In December 2017, Dan Eubanks headed to the Timonium sales pavilion with a single-minded purpose. His short list for Fasig-Tipton Midlantic’s horses of racing age sale was precisely that. There was just one name on it: Colonel Sharp.
It’s not hard to understand what piqued Eubanks’ interest. The 4-year-old gelding was already the winner of three races and he’d finished third in Monmouth Park’s Jersey Shore Stakes-G3 in 2016 for trainer Todd Beattie. Bred in Kentucky by Susan Casner, he was by Colonel John out of the Cherokee Run mare Extra Sharp. Extra Sharp’s dam, Sharp Cat, won 15 races, captured multiple graded stakes and earned $2,032,575.
Sharp Cat was a phenom for owner The Thoroughbred Corporation (of Point Given fame) and trainer D. Wayne Lukas, crisscrossing the country and inking upper-case black type along the way. She won three graded stakes as a 2-year-old in 1996, and captured three Grade 1 stakes the following year while finishing second to Ajina in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff-G1 before closing that season with a walkover in the Grade 2 Bayakoa at Hollywood Park. Back for four starts as a 4-year-old in 1998, Sharp Cat went undefeated, including Grade 1 scores in the Ruffian and the Beldame. Retired to the breeding shed, she sold for $3.1 million to Darley while in foal to Gone West at Keeneland November in 2003. She passed away in 2008 after foaling a colt by A.P. Indy. Her grandson sold for $11,000 as a yearling in 2014, won his first two starts as a 2-year-old and added another win at 3 before going to Timonium.Eubanks has vivid memories of his first encounter with Colonel Sharp.
“I’ll never forget the first time I saw him. I asked the consignor, Crane Thoroughbreds, to bring him out for inspection,” Eubanks said. “I looked him in the eye as he stood tall and proud. He looked right through mine, and I was speechless. After a few moments, I uttered one word – ‘Wow.’ I had to have him. The bidding was a bit energetic, but I didn’t waver. I had no idea the joy this purchase was going to bring me.”
The hammer fell at $36,000, and Eubanks signed the ticket in the name of his Rising Sun Racing Stables. He sent his new acquisition to trainer Hugh McMahon at Laurel Park. In every subsequent conversation, McMahon assured Eubanks that “We have a really good one here.”
“It didn’t take long to find out how good,” Eubanks said. Colonel Sharp made his first start for Eubanks Jan. 28, 2018, finishing second in an optional claimer at Laurel Park. Their first win together came two starts later, again at Laurel Park. Third in stakes company at Presque Isle Downs and Mountaineer Park, he returned to Maryland and gave Eubanks his first stakes win as an owner in the Maryland Coalition at Timonium.
“What a great day that was, especially at Timonium where I’ve had so much fun over the years since I was a child,” Eubanks said. “This was the first time I had a horse of this caliber, and it was an awesome ride.”
Colonel Sharp won another allowance at Laurel and then the Dave’s Friend Stakes to end his 2018 campaign with five wins, two seconds and two thirds with $235,490 earned in 12 starts.
Colonel Sharp began 2019 in graded company, with dismal finishes in Aqueduct’s Toboggan-G3 and Laurel’s General George-G3. Same with the King T. Leatherbury Stakes that April. Back in the allowance ranks in May, he regained his form with a win, a second and a third through August.
“Midway through the year we removed a chip from his knee,” Eubanks said. “Although he came back in 2020, he wasn’t as competitive. I retired him as my lifetime leading money earner and only stakes winner.”
Headed to Eubanks’ Lothian, Md., farm, Colonel Sharp brought a record of 36-9-4-6 and $376,384 in earnings. Though Eubanks was approached by several people when word spread that Colonel Sharp was retiring, selling him was never a consideration.
“I knew there was no way I was letting this guy go,” he said. “Once I was able to start riding him, I was in awe of how well he moved and how powerful he was. It’s been almost four years since he came to the farm, and he lets you know that he is The Colonel. He’s managed to dump me a couple times and pretty much shredded my right shoulder. But I don’t mind; I just hang on a little tighter now and hope for the best as I ride ‘The Crazy Train.’ ”
Now 11, Colonel Sharp lives on the farm in Lothian, Md., with Eubanks’ second-highest earner, 8-year-old Ziggy Mon.
“Ziggy Mon is one of my favorites of all time. He has always had the coolest personality. Named Ambush to Zigzag when I purchased him at the 2019 January OBS Winter Mixed Sale, I immediately sent him to Red Oak Farm in Ocala. It was eight degrees back home and I couldn’t see myself sending him up to the bitter weather in Maryland.”
Eubanks returned to Ocala in March to check on Ziggy Mon, who had been gelded in the interim. While there he also attended a Reggae Rise Up concert, and the first performer on stage was Ziggy Marley.
“So Ziggy Mon was soon his official name. He was definitely well-named to go along with his personality as he acted like a stoner kid and still does. He would lie in his stall sound asleep until someone went in to wake him up, even on race days. I knew exactly what I had in Ziggy – he was pure speed and boy did he love to run. Always on the front end, and it was always a hold-your-breath moment coming down to the finish line.”
Like Colonel Sharp, Ziggy Mon produced – winning seven of 34 starts and earning $259,521. In the last race of 2021, he stumbled out of the gate and emerged with a small crack in a sesamoid. After proper rest and turnout, Eubanks noticed the gelding tearing around the field and “being his old self.”
“We started to ride him, not in an attempt to bring him back to the races, but to be a nice pleasure horse. After about 60 days of that he became a handful, and every time he was ridden alongside Colonel Sharp, it was like we were off to the races.”
He made a comeback in 2023 and placed twice, but wasn’t as quick as he was and retired back to the farm.
“Colonel Sharp is the boss no matter what,” Eubanks said. “But he and Ziggy Mon hold a mutual respect for each other and are enjoying their retirement.”
