A partnership with Ohio freshman sire National Flag between trainer Tim Hamm's Blazing Meadows Farm and WinStar Farm yielded quick results when the stallion sired his first winner June 28 at JACK Thistledown.
Excitement, a homebred gelding trained by Hamm and raced by the partnership known as WinBlaze, won at first asking as the even-money favorite. He rolled easily through 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:07.84 and won by 1 1/2 lengths with jockey Malcolm Franklin.
Bred out of the Kitten's Joy mare Elated, Excitement is a half brother to stakes winner Corner Office (Bal a Bali ). Elated is a full sister to grade 2-placed stakes winner Burn the Mortgage and stakes winner Lien on Kitten.
National Flag, a 7-year-old son of champion sprinter Speightstown , was raced by WinStar in partnership with China Horse Club and SF Racing. He sold for $600,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale out of Taylor Made Sales Agency's consignment. He won three of six career starts, including a victory in the Bay Shore Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack. WinStar saw him as a potential contender for the Preakness Stakes (G1) but his racing career was curtailed by a bout of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, also known as EPM.
National Flag entered stud in Ohio and stands at Blazing Meadows Farm at Meander Creek in North Jackson for $1,500.
