Farm History

Stonerside Stable had its beginnings in 1994 when Janice and Robert McNair set about to establish a competitive racing stable and a top flight broodmare band and to build a farm in the finest bluegrass tradition.

The stable's green and white silks have since become a familiar sight in winner's circles around the world. Stonerside has campaigned 60 stakes winners, including 2 champions, 12 Grade 1 winners, 8 millionaires (including Tout Charmant, at left), and 37 graded stakes winners. The runners have accounted for 126 stakes wins--including 20 Grade 1 wins and 54 Grade 2/Grade 3 wins--plus 196 stakes placings.

Champions to race for Stonerside include Chilukki, champion 2-year-old filly of 1999 in the United States, and Petit Club (Arg), champion 2-year-old colt in Argentina in the 2001-02 season.

From the stable's very first start--a win by Southern Truce in the 1994 Grade 3 Miss America Handicap--on through to homebred Country Star's victory in the 2007 Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes, the emphasis has been on quality.

The Breeding Program

The broodmare band has grown over the years with fillies from the racing stable and through key acquisitions. Some of the first broodmares bought for the farm including Group 1 winner Treizieme and Grade 1 producer Rythmical, while graded stakes winners Minister's Melody and Thunder Kitten were both yearling purchases who have made good both at the races and as producers.

On Valentine's Day, 1997, the McNairs made a key acquistion with the purchase of the entire broodmare band of the fabled Elmendorf Farm. Those thirty-some mares included five-time graded stakes producer Halory, future Grade 1 producer Zigember, and a young maiden off the track by the name of Mari's Sheba--later the dam of Stonerside's first homebred Grade 1 winner, Congaree (at right).

The Stonerside mares have more than lived up to expectations, turning out over 50 stakes performers, including 15 stakes winners in 2007 alone. (the stable also bred a 16th stakes winner in 2007, in partnership)

Besides Congaree, who ran the fastest mile in North America in 2002 and who is the only back-to-back winner of the prestigious Grade 1 Cigar Mile, the mares have also produced Grade 1 winners Bob and John, The Cliff's Edge, and Country Star, as well as the Group 2 winner Van Nistelrooy (below, left), who finished his first American season as one of the leading freshman sires of 2007.

Other graded or group winners bred by Stonerside include the English sensation Raven's Pass, 2008 Group 2 winner Michita, the tenacious Karen's Caper, Texas Fever, as well as Fast Cookie, Miss Coronado, Chatain, Sea Chanter, Sahara Heat, and the 2008 Grade 3 winner Cowboy Cal.

In partnership, Stonerside is the co-breeder of 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus and Grade 2 winner E Dubai, both of whom are also successful sires--as well as Grade 1 winner No Matter What.

Congaree, Bob and John, and Fusaichi Pegasus are part of a great run Stonerside has had in breeding three of the past eight winners of the historic Wood Memorial Stakes.

Stonerside is also heavily involved in breeding and racing in the McNairs' home state of Texas. In partnership, the farm owns the Lone Star State's leading sire, Valid Expectations, as well as Open Forum, and homebred runner Truluck, sire of the venerable stakes winner General Charley (at right). All three stallions stand at Lane's End Texas, where the farm also keeps a dozen or so broodmares. Graded stakes winner Too Much Bling, raced and owned in partnership, also moved to Lane's End Texas beginning with the 2008 season.

From the first five Texas-bred crops of racing age, Stonerside has bred Texas Horse of the Year and multiple stakes winner Skip and Go, and bred and raced Texas Champion 3-year-old filly Native Annie, a stakes winner of over $300,000. Stonerside was recognized by the Texas Thoroughbred Breeders' Association at the end of 2003 for setting a modern-day record of having four Texas-breds win stakes in a single year.

Sire Strategy

One of the stable's early strategy decisions was to get involved with promising, well-bred colts by purchasing a quarter or a half interest, not only for the racing potential, but also to have a stake in the horse as a future stallion.

Touch Gold, a son of Deputy Minister owned by Frank Stronach, was one such investment. Taking a 25% interest in Touch Gold at the start of his three-year-old season, Stonerside was rewarded with its first classic win when Touch Gold took the 1997 Belmont Stakes. The farm has stayed involved with Touch Gold throughout his successful stud career at Mr. Stronach's Adena Springs Farm, where Stonerside's homebred Congaree (above) also stands.

A similar tack was used the following year for the stable's involvement in the brilliant Coronado's Quest. While the son of Forty Niner didn't make any of the Triple Crown races, he did reel off five straight graded stakes victories after Stonerside bought a 25% interest from his owner and breeder, Stuart Janney III, including Grade 1 wins in the Travers Stakes and the Haskell Invitational. Retired to Claiborne, Coronado's Quest sired Stonerside's Grade 2 homebred winner Miss Coronado (at right) in his second crop. He was later exported to Japan, where he died in 2006. With just a few of his daughters old enough to have runners at the track, Coronado's Quest is emerging as a successful broodmare sire.

