Multiple graded stakes winner Leinster, here winning the Grade 2 Troy in 2019 at Saratoga, will return to the Empire State to stand at Mountain View Farm in Gansevoort for the 2026 season. Coglianese Photo/Janet Garaguso.
Multiple graded stakes winner Leinster, off to a strong start at stud and ranked eighth on the most recent North American freshman sire list, will relocate to New York for the 2026 season and join another promising young stallion from the Empire State at the new Mountain View Farm in Gansevoort.
“We’re spreading our wings a little bit,” said David Cannizzo, who runs Mountain View Farm with his wife Carolyn. “We outgrew our other farm. Thanks to the partnerships we have with our clients we were able to purchase a farm and have some upgrades planned, including a training track, training barn, the whole nine. We’ve already started building onto the breeding shed.”
Leinster, who relocates to New York from Pleasant Acres Stallions in Ocala, will stand alongside Grade 1 winner Fire At Will at Mountain View Farm. The new stallion operation is an extension of the Cannizzo’s Willow Brook Stables, a full-service operation specializing in lay-ups, rehabilitation, breaking and training in Gansevoort.
“We needed more room,” Cannizzo said. “The new farm gives us the opportunity to bring stallions to New York, to try and improve the New York stallion game. We want to see the operation grow and see the New York breeding program gain even more strength.
Leinster, winner of the 2021 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint in his career finale, is already off to a strong start at stud. Coglianese Photo/Ryan Thompson.
“Hopefully we can upgrade the stallion quality, upgrade the mare quality and bring in some real-deal animals from other states to try and get the program even more improved than it already is. Our clients run so much in New York already, so why not have the stallions right here where we can make some money, get more foals to New York and improve the product here in the state.”
Leinster, a 10-year-old son of Majestic Warrior out of the Royal Academy mare Vassar, will stand for $7,500 LFSN. Fire At Will, a 7-year-old son of Declaration of War out of the Kitten’s Joy mare Flirt, will stand for $2,500 LFSN. Fire At Will, winner of the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland, stood the 2023 and 2024 seasons at Sequel Stallions New York in Hudson.
Leinster has already sired seven winners and the earners of nearly $700,000 in his first crop. That group is led by multiple stakes-winning filly Lennilu, the winner of four of six starts and $216,489.
Lennilu won her first two starts, including the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies Stakes at Gulfstream Park, to earn a spot in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot. She finished third in the Queen Mary, then returned to win back-to-back stakes at Gulfstream in September in the FTBOA Florida Sire Desert Vixen and Leinster Hollywood Beach. Lennilu finished seventh in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Leinster is also the sire of the multiple stakes-placed $129,991-earner Monster and the multiple stakes-placed $116,720-earner Squire.
Leinster went 6-6-5 in 24 starts and earned $764,971. He won the Grade 3 Troy Stakes in 2-19 at Saratoga and Grade 2 Shakertown Stakes and Grade 2 Woodford Stakes in 2020 at Keeneland before retiring after a victory in the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint in early 2021.
Fire At Will, a stakes winner on dirt and turf, relocates to Mountain View Farm for the 2026 season. Coglianese Photo.
Campaigned by Three Diamonds Farm, Fire At Will won three of six starts and earned $675,932. In addition to his Breeders’ Cup score, Fire At Will won the off-the-turf With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga Race Course and Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes on the turf at Belmont Park in 2020.
Trainer Mike Maker called Fire At Will “absolutely the fastest 2-year-old I have ever trained on the turf” when he retired for the 2023 season. Fire At Will is the first foal out of Flirt, who is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Decorated Invader (by Declaration of War), stakes winner Jubliant Girl and stakes-placed Cabral. Flirt is also from the family of top sire Stormy Atlantic.
Cannizzo said he’s actively pursuing deals to bring additional stallions to Mountain View and that “in a perfect world we’d have four or five and go from there.”
The post Leinster relocates to New York, joins Fire At Will to launch Mountain View Farm appeared first on New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. News.
