GRADE I DENALI GRADUATE HAYNESFIELD RETIRED

Harvey Weinstein’s Turtle Bird Stable announced Dec. 2 that grade I winner Haynesfield has been retired. A stakes winner each year he raced, Haynesfield won 10 of his 19 lifetime starts for earnings of $1,319,481.

A 5-year-old son of Speightstown, out of the stakes-winning Tejabo mare Nothing Special, Haynesfield was bred in New York by Barry Weisbord and Margaret Santulli.

At 4, Haynesfield won three of his six starts including the Suburban Handicap (gr. II) and the Jockey Club Gold Cup (gr. I). He completed the season with a runner-up effort in the Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile Handicap (gr. I) while earning a 111 Beyer Speed Figure.

In his first two starts at 3 he reeled off back-to-back wins in the Count Fleet and Whirlaway stakes before closing out that year with consecutive stakes wins in the Empire Classic and the Discovery Handicap (gr. III) at Aqueduct.

Haynesfield’s final career victory was a repeat win in the Empire Classic in October, before completing his racing career with a fourth-place finish in the Nov. 26 Cigar Mile.

“Haynesfield gave us a lot of thrills and memories over the last four seasons but the race that will always stand out was his decisive win in the Jockey Club Gold Cup over Blame, handing him his only loss that year; beating him in a grade I at equal weights in his championship season was a tremendous accomplishment by a gifted horse. We will miss having him around the barn,” said Toby Sheets, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen.

Haynesfield will begin stud duties in 2012 though arrangements have not been finalized at this time.