War Chant is yet another investment that turned out well. For his breeders and a partnership which included Stonerside, War Chant captured the 2000 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1). His first crop was headlined by Stonerside's homebred Karen's Caper, who is a Group 3 winner and Group 1 placed in England, and a Grade 3, track-record setting winner and Grade 1 placed in the United States. Homebred Grade 3 winning juvenile Sea Chanter has provided another dividend to the stable for its War Chant investment.

Opting not to stand stallions at their Paris, Kentucky farm, the McNairs reasoned that they could have a wider choice of investments by participating with a number of stallion farms. Among the notable stallions in which the farm has taken a substantial interest over the years are top sires Maria's Mon, More Than Ready, and Lemon Drop Kid.

Recently, the homebred racing program has begun to yield its own stallion prospects, namely Grade 1 winners Congaree and Bob and John. The latter, a son of Seeking the Gold, entered stud in 2008 at Pin Oak Stud in Versailles, Kentucky. Congaree's first runners, including several who will sport the Stonerside colors, race in 2008, and already he has four winners, including a stakes winner, plus another stakes-placed runner. Stonesider stood his first season at Highcliff Farm in New York and was very well received. Additionally, Stonerside-bred Van Nistelrooy, in whom the farm retained some breeding rights, came out with a stellar first crop in 2007, and ranked among the top freshman sires, with stakes winners including Grade 1 winner Set Play, and Group 2 winner Strike the Deal, and is following up on that success with more stakes winners in 2008.

International Flavor

Stonerside keeps a few mares in Argentina, owned in partnership with Dr. Ignacio Pavlovsky, as well as several stallions in South America. Holt (below, right), a son of Mr. Prospector co-bred by Stonerside, sired the stable's first Argentine homebred winner in Reality Holt this year. She is a member of his first crop. Also in Argentina are Chilukki's undefeated son Chubasco Cat, and the homebred stallion Seattle Hoofer (by Seattle Slew). Charm Seeker, another homebred Mr. Prospector stallion out of Smooth Charmer, stood for the partnership before his untimely death in October of 2007. Sir Halory, a half-brother to Van Nistelrooy by Unbridled, stood his first season in Chile in 2007.

Stonerside has annually sent two or three yearlings to train in England with John H. M. Gosden. Mr. Gosden has so far won with 90% of his starters for the stable, including Michita, a Group 2 winner at Royal Ascot this year, the aforementioned Group winners Raven's Pass and Karen's Caper, plus group-placed winners Sunshine Kid and Charley Bates.

At Home in Kentucky

Bourbon County is home to most of the Stonerside horses. The McNairs originally purchased 1,250 acres in 1995 near the town of Paris, Kentucky, and adjacent or near to Claiborne, Xalapa, Adena Springs, and Creekview. They have since grown that figure to 1,947 acres.

The five miles of Stoner Creek that wind through the farm provided the inspiration for the stable name, and gave the McNairs an opportunity for a unique bit of construction in the form of a covered bridge (pictured below at right)--believed to be the first one built in the state in 120 years.

Today, Stonerside is a turn-key operation that is home to a broodmare band of 60 to 80 mares, their foals, and yearlings. The breaking and training of each new crop is done on the Aiken, South Carolina property purchased by the McNairs from Racing Hall of Fame trainer MacKenzie Miller.

At Keeneland in nearby Lexington, Stonerside annually sponsors the prestigious Stonerside Beaumont Stakes, a Grade 2 event for three-year-old fillies. For the McNairs, no running may ever be quite as memorable as the first year of sponsorship, when their Sahara Gold carried the farm's colors to victory in 2000.

First Champion

The stable's first Eclipse Award win came in 1999 with the two-year-old filly sensation Chilukki (pictured, left). Purchased at a two-year-old in training sale in March, the daughter of Cherokee Run consequently won six of seven starts that year, came back at three with a track-record graded stakes win, then won a graded stakes early in her four-year-old year before joining the Stonerside broodmare band, where she remained until her untimely death on May 7, 2007.

Chilukki is buried at Stonerside, near Halory, Banker's Lady, Rythmical, Single Flower, and Treizieme.

All told, Chilukki earned $1,201,828, winning 11 of 17 starts, setting track records at Churchill Downs for 4.5 furlongs (:51) and one mile (1:33.57), and equaling a third.  

In 2005, Churchill Downs renamed the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Distaff Handicap in honor of Chilukki, who won the race in 2000 in one of her track record breaking performances.

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The process of building a breeding and racing operation is now coming full circle. Mares that carried the Stonerside silks to graded stakes wins have retired to the farm to produce a new generation of runners. Homebreds now make up the large majority of the racing stable. Selective outside acquisitions will continue to play a part of the building process, as will the fine-tuning of the broodmare band--each step a part of Stonerside's dedication to developing champions.

STONERSIDE STABLE