Normandy Invasion added to Pin Oak Lane Farm roster

by Press Release | Oct 29, 2019 | Breaking, Breeding, PA Breeding, Pennsylvania

Grade 1-placed track record-setting miler Normandy Invasion has relocated to Pennsylvania to stand the 2020 season at Dr. William J. Solomon’s Pin Oak Lane Farm in New Freedom. The 9-year-old son of leading sire Tapit will stand for $2,500 live foal, payable when the foal stands and nurses. Normandy Invasion stood last season at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky; his first crop runners are 2-year-olds this year.

“Normandy Invasion, by Tapit, sire of sires (Frosted, Tonalist, Constitution, Tapiture) has the physical appearance and the same pattern as other successful Grade 1 quality horses that I have selected (Havre de Grace, Songbird, Midnight Lute),” said noted bloodstock agent Tom McGreevy. “This is attested to by his second in the (Grade 1) Wood Memorial and fourth in the Kentucky Derby. He possessed both speed and stamina. His track record at a mile on dirt at Gulfstream in 1:33.13 will take an extremely talented horse to break.”

Normandy Invasion was a winner at 2 when breaking his maiden going a mile at Aqueduct by 9 1/4 lengths, and missed by a nose in his stakes debut, the 9-furlong Grade 2 Remsen, an effort which made the striking bay colt one to watch on the Triple Crown trail.

After finishing 1 1/2 lengths behind the winner as the favorite in his 3-year-old debut, Fair Grounds’ Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes, Normandy Invasion stepped up and ran a solid race in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, rallying behind Verrazano to finish second, beaten three-quarters of a length.

The Kentucky Derby was his next stop. He took the lead with a quarter-mile to go over the sloppy track and ran a game race to the wire, being caught late to finish fourth, missing third place by a head in the race won by Orb.

Normandy Invasion was sidelined by a foot abscess for the rest of his sophomore campaign, and reemerged nine months later in a one-mile allowance at Gulfstream Park. He turned in a sterling performance to win by a widening 7 3/4 lengths in 1:33.13, a track record which still stands, off fractions of 1:08.66 for three-quarters, and 1:20.70 for seven furlongs.

Next out came a second in Fair Grounds’ Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap behind classic winner and top handicap horse Palace Malice. The rest of his career was hampered by extended absences, first caused by a lung infection and later a fractured sesamoid. He returned at 5 to finish second in the Carl Hanford Memorial Stakes at Delaware Park and retired after a dozen starts, with two wins and five seconds and earnings of $551,900.

Normandy Invasion entered stud in New York under the ownership of Spendthrift Farm, where he stood his first three seasons before moving to Kentucky for 2019. He has covered an average of more than 50 mares each year at stud.

Out of the Boston Harbor mare Boston Lady, Normandy Invasion is a half-brother to the dam of 2019 Oaklawn Handicap-G2 winner and millionaire Quip.