Signature Red Back Home at Colebrook Farms

Multiple grade 2 winner Signature Red  has returned for the 2020 breeding season to Colebrook Farms Stallion Station, where the 14-year-old son of Bernstein entered stud and sired five black-type winners.

"We always felt Signature Red was a nice horse, and he's has proven that," said John Burness, owner of Colebrook Farms. "He had a great year last year with three stakes winners. His foals are precocious and the majority are sprinter types, but he showed he is capable of producing a two-turn horse."

Red Cabernet, a 6-year-old daughter of Signature Red, was the sire's top performer last year. She won two stakes at 1 1/16 miles, taking the OLG Algoma Stakes Presented by CTHS (Ontario Division) on Woodbine's main all-weather track and the Eternal Search Stakes on the turf in a course-record time of 1:42.89. Red Cabernet has won seven of 27 career starts and banked CA$430,724 (US$329,513) in earnings.

Signature Red was also represented in 2019 by two 2-year-old stakes winners: Dotted Line, a gelding who won the Frost King Stakes and Kingarvie Stakes; and Red Giveaway, a colt who won the Bull Page Stakes. The sire's gelded son Red Fiction was third in the Bull Page as well.

Owned by Howard Walton, Signature Red entered stud at Colebrook in 2013 after completing a racing career in which he won or placed in seven graded stakes on turf and Woodbine's all-weather surface. He won the Highlander Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine consecutively in 2010-11 and retired with CA$649,884 (US$630,232) in earnings.

The stallion was sent to Adena Springs North in Ontario for two seasons beginning in 2018. Walton then decided to send Signature Red back to the farm that provided his strong start at stud. Out of 53 starters, through Feb. 6, Signature Red has sired 32 winners. His runners have collectively earned nearly US$2.5 million.

Signature Red is standing for CA$3,500 this year. Special consideration will be given for breeding multiple mares and for mares that are stakes winners or stakes producers.

While Colebrook welcomes back a proven stallion to its roster, the farm also has high hopes for its first-crop sire Ami's Holiday, a 9-year-old son of Harlan's Holiday, who won the Grey Stakes (G3) at 2 and went on capture the Breeders' Stakes. Ami's Holiday, who stands for CA$4,000, was also second in the Queen's Plate Stakes and third in the Prince of Wales Stakes.

"We're going to see what he's made of," Burness said. "I have some babies down in Ocala right now that look promising. The stallions from his sire line are certainly doing well in the U.S., and we hope it picks up here."

Spendthrift Farm's Into Mischief , the leading North American sire of 2019, is also a son of Harlan's Holiday.