Great Notion On Record Pace While Getting First Millionaire
Jeff Runco's traveling West Virginia-bred Coastal Mission became the first millionaire for Northview Stallion Station's Great Notion with a stellar performance in $250,000 Grade 3 Forty Niner Stakes on Saturday, Oct. 26 at the Belmont at the Big A meet at Aqueduct.
Needing just shy of $50,000 to surpass the seven-mark figure, Coastal Mission put in a sustained rally in the one-mile race and pulled away to win by a length, earning $137,500 to push his lifetime total to $1,091,653.
It was the 14th win, six in stakes, from 25 career starts for the Runco-bred (under the Coleswood Farm banner), -trained and -owned 5-year-old gray gelding and his first in graded company.
This year, he has never finished worse than fourth in eight starts, all stakes, five graded, while racing at Aqueduct, Laurel, Pimlico, Monmouth, Charles Town and Parx. His other 2024 wins include the Frank Y. Whiteley at Laurel in April and the Parx Dirt Mile in his previous start in September.
Coastal Mission, a full-brother to 2019 Maryland-bred champion sprinter Lewisfield, out of the Crowd Pleaser mare Smart Crowd, is one of six black-type winners for 24-year-old Great Notion this year. Others include multiple graded winner Future Is Now and Maryland Million Classic winner Brilliant Ice. Among his 2024 stakes-placed runners are Grade 1-placed Twisted Ride.
Great Notion's progeny earnings through Oct. 28 were $5,365,387, outpacing his record-breaking 2023 season in which he became the first Maryland sire since Not For Love in 2009 to crack $5 million in a single year. His runners earned a total of $5,997,569 last year.
Great Notion has been named Maryland's Stallion of the Year eight straight years since 2016.
