Charlatan to stand for $50,000 at Hill 'N' Dale

Multiple Grade 1 winner Charlatan will stand the 2022 breeding season for a fee of $50,000 live foal stands and nurses.

Charlatan's meteoric rise to stardom began at Santa Anita in February of his 3-year-old year where he won at first asking by 5 3/4 lengths, stopping the clock in 1:08.85. In his next start, less than 30 days later, this time at a mile, the powerful son of Speightstown served notice of his raw talent with an effortless 10 1/4 length romp, which landed him on the lips of every turf writer in America as one of the top colts of his crop.

Charlatan's tour-de-force six-length win at Oaklawn in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby resulted in him being installed as the favorite for the Kentucky Derby (G1). In the year of COVID which reshuffled the racing calendar, Charlatan re-emerged in December, capping off his 3-year-old campaign, off an eight-month layoff, with a brilliant performance in the Grade 1 Malibu going seven furlongs.

Charlatan's final career start came in the $20 million Saudi Cup, where the heavy favorite made all the pace, locked horns with recent Whitney (G1) winner Knicks Go, only to be nabbed at the wire by Mishriff in an effort which many have described as a valiant performance.

"I have been looking forward to having this horse," said John Sikura, owner of Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa . "He is a brilliant physical specimen. He is by the right horse in Speightstown, and he has all the right horses in his pedigree. I think this is the most highly credentialed horse we've brought to the farm in terms of performance, pedigree, and speed; all those elements we feel are requisites of very important horses. Curlin was a very important horse - a great racehorse and Horse of the Year - but this brilliance is hard to find. Succinctly, Charlatan has everything I value in a stallion in spades."

Charlatan retires to stud with a record of four wins and a second from five starts with earnings over $4 million.