Standing at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Florida.
Baoma Corporation’s Florida freshman sire, Chitu, has gained his first two winners in September, lighting up the Gulfstream Park tote board in both cases.On Sept. 12, Silver Tunes, out of the Pioneerof the Nile mare Nile Tunes, captured a $25,000 maiden claimer at odds of 86-1, with Dick Cardenas riding, and paid $174.20. The filly owned and bred by Bagwandeen Thoroughbreds took the lead passing the three-eighths pole in the five-furlong race, then held off 4/5 favorite Fury Song by three-quarters of a length at the wire. She earned a check for $25,160.
Eight days later, Seeking the Truth became winner No. 2 with a one-half length score in a $50,000 maiden claimer at six furlongs. In his second start for Ocala veterinarian Rod Lundock, her owner and breeder, the gelding out of the Seeking the Gold mare Letussoupriseyou tracked in second for a quarter, took a one-half length lead in the stretch and held it to the finish. She paid $67.40 and collected a check for $20,900.
“With only nine runners at the races thus far, Chitu is No. 5 on the Florida freshman sire list,” said Christine Miller, Operations Manager of Baoma Corporation. “With these two wins, Silver Tunes and Seeking the Truth earned Florida Owners Awards and Florida-bred incentive funds for their breeders. We look forward to seeing many more wins from his progeny.”
Chitu was a $300,000 OBS March Select 2-year-old, and was purchased by Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. He’s by Henny Hughes, sire of champion Beholder, out of the A. P. Indy mare Sea Gift, from a powerful international family that goes back to Round Table’s winning sister, Monarchy, also ancestress of Pulpit, Tale of the Cat and Johannesburg.
As a 2-year-old, Chitu won both his six-furlong starts, one at Santa Anita in 1:08.86 and the second at Hollywood Park in 1:09.94. At three, he won the $800,000, Gr. III Sunland Derby by 2 1/4 lengths in 1:47.88 for 1 1/8 miles, marking the third fastest clocking in the history of the race at the time, and just .48 hundredths of a second off the track record. He set all the fractions in the $300,000, Gr. I Malibu at Santa Anita, including six furlongs in 1:08.59, before finishing third, three-quarters of a length behind champion Shared Belief. He also scored a wire-to-wire victory in the $100,000 Damascus Stakes on the Breeders’ Cup under card, racing seven furlongs in 1:21.66, through fractions of :44 85 and 1:08.94. He wound up his career with a record of 4-1-1 in seven starts and earnings of $597,800.
Chitu stands for $4,500 at Bridlewood Farm, located at 8318 NW 90th Terrace, Ocala, Fl 34482, and bred 218 mares in his first three seasons at stud. Chitu was Florida’s #1 freshman sire at OBS in 2018. In 2019, a Chitu 2 year old was sold for $200,000 at April OBS – 44 x the stud fee.
Also standing at Bridlewood Farm are Valiant Minister, by Candy Ride, out of Spooky Minister, by Deputy Minister, and Tunwoo, Chitu’s half-brother by Medaglia d’Oro. All three stallions are owned by the Baoma Corp.
For more information about CHITU, VALIANT MINISTER, and TUNWOO, please visit: www.baomacorp.com, www.bridlewoodfarm.com, or email christinem@baomacorp.com. Contact Christine Miller at 978-984-5666.
