Bloodlines Presented By Walmac Farm: When The World Went Mad For War Front originally appeared on Paulick Report.

In breeding racehorses, there are certain statistical barriers that are almost impossible to reach without possessing and passing on the genetics and physique of absolute excellence, and one of those barriers is siring more than two dozen G1 winners.

The active stallions who’ve sired the most Grade 1 or Group 1 winners is a short list of the elite Kentucky sires: Tapit (by Pulpit), Curlin (Smart Strike), Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado), Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday), and War Front (Danzig).

In Saturday’s Grade 1 Arlington Million at Colonial Downs, War Front added another with Fort Washington. The 6-year-old Fort Washington won his first stakes at three, and he comes from a distinguished family maintained by Daniel Wildenstein, who bred the second through fifth dams. The fifth dam is Wildenstein’s great racemare Allez France (Sea-Bird), whose many top-level victories include the 1974 Arc de Triomphe.

Haras de Beauvoir acquired the Million winner’s second dam, Azalee (Peintre Celebre), from a Wildenstein dispersal and bred the G3-placed Azaelia (Turtle Bowl), who was acquired privately in training by Joseph Allen and Peter Brant. Azelia didn’t do much for her new owners on the racecourse, but Fort Washington is her first foal.

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Bred in Kentucky by Joseph Allen and White Birch Stable, Fort Washington raced for the breeders into his 4-year-old season, then went through the ring at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton horses of racing age sale in July for $260,000. When he next won a stakes, the G3 Monmouth Stakes in 2024, he was racing solely for Magic Cap Stables.

Since then, Fort Washington has competed only in stakes and fared well, but his form in 2025 is a further revelation, winning four of his last five starts, including three stakes. His successes include a pair of Grade 3 races (the Dinner Party at Pimlico and the Canadian Turf at Gulfstream) prior to the Million. The horse now has five stakes victories, eight placings, and earnings of $1.3 million.

And while Fort Washington was the first foal of his dam, the good-looking dark bay is from the 11th crop by his illustrious sire. Similar to his son’s lengthy racing career, War Front raced only once at two, had a long layoff at three, and returned with a nice streak of three victories, culminating in the Princelet Stakes at Belmont Park. The following season, War Front raced seven times, winning once, the G2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap, and finishing second five times, including in the G1 Vosburgh and G1 Forego.

Syndicated into 40 shares upon retirement to stud at Claiborne Farm, War Front covered his first book of mares in 2007. By the end of 2011, his $12,500 first-season stud fee had risen to $60,000. Two years later, the fee was $150,000 and eventually rose to $250,000.

Phrasing it that way, makes it sound easy. Getting to the top was no sure thing for this handsome son of Danzig.

In the beginning, War Front was very much a horse who was below the radar. At the end of a really solid four-year-old season, he had bombed his final start, the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, after racing very wide, and finished seventh of 14 in an eventful race.

Like most stallions, he had plenty of support for his first season at stud. Done. But the second year, it was tougher, and the third year was like carrying the horse uphill.

There were, however, some people who really believed in War Front. Chief among these was Seth Hancock. After he had seen the foals that had been born on the farm, Hancock backed the stallion with some really nice mares, along with breeder Joe Allen. The horse was getting unexpectedly good babies out of mares that hadn’t gotten good foals; the difference was impressive.

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Then at the beginning of the horse’s third year, John Ferguson bought a good 2-year-old in training from the first crop by War Front at the Fasig-Tipton February sale at Calder, paying $375,000. At that point, there had been maybe a dozen seasons sold, but about 50 more sailed off the shelf between that in-training sale and the end of May.

The only thing left was for the stock by War Front to prove what knowledgeable breeders believed. They did it in no uncertain terms, and the early stakes winners included colts like The Factor (Rebel Stakes) and Soldat (Fountain of Youth), who both won Kentucky Derby preps in 2011.

The market went strong for War Front and for his sons and daughters at the sales. Then in mid-June of 2013 at Royal Ascot, the stallion’s second-crop son Declaration of War won the G1 Queen Anne Stakes, and his fourth-crop son War Command won the G2 Coventry Stakes on the same card. Both were owned by breeder Allen in partnership with the Coolmore triumvirate of Magnier – Tabor – Smith.

And the world went mad for War Front.

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Phenotypically, War Front is a slightly larger version of his famous sire Danzig, who was not a great deal taller than his sire Northern Dancer. The great one from Windfields was famously not a tall horse, broad as a bear, but standing officially around 15.1. That’s tiny by the standards of stallion men who look for towering beasts that sire imposing yearlings.

There is a reason for that prejudice, because, day in and day out, a good biggish horse usually beats a good small horse, but don’t tell Northern Dancer that. For energy, athleticism, and the ability to accelerate in a few strides, the Northern Dancer tribe were monsters.

They proved it worldwide, and of the many good sons of Northern Dancer, the two who have bred on the best in the male line are Sadler’s Wells and Danzig. And the best Danzig stallion in Kentucky is War Front. He has lived a long life, achieved great success in breeding, and is poised to send the Danzig branch of Northern Dancer into the future.

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Aug 13, 2025, where it first appeared.