BY AVALYN HUNTER
If one word could sum up Adios Charlie’s stud career, it would be “consistency.” A well-respected veteran in the Florida stallion ranks, the Ocala Stud stalwart turns out solid performers on the track and at the sales with admirable regularity.
He is off to a good start in 2025 in both departments with 14 winners, including Epona’s Hope (Alotofappeal, by Trippi), a two-time stakes winner so far this year.
He also lit up the auction ring at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale of 2-year-olds in training with a $410,000 colt out of the Uncaptured mare Baby Sister. With a :20.60 under tack time, Hip 764 was the top-selling Florida-bred during the three-day auction—going to Emmanuel de Seroux’s Narvick International out of the Ocala Stud consignment.
A $400,000 2-year-old in training at OBS March back in 2010, Adios Charlie had the precocity, physique and racing performance needed to appeal to Florida breeders. Like his sire, the regrettably short-lived Santa Anita Derby (G1)-winner Indian Charlie—also the sire of the late champion juvenile and important sire Uncle Mo—he has a powerful, slightly downhill build with an excellent shoulder and strong hindquarters. He is a little less rangy and more short-coupled, however, suggesting speed as his forte, and he proved that speed with a smart maiden special weight win over six-and-a-half furlongs at Gulfstream as a juvenile.
Sired from the stakes-winning Northern Afleet mare Teak Totem—a full sister to 2011 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (G1)-winner Teaks North—Adios Charlie actually has bloodlines suggesting that nine furlongs should have been within his scope. He missed by only a head to multiple Grade 2-winner Alternation in the 2011 Peter Pan (G2) at that distance.
Nevertheless, a mile was probably his best trip, as he proved in winning the 2011 Jerome Stakes (G2) over a field that included future Grade 1-winner Justin Phillip and showed good form in winning a mile optional claimer at Gulfstream in December 2011.
He entered stud in 2012 after coming out of that January’s Sunshine Millions Classic with an injury.
Currently second on Florida’s general sire list and the state’s champion sire in 2019, Adios Charlie has typically sired quick, early-developing horses. More than one-third of his winners picked up their first score as 2-year-olds and that precocity has also shown well at the 2-year-olds-in-training sales.
Last year, eight Adios Charlie juveniles sold for an average of $69,000 and a median of $53,500; compared to the stallion’s 2024 fee of $3,000, that’s a healthy return on investment.
“I call him ‘the poor man’s Uncle Mo,’” Ocala Stud’s David O’Farrell said. “His foals are good looking, they run early, they run often and they win. And they sell well. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
Adios Charlie is standing the 2025 season for $3,000 stands and nurses.
Return to the March 26 issue of Wire to Wire
