Stradale Rewards Minnesota Breeders' Faith

The story that leads to the birth of a multiple graded stakes winner is one of instincts, hard work, and taking chances that pay off. Kentucky-born Stradale🔥  was bred by Minnesota-based Richard Bremer and Cheryl Sprick, the product of breeding to a stallion they spent beyond their comfort zone to a broodmare who was an impulse purchase and conditioned to top health.

The payoff is Stradale, back-to-back winner of the Mahony Stakes (G3T) Aug. 16 on the turf at Saratoga Race Course and the Gallant Bob Stakes (G2) Sept. 19 on the dirt at Parx Racing. 

Bremer and Sprick, who purchased their first racehorse in 1989, have been mainstays in Minnesota ever since. The couple, who own and operate Steepwood Farm outside of Lake City, Minn., have bred, sold, and campaigned a number of state-bred champions, and were inducted into the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame in 2024. 

Their connection to the family that would produce Stradale began when they purchased the placed Stormy Atlantic mare Twitterpated privately at the 2021 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. After bidding on her in the ring, with the mare failing to meet her reserve, they followed her back to the South Point Sales consignment barn, and eventually purchased her for $10,000.  

"We followed her to the barn, and after many phone calls with the groom and the agent and the owner, we owned her and signed the papers the next morning," Bremer said. "It wasn't a real planned out thing. We just saw this nice mare and we decided to buy her." 

The couple bred Twitterpated to Good Magic   for her first season as a broodmare, but she did not maintain the pregnancy. Sprick felt one reason the mare may not have met her reserve at the sale, and one reason she did not stay in foal, was an old injury.

"Her left rear leg swung funny," Sprick said. "She did not have a good walk. And when we explored further and actually got her home to our farm after having her in Kentucky for a few months, the soles of her feet were so bad, and I think that's why she didn't maintain the pregnancy.

"So I worked, I wrapped her feet, and worked on her for several months before she grew some good feet. And then I had my wonderful chiropractor come, and she went from walking crooked to walking straight with an adjustment."

In the spring of 2022, for her second season, Twitterpated visited the court of Yaupon   in his first season at Spendthrift Farm. Bremer, a fan of the stallion's sire Uncle Mo, had been following the career of the grade 1-winning sprinter. He expressed interest even before the official announcement of his retirement, calling Spendthrift upon their acquiring the rights to the stallion prospect to get on the waiting list for a season. The team then decided to swing for the fences even when the introductory stud fee of $30,000 was a bit out of their comfort zone. 

"(That) is a little more than we usually like to spend," Bremer said. "And I checked the nicks and stuff (with Twitterpated) and as I recall, it wasn't an A-plus or anything, but it was an OK nick, and so I said, 'Hey, let's do it.'

"She was a nice, full-bodied mare, and we had not had anybody out of the Stormy Atlantic line before. So we just thought she was a really good physical. And when I saw Yaupon, I was just like, sign me up! I just thought he was a spectacular-looking horse, even before they started showing him. He just was great-looking." 

Stradale was foaled at Grantley Acres near Midway, Ky., where Bremer and Sprick board when needed. They had to exercise patience as the sizeable colt developed, bypassing opportunities to sell him as a weanling and as a short yearling. 

"He was always one of the biggest horses on the farm," Bremer said. "I think he came out at like 145 pounds. He was a big boy, with this enormous hip, and this wonderfully kind personality, a really easy, smart guy to be around. But he went through some really ugly duckling stages. And our agent kept saying, 'What if? What if Yaupon doesn't hit? You should sell him now.'

"And even though we really needed the money, we said no, not the way he looks. So we went through weanling, no, we're not going to (sell). We went through the short yearling (stage), and no, we're not going to. And then when we started going down there in the spring, every time we went to visit, the people showing them said, 'I'll get your colt,' and they had these grins on their faces. Everybody kind of knew he was just kind of a standout." 

Stradale brought $285,000 when he finally went to the ring at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton July yearling sale with the Ballysax Bloodstock consignment, a fine return on a $10,000 mare and a $30,000 stud fee. He only continued to develop. De Meric Sales, which purchased him, pinhooked him for $1.3 million at the 2025 Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training to Kaleem Shah, who turned him over to trainer Steve Asmussen.

The Hall of Fame conditioner had trained Yaupon, who delivered on the faith in him to become the season's leading freshman sire. 

Twitterpated has one more living foal, a 2024 Minnesota-bred son of Classic Empire . He was sold for $70,000 at last year's Fasig July sale to Jeff Runco, agent for David Raim. Now named Empire Penguin, the gelding has not yet started. 

Twitterpated was bred to Cyberknife   for her 2025 foal. She delivered a colt just 10 days after Stradale sold for $1.3 million in Ocala, but had a dystocia. The colt did not survive, and Twitterpated, despite extensive rehab, is no longer able to be bred. The 9-year-old mare will have a happy retirement at Steepwood in Minnesota. 

"So there's the good and the bad," Sprick said. "Every time we watch (Stradale) run and do well, it's so bittersweet. We spent a year trying to rehab her—we've had every possible expert do whatever they can, and there's nothing more to be done (as a broodmare). So she's going to come home and be a pet. She's a wonderful horse to be around. She'll be a nice retired mare to be here on the farm. Look forward to having her here."