Surge Capacity

Moments after she was led out of the ring unsold, Grade-I producing Strong Incentive (Warrior's Reward--G G's Dolly, by Comic Strip) sold to M.V. Magnier and White Birch Farm for $2.75 million at Fasig-Tipton November Monday evening. The 12-year-old mare is already responsible for Grade I winners Ways and Means (Practical Joke) and Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}), who brought $3.6 million Monday. Offered as Hip 196, the stakes-winning mare was consigned by Mill Ridge Sales, agent.

With seven-figure mares coming fast and furious at Fasig-Tipton's Night of the Stars sale Monday night, Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}) set the early benchmark when realizing $3.6 million to the bid of Emmanuel de Seroux for Narvick International/Grand Stud. Consigned by Elite, agent as Hip 197, Surge Capacity won the 2023 GI Matriarch Stakes and was bred this past spring to Into Mischief for her first foal. Surge Capacity is a half-sister to GISW and 'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke) and a full-sister to GSW Highly Motivated....

When Jon Clay bought Strong Incentive for his Alpha Delta Stables for $2.15 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale, she had already produced Grade III winner and track-record holder Highly Motivated (Into Mischief), now a stallion at Airdrie Stud; two-time Grade III winner Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}); and an up-and-coming `TDN Rising Star' named Ways and Means (Practical Joke), who had run second in the Grade I Spinaway Stakes. Within a month of his purchase, Surge Capacity won the Grade I Matriarch, and by the following summer, Ways and...

There can't be many tracks that that deviate further from the standard American model than Goodwood. Even in Britain nobody today would dream of laying out a racecourse along a twisting ridge of downland, and we remain duly indebted to the militia officers who first eked out a little sport here 223 years ago. Not that the horses themselves share our appreciation for a gorgeous panorama of cornfields and woodland, focused as they are on keeping their balance over the swaying terrain and round sharp right-hand bends. Yet last week...

Chad Brown sent four horses to the West Coast in search of his sixth victory in the GI Matriarch S. at Del Mar Sunday and the New York-based conditioner's quartet ran one-two-three-four with the aptly named Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}) getting free late to just edge stablemate Fluffy Socks (Slumber {GB}) on the wire. Beaute Cachee (Fr) (Literato {Fr}) was third and Whitebeam (GB) (Caravaggio {Ire}) was fourth. It was the first time that a trainer had swept the top four in a Grade I win Del Mar history. "It's...

Favored on the morning line at 3-1 for Friday's GIII Bank of America Valley View S. at Keeneland, Klaravich Stable's Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}) launched a furious final-furlong flourish and was along in the dying strides to--somewhat remarkably--give trainer Chad Brown a first victory in the event at an overlaid 5-1. The homebred was off alertly from gate nine and was able to cross down to ride the rails into the first turn as Yesternight (Midnight Storm) was hard sent from the 11 hole to make the running. Appearing to...

The GIII Bank of America Valley View S. kicks off the graded action on the final two days of the fall meeting at Keeneland, and a mostly evenly matched group of sophomore fillies will head to the post. Sacred Wish (Not This Time) was something other than a failure on the main track, with placings in the GII Gulfstream Park Oaks--in her first start following a private acquisition by a partnership group headed up by Black Type Thoroughbreds and Swinbank Stable--and a near miss behind Wet Paint (Blame) in the...

"What's in a name?" Spurning Master Shakespeare and embracing anecdotal evidence, consider the tale of how Saratoga's Oklahoma Training Track got its name. Horsemen complained that the distance across Union Avenue to the main course was such a hike that it might as well be in Boomer Sooner land. Another piece from the past concerns the name of the Alabama S. Dating to 1872, the race was given that moniker after the Derby-winning owner William Cottrell of Mobile asked if it could be dubbed after his home state, instead of...

It's a tall task to beat Chad Brown at Saratoga, especially when he has half the field. SURGE CAPACITY (f, 3, Flintshire {GB}--Strong Incentive, by Warrior's Reward)--one of four entrants from the Brown barn in the GIII Lake George S.--was the least experienced of the field but carried the day, taking Friday's featured race at the Spa after scraping the paint and finishing bravely for the win. A first-out Monmouth maiden winner June 10 at a sixteenth further with an 80 debut Beyer Speed Figure, Surge Capacity gave Brown a...

If you are searching for some Saratoga race name history, then head about 30 miles west from the horse hubbub in the complete opposite direction of Lake George. On Route 29 just outside Johnstown, New York, you'll find Johnson Hall, an impressive Georgian structure that became a historic house museum. In 1763, a century before Saratoga Race Course was founded, the manor was literally carved out of the wilderness as a symbol of refinement by power couple Sir William Johnson and his common-law wife, Molly Brant. On their turf they...