It was a big day for Shackleford and Darby Dan Farm yesterday! As part of Horse Country, the same group I book most of my farm tours through, there was a special event, for local fans, on March 18, 2017. Tickets were limited but several area wide farms offered free tours for the day. Hot on the Kentucky Derby trail, I chose Darby Dan Farm!
In 1935 Darby Dan Farm was founded in Ohio by John W. Galbreath. In 1949 he relocated to Lexington, KY on the former Idle Hour Stock Farm property previously owned by horseman, Colonel Bradley. The grounds are simply beautiful. So much so that it was the location chosen to film the 2010 Disney movie, Secretariat. Many antiques and the manor house were left behind by Bradley, including his equine graveyard with a bronze statue of his champion sire, Black Toney, marking his grave. The graveyard contains a few of Galbreath’s champs too. I saw the markers for Star De Naskra (champion sprinter), Roberto (Epsom Derby winner), Graustark (the undefeated winner of 7 races whom broke-down in the 1966 Blue Grass Stakes) and Ribot (European champion racer and sire).
The Galbreath’s have produced all the individual components of the Grand Slam of Thoroughbred racing. They have had 2 KY Derby winners (Chateaugay, Proud Clarion), a Preakness and a Belmont Stakes winner (Little Current) and a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner (Proud Truth). As well as a wealth of many other graded stakes winners.
After so much early success, the farm was taken over by Galbreath’s grandson, John Galbreath, in 1992. It seems like 2017 could be the year they rise to the top again. 3 of the current top 10 KY Derby contenders are sired by the Thoroughbreds standing at Darby Dan. They are proud to have 8 sires in their stallion barn: Dialed In, Jersey Town, Perfect Soul, Run Away and Hide, Shackleford, Sky Kingdom, Tale of Ekati and Tapiture.
Gunnevera has 64 points on the KY Derby trail, leaving him in the top spot. He is sired by Darby Dan’s Dialed In. The 5th spot goes to their own Tale of Ekati’s son Girvin, with 50 points. Yesterday, mere hours after my visit ended, the featured sire of the tour, Shackleford, got a son of his first crop in the top 10 too. Malagacy won the Rebel Stakes earning 50 points and that put him 4th on the KY Derby leaderboard.
Shackleford was born to Forestry and Oatsee on 2/25/2008. Shackleford won the Preakness Stakes in 2011. He ended his career on a high with his 6th win of 20 career races. He finished strong in the 2012 G2 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs. He was KY owned and bred. Now, the first crop of “Shack” babies are 3 year-olds and he is not disappointing as a sire. Shackleford stands for an easy $15,000.
His son, Malagacy, out of Classiest Gem was KY bred and foaled on 3/30/14. Malagacy is owned by Sumaya U.S. Stable. The same operation announced this past week that they will be borrowing California Chrome, from Taylor Made Farm, to breed him in the Southern Hemisphere at their farm in Chile. Malagacy is undefeated in 3 starts. Yesterday, he romped in the Rebel at Oaklawn. He is Trained by Todd Pletcher and his rider is Javier Castellano. Malagacy’s next race will likely be the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on 4/15/17. The winner of that race will pick up 100 KY Derby points.
Darby Dan is shaking up the KY Derby trail. I was so happy to spend time with Shackleford and I really enjoyed his buddy too, Swaps the barn cat. Swaps makes it his job to escort the stallions as they go about their business. In 1956 the Horse of the Year was also named Swaps, he became owned by the Galbreaths. The farm claims to have about 20 cats in all.
Good luck to Shackleford, Tale of Ekati and Dialed In. They may make Darby Dan the home of KY Derby sires this year! I am sure we will be seeing a lot of new champions from these stallions! Keep checking to see who is shaking things up among the KY Derby contenders and all of my other Thoroughbred adventures. Click on the images to enlarge your view.
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