Midshipman, Will Take Charge Shuttling to Uruguay

Darley Stallions' champion Midshipman   and Three Chimneys Farm's champion Will Take Charge   are both shuttling to Haras Phillipson in Uruguay, the farms confirmed this week.

Midshipman, a 15-year-old son of Unbridled's Song, has shuttled in previous years to Brazil and Chile. This will be his first Southern Hemisphere season standing in Uruguay.

A multiple grade 1 winner and Eclipse champion 2-year-old male for 2008, Midshipman is making a name for himself among South American breeders, having sired 10 (8%) black-type winners from three crops of racing age. An impressive 91% of his foals of racing age have started in a race and 92 (69%) are winners.

His top performer is Brazilian-bred Royal Ship , who is the winner of three stakes in Brazil, including the 2020 Estado do Rio de Janeiro (G1). Now owned by Fox Hill Farms and Siena Farm, Royal Ship was sent to California-based trainer Richard Mandella in 2020. He was third in last year's Del Mar Mile Handicap (G2T) and so far this year won the Californian Stakes (G2) April 17 at Santa Anita Park and was second in the Hollywood Gold Cup (G1) May 31 at Santa Anita.

Midshipman sired two other group 1 winners in Brazil: his daughter Tanganyka, who won the Zelia Gonzaga Peixoto de Castro (G1), and another filly Tweet, who won the Grande Premio Joao Cecilio Ferraz (G1). His progeny also have found group 1 success in Chile, where his son Succeso won the 2021 Club Hipico de Santiago Falabella Breeders' Cup (G1).

For his career, Midshipman has sired 43 black-type winners of which 14 have won graded/group stakes. The stallion stood this year for $7,500.

Will Take Charge is returning to Haras Phillipson, where he stood last year and covered 56 mares, according to Turf Diario.

Will Take Charge, also a son of Unbridled's Song, is a multiple grade 1 winner who was named Eclipse champion 3-year-old for 2013 when he won the Travers Stakes (G1), Clark Handicap (G1), and Pennsylvania Derby (G2). He also was second by a nose to Mucho Macho Man   in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1).

Though his first Southern Hemisphere-bred foals are yearlings, Will Take Charge has already sired a South American champion in Esidio, who was named champion older horse and champion stayer in Peru for 2020. The colt is a three-time group stakes winner who was bred in Kentucky by Sierra Farm out of the Silver Deputy mare Silver Reserve.

Will Take Charge has sired six black-type winners so far, including Will's Secret , who won the Honeybee Stakes (G3) and was third in this year's Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1); and, Manny Wah , who won this year's Duncan F. Kenner Stakes on the grass at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots and was third in the 2019 Malibu Stakes (G1).

Will Take Charge stood this year for $5,000.