Trendsetter remained undefeated with an impressive victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Hickory Tree S. at Colonial Downs, becoming the first stakes winner for Darby Dan Farm’s multiple graded stakes winner Modernist.
Owned by Midway Racing LLC (Davant Latham) and trained by Ben Colebrook, Trendsetter settled at the rear of the field early in the 5 ½-furlong fixture. With a bold last-to-first move, Trendsetter angled four-wide around the far turn and engulfed the pacesetter in the lane. He hit the wire in hand to score by a measured three-quarters of a length in his stakes debut.
Bred in Kentucky by Circle B Family Farm, Trendsetter is out of the Astrology mare Suyapa and was a $130,000 acquisition by Latham out of this year’s OBS Spring Sale. Trendsetter also turned heads in his career debut on July 10, winning a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight by 1 ¼ lengths at Colonial Downs.
In addition to Trendsetter, Modernist is also represented by Grazie, a $310,000 graduate of this year’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale and an impressive first-out winner at Saratoga on Thursday for Repole Stable and trainer Todd Pletcher. Modernist recorded his first winner in June when Stretch made an auspicious debut, defeating a maiden special weight field by nine widening lengths at Lone Star Park.
A graded stakes winner at ages three and four, Modernist won the $400,000 Risen Star S. (G2) in front-running fashion at Fair Grounds in his stakes debut as a sophomore. In his subsequent start, he finished third after a wide trip in the $1 million Louisiana Derby (G2). The following season, Modernist captured the Excelsior S. (G3) at Aqueduct and was runner-up in both the Challenger S. (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs and the Pimlico Match Series S. (G3). All told, Modernist banked $576,300 while competing against the best of his generation.
A homebred for Martin and Pam Wygod and a son of the heralded Uncle Mo, Modernist descends from a prolific female family. He is produced from the unraced Bernardini mare Symbolic Gesture, a half-sister to both Sweet Catomine, Champion 2-Year-Old Filly and winner of the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), and Life Is Sweet, winner of the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic (G1) and an earner of $1,820,810. Modernist’s second dam is stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Sweet Life, Broodmare of the Year in 2009.
For more information on Modernist, contact Darby Dan Farm’s Stallion Director Stuart Fitzgibbon at (859) 621-6763 or by email at [email protected], or visit darbydan.com.
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