Gormley's First Starter Becomes First Winner

The first starter for Spendthrift Farm's freshman sire Gormley became his first winner April 23 at Keeneland where his son Headline Report  won by a confident 2 1/4 lengths.

Owned by Breeze Easy, trained by Wesley Ward, and ridden by John Velazquez, the bay colt went 4 1/2 furlongs in :51.75 over Keeneland's main track.

Ledgelands and Andrew Ritter bred Headline Report in Kentucky is out of the Tale of the Cat mare Green Eyed Cat, who is also the dam of stakes winner Little Kansas. Green Eyed Cat is out of multiple grade 1 winner Critical Eye (by Dynaformer), who is a half sister to grade 2-placed winner Glamorista and stakes-placed winner Personable Pete.  

Headline Report sold as a yearling for $160,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearling Showcase to Quarter Pole Enterprises out of the Summerfield consignment. He was then sold this year by Eddie Woods at the Ocala Breeders' Sales March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale to Breeze Easy for $550,000. During the OBS March under tack show, the colt breezed a furlong in a bullet :9 4/5. The price was the highest for a colt by a freshman sire at the sale. He earned $36,724 for his debut victory.

Gormley is a son of Malibu Moon out of the Bernstein stakes winner Race to Urga, who is out of the group 1-placed stakes winner Miss Mambo. The female family traces back to five-time grade 1 winner and champion grass mare Estrapade. As a racehorse, Gormley won the FrontRunner Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park in his second start as a juvenile and went on to win the Santa Anita Derby (G1) and Sham Stakes (G3) at 3. He won four of nine lifetime starts an earned $1,026,000 before retiring to stud at Spendthrift, where he stands for $5,000.

Gormley is part of Spendthrift's "Safe Bet" program that guarantees at least one graded stakes-winning juvenile in 2021 from Gormley's first crop or no stud fee will be owed for resulting foals in 2022.