by NICK FORTUNA,
Wire to Wire

Big things have been expected from Cowtown Cat ever since he commanded a sale-topping $1.5 million at Barretts’ sale of 2-year-olds in training in March 2006. Now, Brent Fernung, the owner of Journeyman Stud in Ocala, is hoping the colt can continue to make his presence felt in the sales ring as he begins his stud career.

Cowtown Cat will stand for an $8,000 stud fee for the 2009 breeding season, a figure that might be a bargain considering that his sire, Distorted Humor, stands for $150,000 in Kentucky. Distorted Humor, a Grade 2 winner who earned $769,964 at the racetrack, has been a consistent producer of top talent, having sired millionaires such as Funny Cide, Flower Alley, Hystericalady, Commentator, Hello Pretty and Any Given Saturday.

Distorted Humor had more stakes winners than any other stallion each year from 2005-07, a pattern Fernung would like to see passed from sire to son. Cowtown Cat also should be desirable to breeders because he’s out of a Storm Cat mare, Tom’s Cat, who earned $28,140 at the racetrack.

“He’s got a really good female family, being out of a Storm Cat mare, and his second dam was a stakes-winning Meadowlake mare (Shouldn’t Say Never),” Fernung said. “And he’s by a great sire. Distorted Humor couldn’t have done any more than what he’s done, I don’t think, so he’s got that sire power behind him. And he was a top-selling 2-year-old, so he was obviously an extremely attractive horse.”

Looks aside, a stallion has to prove he can win at the racetrack in order to stand at Journeyman Stud, and Cowtown Cat was able to do just that. He broke his maiden by 4 ½ lengths at Belmont Park as a juvenile in 2006, then had a very successful 3-year-old campaign, winning the Illinois Derby (G2) at Hawthorne and the Gotham Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct.

Cowtown Cat, trained by Todd Pletcher and racing for WinStar Farm and Gulf Coast Farms, won four of his 15 career starts for $556,873. He ran in the 2007 Kentucky Derby (G1), which was won by Street Sense, and went on to finish fourth in both the Ohio Derby (G2) at Thistledown and the Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) at Saratoga that year.

As a 4-year-old this year, Cowtown Cat ran four times and finished third behind Coragil Cat in the Timeless Native Stakes at Arlington Park.

That race record, combined with Cowtown Cat’s family tree, leads Fernung to believe that the colt will be a welcomed addition to Florida’s roster of stallions.

“He has all the criteria that we look for, and he’s the kind of horse that has historically done well down here,” Fernung said. “He’s a notch above a lot of what shows up down here. You’ll see a lot of stallions come to stud down here that maybe were a high-priced sales horse, or maybe they were by a leading sire like Distorted Humor, or maybe they were a good racehorse, but very few of them combine all those qualities like this horse does. He gives you the whole package.”

Fernung said one of Cowtown Cat’s best features is his versatility. The chestnut colt showed enough early speed to win a 5 ½-furlong sprint as a juvenile but also was able to win at nine furlongs in the Illinois Derby. But more than his race record, it’s his performance in the sales ring that Fernung believes will make Cowtown Cat a good fit for local breeders.

“The fact that he was a sales-topping 2-year-old has added significance here, where so many of our horses are aimed toward the 2-year-old sales,” Fernung said. “I think he’s a perfect horse for the pinhookers who own broodmares and for people who like to sell horses to pinhookers. His babies figure to be attractive horses that will sell well as young horses, but they should also be able to sell as 2-year-olds to race. We all have to keep in mind in this business that there’s more to it than the sales ring.”Fernung said that when he looks at Cowtown Cat’s frame, it’s easy to see why he stood out at the Barretts sale.

“I think he’s got all the best attributes that Distorted Humor produces,” Fernung said. “He’s got that really deep, good hip and that strong shoulder. He’s a very well-balanced horse, dead correct. He’s got an excellent head and neck to him.”

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