Grade 2 Winner Serve the King Enters Stud in Ontario

Santino Di Paola's grade 1-placed, grade 2 winner Serve the King  has settled into his new home at the owner/trainer's 78-acre farm near Schomberg, Ontario, where he enters stud at CA$4,000.

The new stallion has moved into a custom-built barn with ties to one of North America's leading breeding operations.

"When we acquired him, I realized we would have to call around to other farms to see where we could stand him," said Di Paola. "We had a few that said they would, but the cost was pretty high, so I thought we might as well spend our own money and build our own spot for him. My cousin Vince and a couple of his guys came up and worked long days and into the night to build this thing. We used all the old Windfields' stalls, which we bought at the dispersal sale in 2010, and cleaned them all up and put them in the barn."

E.P. Taylor's Windfields became of North America's premier breeding operations that produced Nearctic and his legendary son Northern Dancer.

Di Paola, who trains a string of nearly 20 horses at Woodbine, found Serve the King in the 2022 Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age catalog where the now-7-year-old son of Kingman  had been supplemented by ELiTE as a racing or stallion prospect. Serve the King is out of the group 2-placed Galileo  daughter Fallen In Love, who is a half sister to group 1 winner Fallen For You (Dansili) and stakes winner Fallen Idol (Pivotal). Raced by Peter Brant and trainer Chad Brown, Serve the King won the 2021 Red Smith Stakes (G2T) at Aqueduct Racetrack after he'd run second in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) at Belmont Park. He has a 5-2-1 record from 11 starts and earned $406,180.

"The mare's side was even stronger than his sire's side, and the sire is extremely impressive. Driving home, I was thinking, 'I've got to get this horse.' But I thought he would go for a lot of money," Di Paola said. As he watched the bidding, his father asked him what horse he was interested in. The trainer showed his father the catalog page, and his father said he wanted in on the deal. Di Paola bought the horse for $15,000.

"Keeneland called 10 minutes after the sale and my immediate thought was that we bought the wrong horse," he said. "I kept looking at the number to see if it lined up and it was the right one. I really didn't think we bought the right horse. But they called and congratulated me and then it kind of all hit me."

Despite Serve the King's final price, Di Paola discovered he was not alone in the potential he saw in the horse.

"Two days after we bought him, I had calls from the U.S., Ireland, and other places wanting to buy him and stand him themselves," said Di Paola, who owns 60% of the horse with his parents who own the other 40%. "I told them he wasn't for sale, but they still asked what I wanted for him. But he wasn't for sale."

Owning a stallion is a new venture for Di Paola, who said he wants to support the Ontario breeding industry and now has a stallion he believes fits the market well, particularly with his win in the 1 5/8-mile John's Call Stakes and at 1 3/8 miles in the Red Smith.

"People are trying to breed for distance, perhaps for a King's Plate, and this is a horse that fits that very well. Honestly, with it now being the King's Plate, maybe that's an omen," he said, referring to the renaming this year of the Canadian Triple Crown's first race, which has been historically named after the reigning British monarch. The race was formerly known as the Queen's Plate since the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign in 1952 and changes with the accession of King Charles III.

"I think he could produce a King's Plate winner. It just feels like it's meant to be. I initially thought that even if no one wants to breed to him we can breed 10 of our own mares and if we get a stakes winner or two, we'd be more than happy. He's already getting top mares that are booked to him. The response has been pretty amazing from everywhere. We're thrilled to have him here."