Ramseys Secure Top-Five Spot on Leading Breeders List

Before the close of 2016, owner/breeder Ken Ramsey had hoped to see his name among the top three leading breeders in North America.

Ramsey and his wife Sarah, who own Ramsey Farm near Nicholasville, Ky., are the leading North American owners by earnings with $7,404,356 in purses, but Ramsey also wanted to improve on his fourth-place position on the leading breeders' list behind Darley heading into the last racing weekend of the year.

"I'd rather be on the leading breeders list," said Ramsey, who received back-to-back Eclipse Awards as both leading breeder and leading owner in 2013-14. "To be ahead of all the big guys—some of them have 20-30 stallions in different states and Canada—and we've done it with one horse. I take a lot of pride in that."

As of Jan. 1, however, Ramsey couldn't close the $123,000 gap with Darley, though that gap did shrink. With Oscar Nominated's second in the Tropical Park Derby and wins at Gulfstream Park by Smarty Kitten and Battle Red, the Ramseys will end the year with more than $6.73 million to Darley's nearly $6.82 million in earnings as a breeder. About $88,000 separate the two breeders' total earnings.

Ramsey's "one horse" is top homebred sire Kitten's Joy  , who was leading U.S. sire in 2013 and has remained in the top five in 2014 and 2015 then this year moved into fifth position in the final two race days of the year. Kitten's Joy finished the season with $10,798,048 in progeny earnings.

"Tapit  will be number one, head and shoulders above everyone else, both last year and this year. It is no disgrace to finish behind him," Ramsey said Dec. 28. "But I'm making a concerted effort to put these Kitten's Joys in spots where they can win to make sure he finishes in the top five; I'm doing my part to keep the old boy up there."

Aside from the Kitten's Joy homebreds he keeps to race, Ramsey said he keeps an eye out for any progeny he's sold who he doesn't feel are being managed correctly.

"Some are running them on the front end and they don't run on the front end, so I'll (claim) them," he said. "We'll take them back off the pace and stretch them out and so far we've been successful."

The Ramseys finished 2013 as the second-leading breeder by earnings behind Adena Springs, but were the leading breeders by earnings consecutively in 2014-15. They were not awarded an Eclipse Award as top breeder in 2015 due to the romp of Zayat Stables' homebred American Pharoah through the Triple Crown and his tour de force in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1).

Going into the weekend, Ramsey planned to improve his leading breeder position with horses entered in stakes—homebreds Oscar Nominated and Generous Kitten in the H. Allen Jerkens Stakes, in which he finished fourth. Ramsey also entered homebreds at Turfway Park, where he won the fall meet owners title. The latest Turfway Park owners title was his ninth earned this year in Kentucky.