BY AVALYN HUNTER
Among Florida freshman sires, none made a bigger splash at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale of 2-year-olds in training than Pleasant Acres Stallions’ Leinster. The sire of the sale’s top filly by a Florida sire, a $400,000 youngster out of the Tribal Rule mare Sea Smoke, Leinster also had a $50,000 filly out of the Pioneerof the Nile mare Pioneer Alexis. These are excellent results for a stallion that stood for $2,500 last year, and more fireworks may be coming during the OBS April sale, for which Leinster has eight youngsters cataloged.
Part of the appeal of the Sea Smoke filly was her speed—she tied with colts by Midshipman and Mor Spirit for the fastest quarter mile during the under tack show, zipping the distance in :20.40. It takes only a brief glance at Leinster’s race record to guess where that speed might have come from. While it took a while for trainer George Arnold to figure out what Leinster wanted to do, the results were excellent once he did. Winless in 12 tries on the dirt, Leinster compiled a record of six wins, two seconds and two thirds in 12 starts as a turf sprinter while competing against the best of that division.
Leinster’s first stakes win came in the 2019 Troy (Grade 3), in which he set a new Saratoga course record of 1:00.23 for five-and-a-half furlongs while defeating multiple graded stakes-winner Disco Partner. In 2020, he won the Shakertown (G2) at Keeneland in course-record time of 1:00.86 for five-and-a-half furlongs, beating 2021 Al Quoz Sprint (G1)-winning Florida-bred Extravagant Kid; Grade 2-winners Bound for Nowhere, Fast Boat, Tell Your Daddy and Texas Wedge; and multiple Grade/Group 3-winner Wildman Jack. In his next outing, he won the Woodford presented by TVG (G2), again beating Extravagant Kid and Fast Boat, and in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1), he was third but beaten only a length by multiple European Group 1-winner Glass Slippers and half-length behind 2019 Highlander (G1)-winner Wet Your Whistle, who was second. Leinster went out a winner in the 2021 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint (G3), covering the five-furlong distance in 0:55.29.
Bred by Gryphon Investments, Leinster has speed on both sides of his pedigree.
A half-brother to two-time Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner and 2018 champion turf male Stormy Liberal, he is by 2007 Hopeful (G1)-winner Majestic Warrior (by A.P. Indy out of multiple Grade 1-winner Dream Supreme). Leinster’s dam, Vassar, is by 1990 Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1)-winner Royal Academy out of multiple stakes-winner Dixie Fine, by 1983 French champion miler L’Emigrant.
“Leinster is an exceptional physical specimen who passes his big hip and lovely shoulder on to his foals,” Pleasant Acres Stallions’ Director of Stallion Services Christine Jones said. “He looks fast and so do his babies. We’ve had a marked uptick in interest in him after the March Sale and we’re looking forward to a big year for him.”
Leinster is standing the 2025 season for $2,500 live foal.
Return to the April 2 issue of Wire to Wire
