At a glance
- Colt, Ontario-bred, foaled April 15, 2022
- By Frac Daddy out of Sarasota Sunrise
- Trainer: Kevin Attard
- Foundation development at Margaux Farm (KY)
- Acquired at the 2023 FASIG-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale
Behind the name
A juggernaut is defined as a relentless, unstoppable force that overpowers whatever is in its path. Certainly baseball’s version, BC-born slugger Larry Walker was a five-time MLB All-Star who won three Silver Slugger awards for hitting and seven Gold Glove awards for defense while setting an all-time record for home runs by a Canadian. He holds the MLB Canadian record for most hits and won three batting titles – also a record by a Canadian.
Walker made his debut with the Montreal Expos in 1989. In 1993 (the season after he won Player of the Year honours), the Expos reached a rare watermark with 94 wins in which Walker hit 22 home runs and 86 RBIs while earning his second Gold Glove Award and setting then-career highs each of 80 walks, 20 intentional walks, and 29 stolen bases. The next season with the second-lowest payroll in the big leagues, the Expos produced the most successful season in franchise history and Walker was indeed an unstoppable force as the slugger eclipsed his previous career highs.
In 1997, Larry Walker had the best season ever recorded by a Canadian in Major League Baseball. He also became the only player in major league history to register both a .700 slugging percentage (SLG) and 30 stolen bases in the same season on his way to winning the National League MVP Award.
In 1988, Walker won Canada’s Lionel Conacher Award, the prestigious Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian athlete of the year, and the ESPY Award for Best Major League Baseball Player.
“Walker was the most talented player I’ve ever had,” said Don Baylor, the Colorado Rockies’ manager from 1993 to 1998. “All you had to do was write his name in the lineup and he’d take care of the rest.” Walker won his second and third Player of the Year awards with the Rockies in ‘97 and ‘99.
In 1999, Sports Illustrated named Larry Walker the 13th greatest sporting figure from Canada and the #9 Greatest Male Athlete of the 20th Century. The same year, he was Baseball Digest’s Player of the Year. A nine-time winner of Tip O’Neill Award as Canada’s best baseball player, he was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame (Class of 2009), and the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2020, he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Post-retirement, Walker was the first-base coach and hitting coach for Team Canada when it won the gold medals against the United States at the Pan Am Games in both 2011 and 2015.
Walker’s .5652 career slugging percentage currently ranks #16 all-time, ahead of such players as Ken Griffey Jr., Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Hank Aaron. He and Joey Votto remain the only Canadian-born players ever to hit more than 300 home runs in their careers.
About the sire
Kentucky-bred Frac Daddy was a multiple graded stakes winner who earned $701,236 in 20 starts (5-7-0) between 2012 and 2015. He won or placed in graded stakes on all three surfaces: dirt, turf and synthetic. As a 2YO, he won the Churchill Maiden Special by 9 3 ⁄4 lengths in his second start. As a 3YO, he was a contender in the Kentucky Derby and came second in the $1M G1 Arkansas Derby. In his 4YO campaign, Frac Daddy won both the Ben Ali (G3) at Keeneland and Woodbine’s Eclipse Stakes (G2) by widening margins.
At the time we acquired Sluggernaut, Frac Daddy had sired five crops of racing age, 137 foals, 62 starters, and 38 winners of 76 races with progeny earnings of more than $2.8 million. Frac Daddy became the only stallion standing in Canada with a G1 winner in 2023 and he led Canadian 2YOs sires in winners and money won. Frac Daddy’s first-ever stakes winner (black type) was ON-bred Owlette who won the Shady Wells Stakes and Victorian Queen Stakes back-to-back in 2019.
The sire’s sire Scat Daddy was a KY-bred millionaire with a record of 5-1-1 in nine starts. He has sired 95 stakes winners including Mendelssohn,a $3 million record yearling and winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
About the dam
Sarasota Sunrise’s sire Thunder Gulch was a Kentucky-bred Kentucky Derby winner who retired with more than $2.9 million in winnings and a record of 9-2-2 in 16 starts.
