Multiple graded stakes winner Stronghold, winner of the Santa Anita Derby (G1) and Sunland Park Derby (G3) at three and the Triple Bend Stakes (G3) this year, has been retired and will stand the 2027 breeding season at Gary Broad’s Walmac Farm, it was announced today. His stud fee will be announced at a later date.
“We are very excited to partner with Eric and Sharon Waller and bring in Grade 1 winner Stronghold,” said Gary Broad. “Stronghold was precocious, placing in multiple graded stakes at two, and he demonstrated his class throughout his racing career. When you combine his top-level performances on the racetrack with his conformation and deep sire line, he offers breeders a great value.”
A fourth-generation homebred for Eric and Sharon Waller, Stronghold was a leading sophomore of his crop for trainer Phil D’Amato. The standout colt delivered a thrilling victory in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby (G1) in 2024, seizing command inside the final furlong and outbattling multiple graded stakes winner Imagination to the wire. With his determined win in the 1 1/8-mile test, Stronghold earned 100 qualifying points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, raising his point total to 125 and stamping his ticket to Louisville for the First Saturday in May.
Stronghold set the stage for his Grade 1 victory in the Santa Anita Derby with a decisive performance in winning the $400,000 Sunland Park Derby (G3). After stalking the early leaders throughout, he swept three-wide around the far turn to take the lead. He accelerated down the lane and drew clear late to post a 2 ½-length win.
Continuing his consistency and top form into this, his 5-year-old campaign, Stronghold demonstrated his versatility with a sharp victory in the $100,000 Triple Bend Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita in May. Putting away the pacesetter at the top of the stretch, he drew clear to win by 2 ½ lengths, stopping the clock in a fast 1:21.36 for seven furlongs. The impressive performance added to an already stellar resume that included a runner-up effort to Raging Torrent in the 2024 Malibu Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita, where Stronghold earned a career-best 102 Beyer Speed Figure.
Flashing promise right from the start of his juvenile season, Stronghold broke his maiden in just his second career start with a maiden special weight victory over one mile at Churchill Downs. He immediately stepped into stakes company, closing out his 2-year-old season with back-to-back graded stakes-placings. He was runner-up to subsequent multiple Grade 1 winner Nysos in Del Mar’s seven-furlong Bob Hope Stakes (G3) before a second-place finish in the 1 1/16-mile Los Alamitos Futurity (G2). All told, he retires with a record of 16-5-7-0, having won or placed in nine graded stakes races with earnings of $1,354,700.
Stronghold is by Awesome Again’s Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, sire of 2026 Grade 1 winner Segesta, as well as Eclipse Award Champions and Breeders’ Cup winners Goodnight Olive and Judy the Beauty, Canadian Horse of the Year Moira, and Dubai World Cup (G1) winner Mystic Guide. Stronghold is out of the graded stakes-winning Jimmy Creed mare Spectator, who won the Sorrento Stakes (G2) at Del Mar in 2017 for the Wallers and finished second in the 2018 Santa Anita Oaks (G1).