Hard Spun

Background

Hard Spun is a bay horse with a white star standing 16.2 hands high. He is from one of the last crops of three-time leading sire in North America Danzig. Hard Spun was owned during his racing career by Wilmington, Delaware automobile dealer Richard C. Porter, who races under the Fox Hill Farms banner.

At maturity, he reached 16.3 hands (67 inches, 170 cm) high.

2006: two-year-old season

Bred for endurance, at age two Hard Spun made his debut on October 22, 2006, at Delaware Park Racetrack, winning by an 8 ¾-length margin. He then showed he could handle sloppy tracks when he won the Port Penn Stakes on the same track by five lengths on November 14. In December, he won the 2006 Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes at Philadelphia Park Racetrack, a race won in 2003 by Smarty Jones.

2007: three-year-old season

Entering the three-year-old racing season in 2007, jockey Mario Pino rode Hard Spun to his fourth straight win, capturing the January's Lecomte Stakes at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. In his next start on February 19 in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was sent off as the 2-5 betting favorite. However, the colt finished fourth to winner Teuflesberg, who was ridden by Stewart Elliott. Trainer Larry Jones said that Hard Spun had a difficult time with his footing on Oaklawn's dirt surface and decided to skip the racetrack's Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby. Instead, Hard Spun was sent to compete in the Lane's End Stakes on the Polytrack at Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky. On March 24, Hard Spun scored his fifth win in six starts with a 3¼-length victory in the Lane's End Stakes in a strong time of 1:49 2/5 for the 1⅛-mile event.

Hard Spun was expected to next start in the Blue Grass Stakes on the Polytrack at Keeneland Race Course, but Jones instead decided to go directly to Churchill Downs to see if the colt could handle its dirt surface. Hard Spun passed his test and finished 2nd at the Kentucky Derby on May 5. For Hard Spun's owner, trainer, and veteran jockey, it marked their first entry in America's most prestigious horse race. Hard Spun finished third in the Preakness Stakes and fourth in the Belmont Stakes.

On June 2, 2007, owner Richard Porter sold Hard Spun's breeding rights to Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Darley Stud.

Hard Spun ran second by 4½ lengths to Any Given Saturday in the $1 million Grade I Haskell Invitational Handicap at Monmouth Park on August 5, 2007. Third place went to the betting favorite, Curlin.

On August 25, 2007, Hard Spun got his first Grade I win in the King's Bishop Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in a time of 1:22:34 over a fast track.

On September 29, 2007, he won the 1 1/8 mile Grade II Kentucky Cup Classic Stakes on Polytrack at Turfway Park, beating Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense and earning not only the base purse of $130,000 but a bonus of $150,000 offered by the track to any starter of a Grade I winner for 2006 or 2007. Hard Spun finished second in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Stud record

Retired from racing, Hard Spun stood as a stallion for the Darley Stud with an initial stud fee of $50,000. He was based at the Jonabell Farm, Kentucky in 2011. Hard Spun's first two-year-olds reached the racetrack in 2011 and included the American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly Questing, the Group Two Superlative Stakes winner Red Duke and the Grade III winner Easter Gift. He has also sired Louisiana Handicap winner Hard Aces, Australian-Bred Sea Cottage Stakes winner Ertijaal, Jenny Wiley Stakes winner Hard Not To Like, Del Mar Handicap winner Big John B, Sportingbet Sunline Stakes winner Text'n Hurley, Tattersall Somerville Stakes winner Maftool, Red Bank Stakes winner Hard Enough, Arlington Million Handicap winner Hardest Core, and Wood Memorial and Jim Dandy Stakes winner Wicked Strong. Wicked Strong was a favorite for the 2014 Kentucky Derby but was placed fourth behind eventual winner California Chrome.