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POSSE

Stands for $10,000 at Empire Stud

Empire Stud's 9yo Posse is the stallion of the week, for the week ended Monday, Nov. 30. After it was announced that Posse (Silver Deputy -- Raska, by Rahy) was relocating from Vinery in Kentucky to Empire Stud in New York, Posse's multiple Grade 1-winning champion son Kodiak Kowboy put the exclamation point on the move by winning the Grade 1 Hill 'n' Dale Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Saturday. The $180,000 1st prize money boosted Kodiak Kowboy's earnings to $1,663,363, making him easily Posse's leading money earner. Kodiak Kowboy will take Posse's vacated spot at Vinery.

Posse stood for $20,000 in 2009 at Vinery but will stand for half that sum in 2010 in New York, where he will vie with the returning Catienus for supremacy among Empire State sires. His oldest foals are 4yos in 2009.

Posse is a 16.2-hand son of Silver Deputy who made a career for himself as a 7-furlong sprinter. Like his sire, who was a stakes winner at 2 (2 for 2 at 2 was his career record), Posse also won stakes at 2, accounting for the Grade 3 Kentucky Breeders' Cup at 5 1/2 furlongs. He also was placed in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor and the Listed Three Chimneys Juvenile Stakes. All told, he won 2 of 7 starts at 2.

The following year, he was effective from 5 to 7 furlongs, winning 5 of 11 starts, including: the Grade 2, 7-furlong Riva Ridge Breeders' Cup Stakes; the Grade 3, 7-furlong Lafayette Stakes; the 6-furlong Matt Win Stakes; and the 6-furlong Thanksgiving Handicap. He also won a 5-furlong allowance at Fair Grounds in :57.35 -- a new track record -- and was placed in the Grade 1, 6 1/2-furlong Vosburgh to Ghostzapper and in the Grade 3, 7-furlong Swale Stakes to Midas Eyes.

What's obvious is that he was a top-level sprinter that carried on the sprinting abilities of his sire; in Kodiak Kowboy, he's passed on those abilities, plus a little more stamina for the mile. In addition to the Cigar Mile, Kodiak Kowboy also won the Grade 1 Carter at Aqueduct in April over 7 furlongs and the Grade 1, 7-furlong Vosburgh, which puts him in the running for an Eclipse Award as champion sprinter or champion older horse. Kodiak Kowboy was the Canadian champion 2yo colt of 2007.

By no means is Posse is one-horse sire, though. He's also represented by at least 10 stakes winners through 3 crops, including these 2009 stakes horses: Grade 3 winner No Advantage, who also enjoys 7 furlongs; the 5-furlong turf sprinter Possetothemax; the 7-furlong winner Law Enforcement; the 4 1/2-furlong 2yo filly SW Kinsolving; and the 2yo gelded 6-furlong SW Comedero. Posse is also the sire of the 2yo colt Get My Fix, who is Graded stakes placed.

--Sid Fernando