One of my most favorite places in Panama, Haras Cerro Punta is a large thoroughbred stud farm. The  lush, green pasture  is dotted with pregnant mares, grazing. They now have a new addition.

Grade 1 winner Strapping Groom will begin his stallion career at Haras Cerro Punta in Cerro Punta, Panama, during the 2016 breeding season after being purchased for $75,000 at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.

The bid was secured over the phone by Tom Thornbury, Keeneland’s associate director of sales, near the end of Friday’s closing session.

Strapping Groom, a 9-year-old son of Johannesburg, won 10 of 29 career starts over six seasons of racing for earnings of $931,713. His marquee victories came in the 2013 running of the Grade 1 Forego Stakes and the Grade 3 Tom Fool Handicap the following year, with additional victories in the non-graded Lion Cavern Stakes, Gravesend Handicap, and Kid Russell Stakes. He also placed in four stakes races, including the Grade 1 Vosburgh Invitational Stakes.

Bred in Kentucky by Kinsman Farm, Strapping Groom campaigned as a homebred with trainer John Servis and later Carl Domino through his first four years on the racetrack. He was claimed at age 6 for $35,000 by Drawing Away Stable and trainer David Jacobson, with whom the horse earned most of his accolades.

Strapping Groom is out of the stakes-placed Silver Deputy mare Something Silver, who is the dam of three winners from four foals to race. His extended family includes Grade 3 winner Miss Ra He Ra and Panamanian Horse of the Year El Authentico.

Taylor Made Sales Agency consigned Strapping Groom at the Keeneland January sale as agent.