Verrazano Sold to Brazilian Breeders

The same group of Brazilian breeders who acquired New Year's Day, only to see the stallion get purchased by Japanese interests three months into the 2019 breeding season, have sought to fill the void by purchasing multiple grade 1 winner Verrazano , according to the agent who brokered the deal.

"Verrazano is the complete package," said Prospect Agency's Priscila Beloch, who brokered the sale. "He's a great physical, by a sire (More Than Ready ) who is proven in the Southern Hemisphere not only as one of the best ever but as a sire of sires, with a huge female family and probably the best race record of a stallion exported from the U.S. ever to stand in Brazil."

The 9-year-old stallion will stand at the traditional Haras Old Friends in the region of Bagé, Rio Grande do Sul, as property of a syndicate headed by Haras Eternamente Rio of Luis Felipe Brandão, Di Cellius, Anderson, Mondesir, Old Friends, Doce Vale, Embalagem, Fronteira, and Dilema farms, among others. Haras Old Friends also stands Brazilian leading sires Drosselmeyer and Redattore.

Out of the multiple graded stakes producer Enchanted Rock (Giant's Causeway), Verrazano was bred in Kentucky by Emory Hamilton, who sold him as a yearling for $250,000 to Let's Go Stable. The colt broke his maiden by 7 3/4 lengths at Gulfstream Park and next won an allowance optional claiming race by 16 1/4 lengths. By Verrazano's third start, Let's Go Stable was in a partnership with Coolmore associates Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith. By year's end, Verrazano was victorious in the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1), William Hill Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1), Tampa Bay Derby (G2), and Pegasus Stakes (G3). He also finished third in the Cigar Mile Handicap (G1).

At 4, Verrazano was sent to England where he was runner-up in the Queen Anne Stakes (G1) and third in the JLT Lockinge Stakes (G1). An injury in the Coral Eclipse (G1) forced an early retirement. He entered stud at Ashford Stud with a 6-1-2 record out of 13 starts and $1,878,013 in earnings.

As a stallion, Verrazano was a top-10 freshman sire by progeny earnings last year and co-ranked as the fifth-leading sire of his class by number of black-type performers. Through Sept. 24, he is the fourth-leading second-crop sire in North America by progeny earnings and the co-third-leading sire by number of black-type winners with three alongside Cairo Prince , Goldencents , Fed Biz , and Cross Traffic . To date, he has sired four black-type winners and five black-type-placed performers in his stud career.

His top performer so far is Seek and Destroy, who is a two-time graded stakes winner on turf and a stakes winner on dirt. Verrazano's other stakes winners all excelled on turf.

"His progeny can really run on the turf, the surface where most of the graded stakes races in Brazil are run," Beloch said. "He is being very well received and will cover the best mares in the country, so the future looks good for Verrazano there."

Verrazano was previously shuttled for the 2015 Australia breeding season and for two seasons, 2016-17, to Chile.