GEORGETOWN, KY – NOVEMBER 23, 2020 - Old Friends, the Thoroughbred Retirement Center in Georgetown, KY, is proud to welcome multiple graded stakes winner Tom’s Ready.
The 7-year-old son of More Than Ready — Goodbye Stranger, by Broad Brush stood initially at Spendthrift Farm and then at Red River Farms in Louisiana.
Bred in Pennsylvania and campaigned by the late Tom Benson’s GMB Racing and trainer Dallas Stewart, Tom's Ready broke his maiden in his third start as a 2-year-old at Churchill Downs, and followed that win with a close 2nd in the Street Sense Stakes.
A second-place finish to Gun Runner in the Louisiana Derby (G2), qualified Tom’s Ready for the Kentucky Derby, where he finished 12th behind winner Nyquist.
But his career apex came the following year when he captured the 2016 $500,000 Woody Stephens Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park. He went on to defeat older horses, including champion sprinter Runhappy, in the Ack Ack Stakes (G3), again at Churchill. He ended the season with a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
At 4, he captured the Leemat Stakes at Presque Isle Downs and the Bold Ruler Handicap (G3) at Belmont Park.
Tom’s Ready retires with earnings of $1,036,267.
“I truly respect and appreciate the great work of the staff at Old Friends as we have come to know Michael Blowen and his great work,” said GMB Racing’s Gayle Benson. “We have had St. Aloysius there for a number of years, and it gives us great pleasure to have our wonderful Tom’s Ready retire to Old Friends. He was our first purchase, he is a Grade II winner, and he raced in the Kentucky Derby and the Breeder’s Cup, so we are very proud of him and he is deserving of the great care that Old Friends will provide.”
“We're honored to add Tom’s Ready to our other old friends,” said Old Friends founder and President Michael Blowen. “I'm certain that his many fans will be very excited to see him when we, hopefully, open for tours post-virus. Meanwhile, he already has his head in the carrot bucket.”
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