Cherokee Rap, who was Illinois's leading freshman sire and juvenile sire in 2010, died in 2012 at the young age of 11, dealing a major loss to William Stiritz's Wildwood Farms. But the Bellevue operation has carried on.
There are good years for stallion operations, and then there are the “three of the state's top four sires” kind of good years. Swifty Farms in Seymour, Ind., had the latter.
It's not uncommon for a Kentucky stallion to become a regional program's leading sire by earnings the moment he steps off the trailer to take up residence in that state. Stroll found himself in that scenario early last year when he arrived at the Iowa State University Horse Farm in Ames, Iowa.
Cowtown Cat moved to Ohio from Florida in time for the 2015 breeding season – meaning his first Buckeye State offspring are juveniles of 2018. Their arrival on the track this year will give Mapleton Thoroughbred Farm much to look forward to, as the stallion keys a strong three-horse roster for the farm.
Since 2000, nine stallions have gotten off the mark with a winner in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, or Belmont Stakes in their first crop, and two of them did it in 2017.
The late John Nerud's many successes continue to have a ripple effect in the Thoroughbred industry. The handicap division of 2017 was a tale of two horses – or, in some ways, the tale of one stallion with Nerud's fingerprints on him.
Raised a Secret, a Grade 3-placed stakes winner, will begin his stallion career at Oakhurst Equine Veterinary Services in Newburg, Ore., during the 2018 breeding season for an advertised fee of $1,000.
Grade 2 winner Iliad will begin his stallion career at Battle River Stud in Camrose, Alberta, Canada, for the 2018 breeding season, standing for an advertised of $3,500 Canadian.
Multiple Grade 1 winner and Eclipse Award finalist Lady Eli has officially been retired from racing and will be sold in foal later this year, her connections announced Tuesday.
The headline for a recent stallion advertisement exerted perhaps a very different effect on my brain than the advertiser planned. “The stallion who made the best-ever start at stud” immediately made me think of Uncle Mo instead of the stallion advertised.
