G1 winner Shakin It Up retires to Spendthrift

Grade 1 winner Shakin It Up has been retired from racing and will stand the 2015 breeding season at B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, KY. The striking son of Midnight Lute will stand for a fee of $10,000 stands & nurses, and he will participate in Spendthrift’s Share The Upside Program for a fee of $12,500 stands & nurses.

Shakin It Up will be at Spendthrift Farm and available for inspection Saturday and Sunday, July 12th & 13th, prior to the Fasig-Tipton July sale.

“We’re thrilled to be able to offer breeders Shakin It Up as the newest addition to Spendthrift’s stallion roster and Share The Upside Program,” said Ken Wilkins, Spendthrift’s Director of Stallions. “Physically, he’s a striking comparison to his sire Midnight Lute, and he also showed his sire’s brilliance, versatility, and class on the racetrack. Shakin It Up reminded us a lot of Into Mischief, who was also a brilliant, precocious, top-class runner in California by an exciting young sire at the time we retired him to stud. So we think the sky is the limit for Shakin It Up.”

Shakin It Up began his career by breaking his maiden as a 2-year-old at Santa Anita in 1:09.45, before placing in the Hollywood Prevue S. (G3) over Cushion Track in his next start. He returned to the Santa Anita dirt to win the San Vicente S. (G2) in 1:22. 48 in the first start of his 3-year-old season, and he capped off his sophomore campaign later in the year with a victory in Santa Anita’s Malibu S. (G1) in 1:20.53, shaving nearly two seconds off his San Vicente time. Shakin It Up earned a 106 Beyer for his Malibu win, which ranked as one of the fastest by a 3-year-old in 2013 at seven furlongs.

In 2014, Shakin It Up stretched out around two turns to win the Strub S. (G2) in 1:41.86, becoming the first horse in 40 years to win Santa Anita’s San Vicente, Malibu, and Strub stakes. He was a narrow runner-up in the Churchill Downs S. (G2) on Kentucky Derby Day after a wide trip, earning a 107 Beyer and a ½ Ragozin for the performance. He retires as Midnight Lute’s most accomplished son, with earnings of $664,982.

Shakin It Up is a product of two of Mike Pegram’s greatest Breeders’ Cup-winning champions. Bred in Kentucky by Pegram, Shakin It Up is out of Silver Bullet Moon, a daughter of Pegram’s multiple Grade 1 winner and Eclipse Award-winning juvenile Silverbulletday. Pegram more recently campaigned Shakin It Up’s sire, Midnight Lute, to back-to-back Breeders’ Cup wins before he entered stud in 2009.

For more information about Shakin It Up or Spendthrift’s Share The Upside Program, please contact Ken, Des, or Mark at 859-294-0030, or visit SpendthriftFarm.com.