BY AVALYN HUNTER
Mares make a stallion, and when a stallion gets few mates, he has few chances to make a name for himself. Even so, some horses manage to compile respectable records on limited opportunities. Bahamian Squall is a horse that appears to fit that description. A Grade 2 winner as a homebred for Donald Dizney and his Double Diamond Farm, as a stallion he has sent out his share of speedy runners including 2024 Honorable Miss (G2)-winner and 2024 Florida-bred Champion Older Female Spirit Wind and the tough Bahamian Moon, who is still running and earning black type at age 8.
Bahamian Squall is one of the few Gone West sons still active at stud. He is by Gone West, whose win in the 1987 Dwyer (G1) marked him as one of the better members of an above-average crop that included Alysheba, Bet Twice, and Lost Code. Drawing on his beautiful breeding—he was sired by Mr. Prospector from Secrettame, a stakes-winning daughter of Secretariat—he was the best sire from the 1984 foal crop, getting 100 stakes winners, and became a prominent broodmare sire as well. His stallion sons include 2004 champion sire Elusive Quality; perennial leading sire Speightstown; prominent speed sire Mr. Greeley; and Seeker’s Reward, sire of four champions in Chile.
Bahamian Squall is out of Midway Squall, whose other foals include 2011 Mr. Prospector Stakes (G3)-winner Apriority (by Grand Slam); Listed stakes winner and multiple stakes-producer Squall City (by Carson City); and Natalie Grace, dam of 2020 Bing Crosby (G1)-winner Collusion Illusion (by Twirling Candy). Sired by Storm Bird, Midway Squall is out of Listed stakes-winner Oh So Precious (by Best Turn).
Sound and durable by modern standards, Bahamian Squall raced from ages 3 to 6 and earned black type in 11 races. As a 3-year-old, he racked up an excellent Beyer Speed Figure of 100 in winning the 2012 Sunshine State Stakes at Gulfstream, defeating multiple Grade 3-winner Fort Loudon by three-and-a-half lengths.
As a 4-year-old, he won the Smile Sprint Handicap (G2) at Calder with a 103 Beyer, defeating 2012 champion sprinter Trinniberg by a length-and-three-quarters and was second to Justin Phillip in the Grade 1 A.G. Vanderbilt, earning a 104 Beyer. He retired with 15 wins or placings from 25 starts and a bankroll of $582,920.
A handsome, medium-sized horse who strongly resembles his sire, Bahamian Squall has an excellent shoulder and the typical strong, straight hind leg of the Mr. Prospector tribe combined with the exceptionally powerful hindquarters and sloping croup passed down from Secretariat. That conformation has helped him throw sound runners, with 81% of his foals of racing age having made it to the races thus far.
“We’ve bred him primarily to produce speed horses and that’s what he’s delivered,” Double Diamond Farm’s General Manager Roger Brand said. “His offspring are usually up on the bit and wanting to go, the way he was. You see him physically in his foals as well; he tends to stamp them regardless of what the mare looks like.”
Bahamian Squall is standing the 2025 season for $3,000 live foal.
Return to the April 16 issue of Wire to Wire
