True Valour Retired to Stud at Northview

True Valour  , a graded stakes-winning miler who also excelled at sprint distances while racing in the U.S. and Europe, has been retired to stand at Northview Stallion Station near Chesapeake City, Md., the farm announced Oct. 13.

Bred by Pat O'Rourke in Ireland, True Valour is a son of Kodiac  and out of the winning Acclamation mare Sutton Veny. He started his racing career for Qatar Racing after agent David Redvers acquired him for US$112,030 at the 2016 Goresbridge Flat Breeze-Up Sale from the Tally-Ho Stud consignment.

True Valour got his first win in his debut at 3 and won his first stakes four starts later in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire Celebration Stakes. He won his first group stakes at 4 in the Ballycorus Stakes (G3) in Ireland and was then sent to trainer Simon Callaghan in the U.S. in 2018. For Callaghan, he won the City of Hope Mile Stakes (G2T) and the Thunder Road Stakes (G3T) at Santa Anita Park.

By 2020, the colt was offered during Fasig-Tipton's Kentucky July Horses of Racing Age Sale where R. Larry Johnson bought him for $225,000 from Hunter Valley Farm. Johnson sent the horse to trainer Graham Motion, who won the King T. Leatherbury Stakes at Laurel Park with him and was third in the Jaipur Stakes (G1T) at Belmont Park, in which he set the pace throughout and got beat by a length to grade 1 winner Casa Creed . He would also be runner-up in the Joe Hernandez Stakes (G2T) at Santa Anita and in the Troy Stakes (G3T) at Saratoga Race Course. In the Troy, he lost by a head to grade 1 winner Golden Pal .

True Valour retired with a 7-4-9 record from 34 starts and earned $690,237.

Following his victory in the King T. Leatherbury Stakes this past April, Motion commented: "I think he makes me look good. I thought Larry was crazy when he wanted to bring him back from an injury as an 8-year-old. He's just a really easy horse.

"True Valour's return to racing in 2022 was remarkable and he displayed more speed than any horse I have ever trained," Motion said after his retirement. "With his pedigree, ability, and conformation I think he has the qualities to be a successful stallion."  

From an active female family, True Valour is the first foal out of Sutton Veny, whose current 2-year-old, the filly No Kay Never , won first-time out this past May and has been since been competing in stakes for trainer Wesley Ward and owner Stonestreet Stables. Sutton Veny is a half sister to stakes winner Glorificamus, dam of stakes winner and graded stakes-placed Fasnacloich. True Valour's third dam, Caracciola, is also the dam of General Accident Two Thousand Guineas (G1) winner Mystiko and behind a far-flung family that has produced highweighted Irish 2-year-old Basim, group 1 winners in New Zealand and South Africa, and stakes performers in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Sweden.

True Valour will stand for a fee of $3,000 live foal with multiple mare discounts.