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Hall of Fame - Feature Attraction
Original article written by Steph Lonhro posted 13 years 1 week agoFeature: ‘n. A special attraction at an entertainment
Attraction: n. power to attract; charm or fascination’
To quote Jon Xett, Feature Attraction was "born to be a star." Xett bred the great mare Kismet to Ara Davies' champion Conduit with the idea of breeding the best to the best. What resulted was a black colt with a blaze that would in the end live up to his name.
Feature Attraction started his two year old year in week five of year fifteen with a six furlong Maiden win, in which he won quite easily by seven lengths. In his second start he traveled to Toronto to race in the one mile ‘Summer Stakes’ in which he put in quite the performance with an eleven length win. Jon Xett used the ‘Summer Stakes’ as a prep to get Feature Attraction ready for the two-year-old Turf Triple Crown run at LaFayette Downs.
The first leg of the turf triple was the six and a half furlong Favorite Trick Stakes, where he beat Poseidon and Y are U Here. Feature Attraction also took home the second leg of the turf triple, the one mile ‘Commitisize Stakes’. He only had one more race to win to join Punishment, The Scarlet Nite, and A Crown Awaits as Two-year-old Turf Triple Crown winners. He accomplished that feat by taking home the one and one sixteenth mile ‘Magellan Stakes’ over Twilight, Inner Harbor, and Afraid of the Dark.
Feature Attraction returned to the track in an allowance in week four, in which he again made it look easy winning by eleven lengths once again. For his next race, Jon Xett would take his young colt off of the grass and give him a try at dirt. In week 10 he would give it ago in the ‘Queen’s Derby’, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. It was a good effort, but unfortunately came up short, losing by a head to another son of Conduit, Fog City. He returned to the turf and to his winning ways in the third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the ‘Canadian Breeders Stakes.’
He closed out the year with what Jon Xett called his best race, the year sixteen Steward’s Cup Turf going a mile and a half. In the race you had future Arc winner Three of a Kind, future Steward’s Cup winner Palpitations, and stakes winners Chicago and T M Laughin’ O. But he still showed that he was the best on the turf with a convincing thirteen and three quarter length win, even with all the champions in the field.
Jon would take his now four-year-old colt overseas to Dubai the next season to race in one of the big week six races, the ‘Desert Sheema Classic’. He would open the year with a prep in the Jebel Hatta, before once again taking on Palpitations in the Sheema, in which he won by what could possibly be his smallest margin of victory, 5 lengths.
After the Sheema he was shipped back to the United States, where he was once again entered for a race on the dirt, in the Grade Two San Diego Handicap. This would be the only race where he would not finish in the top three during his race career. Two weeks later he closed out his career with an impressive seventeen length win in the ‘RMC Veterans Memorial Stakes’.
As a stallion Feature Attraction has had just as impressive a record as he had on the track. He has an amazing winning percentage of 87.9 percent. He has sired more then two hundred and forty winners, and is the sire of 10 millionaires and ninety total stakes winners. Some of his champion offspring are Legend, winner of the St. Leger, Chicago Million, among others, Live Your Dreams, winner of the “Beverly D’ and daughter of the great mare Dreamit To Be Real, Dante, Champion Vase winner, Divine Comedy, and many more.
When asked what Feature Attraction’s legacy will be Jon Xett replied, "His legacy has to be that he was such a nice sire for so many SIM players. His sire statistics are truly amazing." It can be said that Feature Attraction was the main attraction, on the track and in the shed. His legacy will be remembered and will live on for seasons to come.