Heaven Shines became the first winner for freshman sire and multiple graded stakes winner Stanford when he won his debut May 7 at Golden Gate Fields.
The California-bred colt led wire to wire in the 4 1/2 furlong contest to score by 2 3/4 lengths under jockey Kyle Frey. Trained by Jonathan Wong, Heaven Shines stopped the timer in :53.44 over the Tapeta surface. He earned $23,400 for the victory.
He is the fifth foal out of the stakes-placed Speightstown mare Light Up the Sky, who has a weanling full sister to Heaven Shines named Della Luce.
Heaven Shines is owned and bred by Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez, Calif., where Stanford stands for a fee of $5,000.
Stanford, a son of Malibu Moon, sold for $550,000 at the 2014 Barretts Equine March Selected Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale before being sent to trainer Todd Pletcher. A first-time out winner at Monmouth Park as a juvenile, Stanford captured the Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth as a 3-year-old and the Charles Town Classic Stakes (G2) and Harlan's Holiday Stakes (G3) as a 4-year-old. He added the Challenger Stakes to his résumé in his abbreviated 5-year-old campaign. Stanford retired with a 6-5-0 record from 17 starts and $1,385,510 in earnings.
