Sporting Chance, the grade 1 winner and second-crop sire of A & A Ranch, produced his first black-type winner on May 11 at Sunray Park when his son Higher Ed won the Kendrick Stakes by 4 1/2 lengths.
A homebred for J. Kirk and Judy Robison is Higher Ed. The gelding, trained by Todd Fincher, has made six career races and has never finished out of the money. In June 2023, he was victorious at the first attempt in a five-furlong trial for the New Mexico-bred Mountain Top Thoroughbred Futurity. He finished second in the Rio Grande Senor Thoroughbred Futurity after finishing third in the Mountain Top Futurity.
African Heat, the Robisons' homebred multiple stakes winner, was the mate of Higher Ed (Southwestern Heat). Yahilwa, Elaborate, and Ubiquity are graded stakes winners, and they are all descended from the mare. African Heat's first foal is named Higher Ed. The mare owns a yearling by Sporting Chance and a 2-year-old.
The 9-year-old son of Tiznow, Sporting Chance is the grade 1-placed stakes winner at Wynning Ride's dam. He was bred in Kentucky by Hunter Valley Farm. At the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, he first sold as a weanling for $275,000 to Lapis Bloodstock, and then for $575,000 to William Mack and Robert Baker. Along with winning the 2017 Hopeful Stakes (G1), Mack and Baker helped him earn $409,790 throughout his career.
At A & A Ranch, Sporting Chance is available for $5,000.