GUTHRIE, OK—OCTOBER 20, 2017—Lazy E Ranch announced today that the 2018 breeding fee on Champion and leading sire Hez Our Secret is $3,500.

The youngest Champion son of all-time leading sire First Down Dash, Hez Our Secret is 2017’s No. 1 Freshman Sire of Money Earners.

Hez Our Secret arrived at Lazy E in mid-September after Reliance Ranches, the McKinney family venture whose holdings include Lazy E Ranch, purchased one-half interest in the horse from Johnny and Jana Trotter of Hereford, Texas.

Earnings of the first crop runners sired by Hez Our Secret are more than double the earnings of all other freshman sires of 2017 through October 20.

Hez Our Secret’s All American Futurity G1 finalist Mr Secret Glory $155,200 and multiple stakes placed winner Hez Our Prize are the nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 money earners of 2017 that are sired by a freshman sire. His earnings are more than double the next stallion on that list.

"This year’s two-year-olds began impressively winning early at Remington and then went to Ruidoso and kept running at very high levels," Wise continued. "Their solid performance all year is one of the reasons that the Hez Our Secret yearlings at Ruidoso this year averaged $35,000 - nearly 10 times his breeding fee. Buyers pay for performance. Additionally, when you are sire enough to get an All-American Futurity G1 finalist in your first crop, it certainly sends the signal that you are sire with which to be reckoned going forward. "

A solid Grade I runner at Ruidoso and Los Alamitos, Hez Our Secret broke his maiden by more than two lengths while qualifying for the $700,000 Rainbow Futurity G1, but he missed the Rainbow final due to a bout of colic. After winning his trial for the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity G1 by nearly a length, he then ran a troubled fifth in the final.

In his championship season of 2012, Hez Our Secret was the nation’s No. 1 money earning three-year-old colt with earnings of $630,252. When Hez Our Secret retired after his four-year-old racing season, the $887,426 earning stakes winner had won or placed in six stakes (4 Grade I at Los Alamitos and Ruidoso).

He is one of only a handful of stallions that made the finals of a $2 million race at both Los Alamitos and at Ruidoso. A two-time finalist in the Champion of Champions G1, stakes winner Hez Our Secret ran in 10 Grade I finals . . . all at 400 and 440 yards.

Hez Our Secret’s dam (Secret Separation, by Separatist) is a graded stakes placed winner and a multiple stakes producing half-sister to All American Futurity G1 winner No Secrets Here. The second dam of Hez Our Secret is the 3-time Graded Stakes Winner Dicey Secret.

"The stakes horses from his initial crop are from daughters of Pyc Paint Your Wagon, Corona Cartel, Mr Eye Opener and Mr Jess Perry," said Wise. "It is the very early days in his siring career, but these are exciting emerging nicks that offer a lot to breeders and we feel he is a tremendous addition to our stallion roster," said Wise.