The New York stallion ranks would appear to have a coming star in
Hook and Ladder. Retired to stud at a fee of just $3,500, Hook and Ladder was
New York's leading freshman sire of 2007. From 52 named foals in his first
crop, he is sire of four stakes winners; last year's New York Stallions Great White Way Stakes victor
Spanky Fischbein; and 2008 stakes winners Big Truck (TrueNicks B+), who took the Tampa Bay Derby (gr. III); Like A Rose (TrueNicks A++), successful in the New
York Stallion Park Avenue Stakes; and Under Serviced (TrueNicks A++), who scored in the Schenectady Handicap.
Now Hook and Ladder is
under way with his second crop, currently 2-year-olds. He already has five
winners (three of them took 1-2-3 in a recent New York-bred maiden),
and they include stakes-placed Lookin At Her and Sneakin Up, who took the
Joseph A. Gimma Stakes at Belmont Park September 21. Out of the Tricky Creek
mare Tricky Move, Sneakin Up was rated TrueNicks
A even before her stakes victory.