Synchrony Retired, Stud Plans Not Set

Pin Oak Stable's homebred multiple graded stakes winner and grade 1-placed Synchrony has been retired from racing due to a minor injury, according to the farm's general manager Clifford Barry.

Because of the poor timing of the injury, the 7-year-old son of Tapit  would miss all the significant fall stakes, so the decision was made late last week to retire him. Where the horse will start his stud career is still to be decided, according to Barry.

"The market in Kentucky is some kind of select and there is no forgiveness, so he is probably going to a regional market," Barry said. "For his (stud) career, he needs to be a big fish in a small pond."

Synchrony's challenge as a stallion prospect is that his best races were on turf, and he just missed capturing a grade 1. Barry pointed out, however, that the horse started brilliantly on the dirt at 2, when he earned Equibase Speed Figures in the low 90s for his two victories on the main tracks at Churchill Downs and Keeneland. At 3, he placed in the Smarty Jones Stakes and in the Lexington Stakes (G3) on the dirt.

At 4, trainer Mike Stidham tried Synchrony in an allowance race on Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots' turf course and he won by 1 1/4 lengths over Queen's Plate Stakes winner Sir Dudley Digges.

"Now we didn't know whether to take him back to the dirt or keep him on the grass," Barry said. "(Pin Oak Stable owner) Mrs. Abercrombie said, 'Why are you trying to fix something that isn't broken? Leave him alone if that is what he likes.'"

Synchrony finished second in two turf stakes at 4, including the Red Bank Stakes (G3T) at Monmouth Park, and won his first graded stakes when he debuted at 5 in the 2018 Fair Grounds Handicap (G3T). He won three other graded stakes in 2018—the Muniz Memorial Handicap (G2T), Oceanport Stakes (G3T), and captured the Red Bank Stakes. He also finished third in the Old Forester Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) at Churchill Downs. Synchrony maintained his momentum at 6 when he started 2019 with a consecutive win in the Fair Grounds Handicap. He added a win in the King Edward Stakes (G2T) to his résumé and placed in two more graded stakes.

Synchrony won or placed in 14 graded stakes at nine different racetracks. He made made 29 starts—21 in graded stakes—from 2 to 7, winning nine times, placing 11 times, and banking $956,652 in purses.

"I am confident he would have been just as good on the dirt as he was on the grass," Barry said. "It just turned out that is how he was managed. He is a very handsome horse and his dam, Brownie Points, was pure hickory and could do anything."

Abercrombie's homebred Brownie Points, a daughter of Forest Wildcat, won eight black-type stakes on turf and dirt, including the Ouija Board Distaff Handicap (G3T), and was runner-up in the 2008 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) to eventual 2008 champion older mare Zenyatta, who became Horse of the Year in 2010.

As a broodmare, Brownie Points has produced two other stakes winners. Her daughter Chocolate Kisses (Candy Ride ) won the Honeybee Stakes (G3) and was third in the Indiana Oaks (G3). Her other stakes winner Point System (Broken Vow ) won the HBPA Stakes on the Tapeta main track at Presque Isle Downs and also set a course record of 1:46.21 at Laurel Park in a 1 1/8-mile allowance/optional claimer on the grass.