Noble Tune News: Will Take Charge Stud Fee Announced

Noble Tune News: Will Take Charge Stud Fee Announced

Will Take Charge, last year’s three-year-old male champion and Horse of the Year finalist, will take up stud duty for the 2015 season at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky for a fee of $30,000. Sharing the same sire as Rathmor’s new import for the 2014 breeding season, multiple Group winner Noble Tune has a classy book of mares for the current season and confirmed in foal. Noble Tune is the first son of Unbridled’s Song to stand in South Africa.

Will Take Charge was retired due to a mild strain to his suspensory ligament. Given the horse’s value at stud, a decision was made to retire him.

Will Take Charge won seven of 21 starts and earned $3,924,648. During his championship season he made 11 starts in 11 months at eight different tracks, winning the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn in January, the Rebel Stakes Gr2 in March, the Travers Stakes Gr1 in August, and Pennsylvania Derby Gr2 in September. After finishing second, beaten just a nose in the Breeders’ Cup Classic Gr1, he topped Game On Dude in the Clark Handicap Gr1 at Churchill Downs.

He made six starts—all in Gr1 or Gr2 stakes—this year at 4, winning or hitting the board in five of them.

Bred in Kentucky by Eaton, Will Take Charge was a $425,000 Keeneland September sale yearling. He raced for Willis Horton, who later sold an interest in the colt to Three Chimneys.

“Will Take Charge is a horse of a lifetime,” said Horton. “I can’t say enough about how ‘hickory’ he has been, starting 21 times all across the country against the stiffest competition time after time. We have had the time of our lives with him and met wonderful people all across America. He’s been a real fan favorite, and we think he’ll be a Kentucky breeders’ favorite, too.

“I can’t compliment Wayne enough on developing this exceptionally talented horse into a champion,” Horton continued, referring to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. “It’s been one heck of a ride.”

“Will Take Charge’s retirement is particularly disappointing as we were primed, as an older horse, to win the Classic this year, which we lost by a whisker last year,” Lukas said. “If the race were a mile and a quarter and two inches, Will Take Charge’s career earnings would be at nearly $6 million. This horse has done what few other horses can do any more. He defeated the best 3-year-olds in the country in the Travers and then the best older horses in the Classic. He is a true champion who ran to his blue-blooded pedigree. He proved himself to be the best of his generation. He is a proud addition to my résumé.

“As we forge a new path forward at Three Chimneys, we feel very fortunate to announce that a champion such as Will Take Charge will help us write the next chapter in the farm’s storied history whose foundation as a stallion operation was built on the shoulders of such towering breed changers as Seattle Slew, Dynaformer, Rahy, and the like,” said Three Chimneys chairman Gonçalo Borges Torrealba.

“Will Take Charge is a serious racehorse and is an even more important stallion prospect,” said Doug Cauthen, vice chairman of the Three Chimneys board. “His body of work on the racetrack is remarkable and unique, and his magnificent pedigree anchors a physical presence that will impress any breeder that sees him. To me, he’s as good as it can get.”

More news from a pedigree sharing strong similarities to that of Noble Tune, top racefilly Rizeena [pictured left], winner of the Gr1 Coronation Cup, has been nominated in the category of Cartier Three Year Old Filly.

By Ifraaj out of Serena’s Storm by Statue Of Liberty, Rizeena’s third dam is Serena’s Sister, a full-sister to Serena’s Song – the third dam of Noble Tune. Her damline shares strong similarities to that of Noble Tune – which includes the likes of Unbridled’s Song and Storm Cat.

The three year old filly has previously won the Moyglare Stud Stakes (Gr1) in 2013, as well as the Queen Mary Stakes (Gr2) and National Stakes (Listed). She has placed second in the Falmouth (Gr1), Fillies Mile (Gr1), Cherry Hinton Stakes (Gr2), and third in the Prix Morny (Gr1).

Noble Tune’s book includes the likes of Gypsy Queen (dam of Gr1 winning Gypsy’s Warning), Gr2 winner Hidden Beauty, Rattled – the dam of Rathmor-bred Gr2 winner Harry Lime, the beautifully-bred African Love(AUS), Victory Garden, Time And Tide – the dam of Split The Breeze, as well as Shattered Image amongst others.

Noble Tune stands for R25 000 this season.

If you would like to contact Mike & Tanya McHardy phone 033 2666853 or 0834475315.
Email: rathmor@bundunet.com
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