Force the Pass Retired to Stud in Maryland

Grade 1-winning millionaire Force the Pass  has been retired from racing and will enter stud in Maryland in 2020 as the property of T.K. Kuegler’s Wasabi Ventures Stallions, which recently acquired the son of Speightstown  from his owner/breeder Richard Santulli. Force the Pass will stand at Louis and Grace Merryman’s Anchor & Hope Farm as Wasabi’s first foray into the stallion business.

Kuegler has recently expanded his operation to include more than a dozen broodmares, and Wasabi will be supporting Force the Pass heavily at stud.

“We believe in the health and strength of the Maryland racing and breeding industry,” said Kuegler in an Aug. 26 announcement, “and we think Force the Pass offers incredible value to mid-Atlantic breeders given his combination of race record, pedigree, and physique. We expect to use an aggressive marketing campaign to get 100 mares to the horse in his first season, which will give him every chance to live up to his potential at stud.”

While trained by Alan Goldberg, Force the Pass became an immediate standout in the sophomore turf division, winning the Cutler Bay Stakes in his third start. He later strung together consecutive wins in the Penn Mile Stakes (G3T) and a 3 3/4 lengths victory in the grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes, in which he flew home with a :45.65 final half-mile to defeat Divisidero, Bolo, Takeover Target, and Startup Nation.

Force the Pass went on to place in the Secretariat Stakes (G1T) and Commonwealth Derby (G2T) to close out his 3-year-old season. He placed in four more stakes at 4 (three of them graded) then won Monmouth Park’s Cliff Hanger Stakes at 6 in 1:33.73. This year as a 7-year-old, Force the Pass was third in the grade 2 Monmouth Stakes.

“Force the Pass is a big, good-looking horse, and he had a ton of talent, which he showed repeatedly on the racetrack,” according to Goldberg. “He has every reason to make an excellent stallion.”

Force the Pass retires sound, with a career mark of 5-6-5 from 21 starts and earnings of $1,359,114. He is out of the multiple grade 3-winning Dynaformer mare Social Queen, from the immediate female family of grade 1 and seven-time graded stakes winner Perfect Drift, who banked $4,714,213 in earnings.

“Force the Pass was a brilliant 3-year-old with an amazing turn of foot, and he campaigned at a high level through his 7-year-old season,” said George Adams of Housatonic Bloodstock, who brokered the deal to purchase Force the Pass and will serve as the director of stallions and breeding for Wasabi Ventures Stallions and Stables. “He is one of only four grade 1 winners at stud in Maryland. Combined with Speightstown’s status as a successful sire of sires, and given where Wasabi has priced this horse, we think Maryland-breeders will flock to him, especially after they see him.”

Force the Pass’s 2020 stud fee will be $4,000 with a live foal, stands and nurses guarantee and a limited number of lifetime breeding rights are being offered in the horse for $6,000.