Home

Ocala, Florida has been a major cradle of stallion for a number of years. One of the more recent exports was Northern Afleet (TrueNicks,SRO) , who moved to Taylor Made in Kentucky, after making a very promising start from his crops sired at Double Diamond Farm.
 
The success enjoyed by Northern Afleet opened the door for his three-parts-brother Act of Duty to obtain a shot in Florida. By Northern Afleet’s grandsire, Mr. Prospector – who himself began his stud career in the Sunshine State – out of the Nureyev mare, Nuryette, Act of Duty was a $3,600,000 yearling. He wasn’t able to live up to that billing on the racetrack, three starts in England and Dubai yielding only a second. Still, his pedigree, and multi-million dollar looks were enough to secure him a place at stud at Bridlewood Farm, Ocala, kicking off his stud career in 2006.
 
Act of Duty had nine individual winners with his first crop two-year-olds last year, and one of that crop, Fly By Phil gave him honors as the first sophomore stallion of 2010 to be represented by a stakes winner when upsetting the Tropical Park Derby (gr. III). Making his stakes debut, off maiden and allowance wins on dirt at Calder, Fly By Phil will return to that surface for the Sam F. Davis Stakes (gr. III), his next step on the Triple Crown trail.
 
Bred by his owner, Gil Campbell, Fly By Phil is out of the Deputy Minister mare, True Mood, his granddam, Intimate Moments, is by Benefice (a son of Damascus) and is half-sister to Damascus great-grandson, Afternoon Deelites, winner of the Hollywood Futurity (gr. I) and Malibu Stakes (gr. I). He has three crosses of Northern Dancer, and in that context it’s worth noting that Act of Duty’s third dam is Nangela, a daughter of Northern Dancer’s sire, Nearctic, and inbred 1 x 3 to Nearctic and a three-parts-sister.
 
Of course, Act of Duty has a lot to achieve if he is going to follow in the footsteps of Northern Afleet. He enjoyed a tremendous season in 2009, ending the year seventh on the Leading Sires Table, with 11 stakes winners, headed by Big City Man who took the Golden Shaheen (gr. I), the Alcibiades Stakes (gr. I) heroine, Negligee, and another two-year-old, Aegean, successful in the Kentucky Juvenile Stakes (gr. III). Of course his earlier crops included Champion and dual classic winner Afleet Alex (TrueNicks,SRO) (himself a grade one sire with his first crop in 2009), and graded winners Saint Afleet, and G P Fleet.