Page 49 - Speedhorse December 2019

stepped up to Grade 1 level with a 3 1/2-length score going seven furlongs in the Churchill Downs Stakes on May 4. A signature win came June 8 when he held off the late run of McKinzie in the Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap-G1 – aka the “Met Mile” – at Belmont Park. Mitole came back in the July 27 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap-G1 at Saratoga Race Course, but finished third while being pinned along the inside throughout the 6-furlong race. He rebounded with a 3-length win in the Forego Stakes-G1 on the August 24 Travers Day undercard at Saratoga.
Recording his fourth Grade 1 victory of the year, Mitole stalked the pace and delivered down the lane in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita. Going 6-furlongs in 1:09 to win by 1 1/4-lengths, Mitole essentially assured himself the Eclipse Award as the top male sprinter.
Mitole finished 2019 with six wins and earnings of $2,276,200 from seven starts,
and retires with a career record of 10-2-2 and $3,104,910 from 14 starts. The stallion is booked full at $25,000 for his first season in 2020 at Spendthrift Farms. Quarter Horse mares can be bred to the No. 1 sprinter in North America with frozen semen for a fee of $4,000.
“We were approached by Bill Heiligbrodt and Steve Asmussen about making Mitole available
to Quarter Horse mares,» says Mark Toothaker, stallion director/sales manager at Spendthrift Farm. “Bill gets all the credit for this. He and his wife Corrine own Mitole and had quite a few people approach him about breeding to him. Mitole is an incredibly fast horse, very talented, and Bill felt like he would be a horse that could bring new blood
to the Quarter Horses. Steve Asmussen told us several times that, pole-to-pole, Mitole was as fast
a horse that he’d ever trained. If you dropped his lead and let him role, Steve felt like he was as fast as anything out there. That’s what initiated this. Bill has friends in the Quarter Horse industry, and they were interested in seeing if Mitole could be made available to the Quarter Horse world.
“Here’s the thing: Mitole is a beautiful horse, a very nice horse, and ought to fit Quarter Horse mares well,” Toothaker continues. “He’s not an overly big horse, he’s very correct, he’s got a beautiful hip and gaskin. Al Pike, who is in the Thoroughbred world now, used to train Quarter Horses and grew up in the Quarter Horse world in Weatherford, Texas. Al’s take on Mitole and Into Mischief is that Mitole is brilliant, extremely fast, a beautiful horse for Quarter Horse mares, and has every chance in the world
to be a success in the Quarter Horse world, and if Into Mischief passes on his heart and will to win to Quarter Horses like he’s done in Thoroughbreds, he’ll change the Quarter Horse breed. That’s our take on it, as well. These two Thoroughbred stallions have the chance to change the Quarter Horse breed.”
“. . . Mitole is brilliant, extremely fast, a beautiful horse for Quarter Horse mares, and has every chance in the world to be a success in the Quarter Horse world . . .”
SPEEDHORSE, December 2019 45