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The weekend crowned two new grade I winners among the older division.

Vinery already has one promising stallion prospect in their homebred Friesan Fire, a 3-year-old son of A.P. Indy (TrueNicks,SRO). Now they have another in 4-year-old Kodiak Kowboy. A son of Vinery stallion Posse (TrueNicks,SRO) , Kodiak Kowboy was purchased by Vinery as a yearling. Champion 2-year-old in Canada in 2007, he won the Amsterdam Stakes (gr. II) and Sport Page Handicap (gr. III) at 3. In the weekend's Carter Handicap (gr. I) at Aqueduct, he caught the redoubtable Fabulous Strike to become the first grade I winner for his sire. Out of the Coronado's Quest mare Kokadrie, a half-sister to grade I winner West By West, Kodiak Kowboy is one of two stakes winners and three stakes horses from only four starters sired by Posse out of Forty Niner-line mares, so it's no surprise to see that he's rated A++ by TrueNicks.

Another cross with a remarkably high strike rate is that of Street Cry (IRE) (TrueNicks,SRO) and mares by Meadowlake. There are only two starters bred on the cross, and they are grade III winner Street Magician and Seventh Street, a 4-year-old who claimed the first stakes win of her career in the Apple Blossom Handicap (gr. I). The combination of Street Cry and Meadowlake doubles Prince John  and also brings in Halo, whose damsire is Cosmic Bomb, a half-brother to the dam of Prince John. We can also add that Banish Fear -- dam of Cosmic Bomb and granddam of Prince John -- is out of a half-sister to Pilate, who is in the pedigree of Meadowlake's sire Hold Your Peace, and that Halo's sire Hail to Reason is half-brother to the granddam of Meadowlake.

Filed under: Recent Winners, Emerging Nicks