Hoist The Gold
by Avalyn Hunter
As the end of the year approaches, alert breeders are keeping an eye out for announcements regarding new stallions for 2026. One that should be on Louisiana breeders’ radar is Hoist the Gold, who will be entering stud at Circle H Breeding & Racing. His combination of prepotent bloodlines, durability, and talent make him a good value at his introductory fee of $2,000 live foal.
A foal of 2019, Hoist the Gold held his own in a competitive crop and defeated some very good horses along the way. His first victim was Cyberknife, who outfinished him by a half-length in a 2021 Churchill Downs maiden special weight over 6 furlongs but was demoted to second for soundly bumping Hoist the Gold in upper stretch. The pair finished over nine lengths in front of their nearest rival, and Cyberknife went on to win the 2022 Arkansas Derby (G1) and TVG.com Haskell Stakes (G1).
Hoist the Gold went off form after that effort, but he got back on track in his first race of 2022, scoring by 4¼ lengths in a six-furlong optional claimer at the Fair Grounds. In his remaining nine starts of the season, he picked up three stakes placings. After running third behind Gunite in the Maxfield Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs on July 3, he turned in an excellent effort in running second to that same rival in the listed Perryville Stakes at Keeneland on October 22. Gunite had already won the 2021 Hopeful Stakes (G1) and 2022 Amsterdam Stakes (G2), and he would go on to win the 2023 Forego Stakes (G1). Hoist the Gold concluded his 3-year-old season with a third behind Taiba (who was picking up his third grade 1 victory of the year) and multiple grade 2 winner Forbidden Kingdom in the RUNHAPPY Malibu Stakes (G1), outfinishing future grade 1 winner Nakatomi and future champion sprinter Straight No Chaser.
Hoist the Gold picked up two more stakes placings in the first half of 2023, missing a win in the Commonwealth Stakes (G3) by a neck and running second to eventual Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish in the Churchill Downs Stakes (G1), but he waited until the fall of his 4-year-old season to come to his best form. On October 6, he turned in a career-best effort in the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix Stakes (G2) to defeat Nakatomi—a last-out winner of the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes (G1)—by three-quarters of a length. He encountered traffic problems in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) and finished sixth, but bounced back in the Cigar Mile Handicap (G2), coming home first by 4½ lengths. In that race, he defeated Senor Buscador, who ran second in the 2024 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1), won the Saudi Cup (G1), and was third in the Dubai World Cup in his next three starts.
Hoist the Gold also ran in the Pegasus and the Saudi Cup, but both races were well beyond his tether and he was out of the money in both events. The long trip to and from Saudi Arabia may have taken something out of him as well, for he won only an optional claimer at the Fair Grounds from six more starts, though he did add placings in the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) and two more stakes events to his tally. He retired having won or placed in 18 of 34 starts for earnings of $1,510,327.
Bred and owned by Dream Team Racing, Hoist the Gold is by 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft, Arguably the best son of 1992 Horse of the Year and two-time American champion sire A.P. Indy and produced from 2003 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Prospectors Delite (a multiple grade 1 winner in her own right), Mineshaft was a successful sire for Lane’s End before being pensioned last April.
As might be guessed from her name, Prospectors Delite was sired by two-time American champion sire Mr. Prospector, the broodmare sire of all but one of A.P. Indy’s important sire sons. (The exception is Bernardini, whose dam was sired by Mr. Prospector’s grandson Quiet American). Hoist the Flag doubles up on both these important bloodlines. Produced from the Tapit mare Tacit Approval, he is inbred 2x4 to A.P. Indy, who sired Tapit’s sire Pulpit. He also carries five crosses to Mr. Prospector, who appears 3x5x7x6x5 in his pedigree, but is free of all of Mr. Prospector’s important sire sons other than Fappiano.
Although Mineshaft is usually associated with two-turn runners, Hoist the Gold has the background on his dam’s side to show that he came by speed honestly. He is a half brother to listed stakes winner Mucho Macho Girl (by Mucho Macho Man)—a nice turf miler—nd to two other winners. Their dam, the winning Tapit mare Tacit Approval, is out of multiple juvenile stakes winner Punch Appeal (by the good sprinter-miler Successful Appeal).
A.P. Indy has historically combined well with Storm Cat and Distorted Humor in pedigrees, and mares with these sires close up should be strong candidates for obtaining good results from Hoist the Gold. Hoist the Gold also looks like a good cross for mares carrying multiple crosses to Northern Dancer within five generations as his own bloodlines contain only three crosses to the great sire of sires, with none closer than the sixth generation. That does not make him a complete outcross for such mares, but with Northern Dancer being all but universal in modern pedigrees, he is probably about as close as one is going to get.
In conformation, the most outstanding point of Hoist the Gold’s physique is an extremely powerful, well rounded set of hindquarters with the long, sloping pelvis and muscular gaskins commonly associated with sprinting speed. “He’s a good sound horse, and you’re not going to find a better-balanced horse than him,” says Circle H’s Don Hargroder. “He’s got a good mind too, real easy to handle, and I think he’s going to make some really nice babies for us.”
Avalyn Hunter is the author of five books on Thoroughbred pedigrees and history including Dream Derby: The Myth and Legend of Black Gold (2023, University Press of Kentucky) and The Kentucky Oaks: 150 Years of Running for the Lilies (2024, University Press of Kentucky). Her website is www.americanclassicpedigrees.com.