Multiple Graded Winner Timeline Retired to Stud in Iowa

Multiple graded stakes winner Timeline  has been retired and will enter stud next year at Iowa State University Horse Farm, according to owner/breeder Art Neuhedel, who recently acquired the 6-year-old son of Hard Spun  in a private sale.

Neuhedel flagged Timeline as a stallion prospect to watch early in the horse's racing career. A $500,000 sale yearling out of the Empire Maker  daughter Azorina and raced initially by Woodford Racing and trainer Chad Brown, Timeline won his first four starts, including the Peter Pan Stakes (G3) and Betfair.com Pegasus Stakes (G3).

Aside from Timeline's early success in graded stakes, Neuhedel said the horse stood out because of his impeccable pedigree. His female line traces to 1983 Broodmare of the Year Courtly Dee, who produced successful sire Twining and whose daughter Foreign Courier produced prominent European sire Green Desert. Affordability, it appeared, would be the biggest obstacle Neuhedel faced while trying to land his first stallion prospect.

Timeline started in the 2017 Betfair.com Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1) as the 9-5 favorite due to his consecutive grade 3 wins, but a bad start and his first race having to battle from off the pace left him tired toward the end, and he finished off the board. That loss opened a door for Neuhedel.

"Many of the horses we have tracked over the years end up in Kentucky, so we cross them off our list. He was one that was able to stay on our radar because he didn't win a grade 1," Neuhedel said. "He has an awfully nice pedigree that we feel puts him just a notch below Kentucky caliber."

Timeline picked up two more placings in black-type stakes with a second in the State Dinner Stakes and a third in the Kelso Handicap (G2), both at Belmont Park, before he was retired with a 5-1-3 record out of 17 starts and earnings of $432,217.

"He won from seven furlongs to a mile and an eighth, so he could carry his speed over distance. We think a stallion of his caliber has a license to be a major influence in Iowa and the surrounding states for years to come," said Neuhedel, who lives in Kansas but is a longtime supporter of the Iowa-bred program. He regularly sends his mares to Iowa State to foal and be rebred.

"Everyone speaks well of the Iowa State program. It has been successful with Stroll, and other breeders in Iowa have been comfortable taking their mares there to be bred and foaled."

Besides a pedigree that boasts 30 black-type performers, including 15 stakes winners under his first three dams, Timeline has the potential to pass along versatility through Hard Spun, who has sired 33 black-type winners on dirt and 49 black-type winners on turf among his 80 black-type winners.

"We don't have turf racing in Iowa, but next door in Indiana we do, so we thought it might encourage some breeders from the neighboring states. It does add to his appeal," Neuhedel said.

Timeline will stand next year for $1,500.