Housatonic Recommended Matings for 2025 -- Wild For Love

Wild For Love has already produced a BTW by a Tapit son, and will visit a very exciting first-year horse by that leading sire in 2025.

A gorgeous son of Tapit from one of the best female families in the stud book, who was a brilliant multiple graded stakes winner, Charge It is a first-year stallion that we are very excited about. He’ll be a perfect fit for Wasabi Ventures Stables’s black-type producer Wild For Love in 2025.

Named a TDN Rising Star for an 8-length maiden win at Gulfstream in his second start, Charge It was 2nd to eventual BC Classic winner White Abarrio in the Grade 1 Florida Derby in just his third start.  He scored his first graded stakes win when romping home in the historic Dwyer at Belmont by an incredible 23 lengths (!!), earning a 111 Beyer Speed Figure for that performance going one mile.  Sidelined thereafter, he returned with a Gulfstream allowance victory in his 4YO debut (102 BSF), then was 2nd in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Mile.

Charge It.

Charge It added his second graded victory later that season when scoring in Belmont’s historic Grade 2 Suburban by almost 5 over the classic distance of 1-1/4 miles, good for a 106 BSF.  Charge It later added a 3rd place finish in the Grade 3 Westchester to his resume, prior to his retirement to Gainesway, where he’ll stand for an introductory fee of $12,500.

As mentioned, Charge It is a son of the all-time leading US sire Tapit, and is bred on the identical cross to Horse of the Year Flightline.  His Indian Charlie dam, I’ll Take Charge, is a winning half-sister to Eclipse Champion and sire Will Take Charge, to Grade 1 winner and sire Take Charge Indy, to Grade 1 winner As Time Goes By, and to the dam of Eclipse Champion Take Charge Brandi and Grade 1 winner and leading 2nd crop sire Omaha Beach.  Charge It’s second dam is the Grade 1 winner and Broodmare of the Year Take Charge Lady. So pedigrees don’t come more purple, with several successful stallions close up in his female family.

Wild For Love, herself a six-figure 2YO in-training and six-figure earner on the racetrack, is the dam of five winners from five foals to race, including a trio of six-figure earners. Her best offspring so far is the multiple black-type winner Local Motive, who is by a Maryland-based son of Tapit and who Wild For Love was carrying when we acquired her on Wasabi’s behalf.

Wild For Love.

That makes another son of Tapit an easy choice for her, especially when you see that Tapit and his sons rate an “A+” with Not For Love mares (seven black-type winners from 54 runners bred this way, plus three additional black-type placed horses). If you look further back, the Pulpit sire-line with Not For Love has also produced the likes of California Chrome. Meanwhile, Tapit and his sons with mares from the sire-line of Wild For Love’s broodmare sire Concern have produced Grade 1 winners Testa Matta and Proxy, Grade 2 winners Pink Sands and Amalfi Coast, etc.

So on paper, this match-up is pretty close to perfect whichever way you look at it.

And then physically, Charge It is a big, strapping, correct horse who will complement the well-made but medium-sized Wild For Love quite nicely. We expect them to produce a beautiful foal that sells well and has plenty of ability on the track, too!