2022 Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes Winner
There is something fitting about a horse named for a port city growing up to become one of America's brightest turf milers, and Annapolis wore the name well. A bay colt foaled in 2019 and bred and raced as a homebred by Bass Racing, he came from one of the most aristocratic families in the modern stud book. His sire is War Front, the Claiborne Farm stallion whose stud fee climbed to a once-eye-watering $250,000 on the strength of a roster of European Group 1 winners; his dam, My Miss Sophia, was herself a graded stakes winner on dirt and runner-up in the Kentucky Oaks, and her family carries the names of Materiality, Embellish the Lace, and Afleet Express. On paper he was bred to be either a classic dirt prospect or, more likely, a top-class turf horse — and trainer Todd Pletcher quickly steered him toward the latter.
Annapolis broke his maiden at Saratoga by four and a half lengths in 2021 and finished first or second in each of his first seven starts. He stamped himself as the leader of his juvenile turf division by winning the Pilgrim Stakes (G2) at Belmont while posting the highest Beyer Speed Figure of any two-year-old on grass that year. The defining moment came at three: in the Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland in October 2022, he became the first three-year-old since 2006 to win the Grade 1 race, doing so in a new stakes record — a performance that announced him as one of the country's premier milers on grass. He campaigned through 2023 with a gutsy Opening Verse score at Churchill Downs and narrow runner-up finishes to Casa Creed in the Kelso (G3) and the Fourstardave (G1) at Saratoga before closing his career with two off-the-board efforts decided by small margins.
He retired to Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, taking up residence alongside his sire — a pedigree-matched move that few turf-mile graduates earn. With seven wins from sixteen starts, a Grade 1 record at a mile, and a page full of black type on both sides, Annapolis enters stud as the kind of horse breeders look to when they want speed, soundness, and class delivered through a top-shelf American turf influence.
Sources:
Sire War Front
Grandsire Danzig
Dam My Miss Sophia
Damsire Unbridled's Song
Sex Colt
Foaled 1 April 2019[1]
Country United States
Color Bay
Breeder Bass Stables
Owner Bass Racing
Trainer Todd A. Pletcher
Record 13 : 6-4-0
Earnings $1,581,770
Major races: Pilgrim Stakes (2021), Saranac Stakes (2022), Coolmore Turf Mile (2022)