Grade 1 quality male and second crop male from A&A Ranch Sports opportunities sired the first black type winner on May 11 when his son University education captured the Kendrick Stakes by 4 1/2 lengths at Sunray Park.
Higher Ed is a hybrid of J. Kirk and Judy Robison. Trained by Todd Fincher, the gelding has not run out of money in six career starts. He won his first claiming in June 2023 in a five-year trial for the Mountain Top Thoroughbred Futurity for New Mexico breeds. He finished third in the Mountain Top Futurity and went on to finish second in the Rio Grande Senor Thoroughbred Futurity.
The Robisons bred Higher Ed from a multiple stakes winner in their home African heat (Southwestern Heat). The mare’s immediate family has produced graded stakes winners Ubiquity, Elaborate and Yahilwa. Higher Ed is African Heat’s first foal. This mare has a 2 year old and a yearling by Sporting Chance.
Sporting Chance is the 9 year old son of Tiznow of Grade 1 stakes winner Wynning Ride. He was raised in Kentucky by Hunter Valley Farms. He was sold as a weanling for $275,000 to Lapis Bloodstock, and then for $575,000 to William Mack and Robert Baker at the Keeneland September yearling sale. Mack and Baker won the 2017 Hopeful Stakes (G1) with him and earned $409,790 for his career.
Sporting Chance is available at A&A Ranch for $5,000.
