New Mexico second-crop sire Kentucky Wildcat sired his first black-type winner March 29 when his daughter Honky Tonk Honey won the New Mexico Breeders' Oaks at Sunland Park by a length.
The new stakes winner is a homebred for Dilly Dilly Racing, which bred Honky Tonk Honey out of the Chimes Band winner La Rita. The mare has now produced two black-type performers from two to race. Her first foal is stakes-placed Miss Ability (by Mr. Gold Mover), who was third in the 2021 Rio Grande Senorita Thoroughbred Futurity at Ruidoso Downs.
Honky Tonk Honey has won two of her four career starts and was second Feb. 18 in the Enchantress Stakes. She is trained by Simon Buechler.
Kentucky Wildcat is an 8-year-old son of Tapit out of multiple grade 1 winner Better Lucky. A Godolphin homebred, Kentucky Wildcat won his third start at 2 and then was runner-up in the 2019 Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs for his sophomore debut. He was pulled up after the Sam Davis, having sustained a condylar fracture and was vanned off. The injury was repaired and he entered stud at Susan Hunter's HunterCreek Farms near Roswell, N.M.
Kentucky Wildcat has sired three winners from five to start with those runners averaging $53,094 in earnings. The stallion stands for $2,500.
