3m and set a track record on the turf at Fair Grounds.

Shirl’s Speight is a Grade 1 winner by Speightstown out of Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner Perfect Shirl. A homebred for Charles Fipke trained by Roger Attfield, the globetrotting Shirl’s Speight registered the biggest win of his career in the 2022 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland, and he was among the top milers that year when also second by three-quarters of a length to champion Modern Games in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, also at Keeneland. 

In addition to his Grade 1 triumph and runner-up performance in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, Shirl’s Speight also finished second in the 2023 Woodbine Mile to multiple Grade 1 winner Master Of The Seas. 

He won on turf and all-weather surfaces and was placed on dirt behind Grade 1 winners Mind Control and Hot Rod Charlie when third in the 2022 Salvatore Mile At Monmouth Park. Winner of the Marine Stakes in just his second career start, Shirl’s Speight was noted for his high turn of foot at distances from seven furlongs to a mile. 

An outstanding physical specimen, Shirl’s Speight retires to stud sound. He hit the board in ten of 25 appearances competing against top-level horses and banked $1,497,245.

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