First-Year Sire Spotlight: Five Star General

Five Star General will be standing the 2025 season at Owl Hollow in Virginia, where he figures to make an impact in the regional breeding program

Five Star General is a horse that I have hoped for years would get a chance as a stallion in a regional market, and I was thrilled when his retirement to Owl Hollow Farm was announced earlier this month. Five Star General will be standing for a $6,000 fee in 2025, and the farm will soon be announcing an incentive program to benefit breeders in the regional with proven racing or producing ability.

As a horse who most recently captured his second consecutive Longacres Mile at the age of eight and never failed to pick up a check in 2024, some may not remember that Five Star General was a winner of Aqueduct’s Central Park Stakes as a two-year-old and the G3 British Columbia Derby at three. A remarkably consistent runner over seven seasons, he raced 39 times, winning 13, and hit the board in 28 of those efforts - 71.8% of his races, with total career earnings of $902,202.

Although he was never quite on par with some of the best of his crop, he was precocious enough to be a stakes winning juvenile and displayed a durability that is rarely seen in the modern Thoroughbred, along with speed and tenacity - all traits that should help him as a sire. Most of his lifetime wins were accomplished either on or just off the pace, although he closed from over four lengths back in his final career effort.

In addition to his racetrack credentials, Five Star General has a blue-blooded pedigree that should serve him well as a sire. He is a son of Distorted Humor, the sire of Kentucky stallions such as Maclean’s Music and Jimmy Creed as well as the top-class Florida stallions Khozan and Brethren, the latter of which also shares his female family with Five Star General. Sons of Distorted Humor at stud in the Mid-Atlantic region at present include Diamond B Farm’s Boisterous, the sire of 24 winners in 58 starters in 2024, and Baird Racing Stable’s Cal Nation, the sire of four winners from ten starters in 2024. The third-leading Mid-Atlantic sire, Cloud Computing, is a grandson of Distorted Humor as a son of Maclean’s Music.

Five Star General’s female family is a major selling point here. His dam, Party of Interest, is a daughter of the excellent broodmare sire Bernardini and a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Criminologist, herself the dam of MGSW Inspector Lynley. These elite turf runners in the immediate family suggest the possibility that Five Star General, despite being a dirt horse himself, could get offspring that excel on the grass. Party of Interest is also a half-sister to graded stakes placed winner Rescue Squad and stakes placed winner Party Now, the dam of graded stakes placed Passing Out. Party of Interest is out of the graded stakes-placed Seeking the Gold mare Search Party, a daughter of graded stakes winner Deputation (by Deputy Minister), who produced two additional graded stakes-placed winners. Deputation was out of the multiple graded stakes winning Hoist the Flag mare Wedding Party.

Wedding Party’s dam was a half to two stakes winners, and their dam was also a half to two stakes winners. Five Star General’s ninth dam is the immortal La Troienne, whose tail-female descendants include stallions such as Buckpasser, Easy Goer, Not For Love, Woodman, Poker, Lost Soldier, Belong To Me, Flatter, and More Than Ready, among countless others. This is a female family that has plenty of young talent at stud, including the likes of Maxfield, Game Winner, Cody’s Wish, Essential Quality, Corniche, and Forte all at stud in Kentucky.

Five Star General sold for $110,000 out of the 2022 Fasig-Tipton digital dispersal of owner/breeder Glen Todd

When looking for bloodlines that I expect Five Star General to complement, I wanted to first point out a few regional stallions whose daughters I’d hope to see him get a chance with, then expand to discuss a few broader options I think would work well for him.