Fear the Cowboy won the Grade 3 Harlan's Holiday Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park to put his name into consideration for the $16 million Pegasus World Cup. In the process, he didn't just earn the highest Beyer Speed Figure of his career, or the top number among this past weekend's stakes runners – he earned the top figure of sire Cowboy Cal's career.
The regally bred Principe Guilherme romped by 11 3/4 lengths in an allowance-optional claiming event Saturday at Fair Grounds, moving forward toward the New Orleans track's series of Kentucky Derby preps. The eye-opening performance served as an exclamation point as perennial leading sire Tapit closes the year strong with his juveniles.
The best horse produced in Lonhro's three seasons in Kentucky has been Grade 2 San Marcos winner Isotherm (out of Game for More, by More Than Ready), and he has a horse of similar class in Shakhimat, winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Tropical Turf Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
Live in Joy, a stakes-winner, has been retired from racing, and will stand at Broughton Farm in Odessa, Texas, for the 2018 breeding season for an advertised fee of $1,500.
The freshman sire race by earnings has been competitive in 2017, and just as apparent was the distribution of efforts by their runners who earned Beyer Speed Figures of 80 or higher.
Tapizar's put together a campaign that saw the sire finish atop his class of second-crop sires by Beyer Speed Figures earned over both the 90 and 100 thresholds.
Hall of Famer Curlin proved himself able to sire an elite dirt runner early on, getting a Belmont Stakes winner in his first crop. In 2017, he has taken that skill to the next level, leading all sires by progeny Beyer Speed Figures of 100 or more in dirt races with 13.
There are many ways to evaluate a stallion's performance, with those measures evolving as the breeding industry has over the decades.
Csaba, a Grade 3 winner and young stallion, will relocate for the 2018 breeding season to R Star Stallions in Anderson, Ind., where he will stand for an advertised fee of $2,000 with considerations for stakes mares and stakes producers.
Bedford Falls, a half-brother to prominent sire Harlan’s Holiday, will relocate for the 2018 breeding season to Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez, Calif., where he will stand for an advertised fee of $2,000.
