Discreet Lover, a Grade 1 winner who earned nearly $1.5 million, has been retired from racing to stand at Kerry and Leigh Ann Hopper’s R Star Stallions in Anderson, Indiana. He will stand for a fee of $2,000, with special considerations for approved mares.
A son of four-time graded stakes winner Repent, Discreet Lover proved his talent and durability over a racing career spanning 49 starts. A winner and stakes-placed runner as a 2-year-old, Discreet Lover had a busy 3-year-old campaign while hitting the board in seven of 14 starts, including placings in the Parx Derby and Ohio Derby. Not slowing down at age 4, he again faced the starter 14 times with a $100,000 stakes win at Penn National and three additional stakes placings.
At age 5, he developed into one of the nation’s top older horses while racing 10 times, including nine starts in graded stakes. In April of that year, he won the Grade 3, $150,000 Excelsior Stakes at Aqueduct and then ran third in both the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes and Grade 1 Whitney Stakes that summer. The biggest of his seven career wins came in September of his 5-year-old season, when he won the Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup going 1 ¼ miles at Belmont Park. Among the foes he defeated that day were Mendelssohn, Diversify, Gronkowski and the two-time Dubai World Cup Winner Thunder Snow (Ire). All told, Discreet Lover compiled a record of 49-7-7-7 with earnings of $1,452,735.
Discreet Lover is out of the Discreet Cat mare Discreet Chat, who is a half sister to millionaire and Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Desert Code.
“Discreet Lover ran in 17 graded stakes and 17 other stakes during his career, so he went up against the best of the best and he proved himself to be a hard-trying and talented horse over his long career,” said Kerry Hopper. “He was precocious enough to win as a 2-year-old and even though most of his wins were going a route of ground, he also showed the ability to sprint when he had the chance, so we think he’s going to be a versatile stallion and a good fit for the lucrative Indiana breeding program.”