Air Force Blue retired, will stand in Kentucky
European champion Air Force Blue has been retired from racing and will begin his stallion career at Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., for a fee to be announced later.
DRF Breeding StaffSep 28, 2016
European champion Air Force Blue has been retired from racing and will begin his stallion career at Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., for a fee to be announced later.
Multiple Grade 3 winner Gottcha Gold has been sold to stand at Peaceful Valley Farms in Didsbury, Alberta, for the 2017 breeding season for an advertised fee of $2,500 Canadian.
The natural order of the Thoroughbred marketplace dictates that leading sires become leading commercial sires. Buyers at yearling sales, first and foremost, are looking for top racehorses, and sires at or near the top of the General Sire List have proven their ability to produce those horses. The biggest buyers, however, also are looking for top racehorses with what are loosely deemed “stallion pedigrees,” and current fashion can influence those purchases almost as much as pure racetrack results.
Louisiana-bred legend Star Guitar was represented by his first winner on Saturday night when Senor Guitar swept five wide to win a maiden claiming race at Churchill Downs as the longest price on the board.
Texas Bling, who pulled a 128-1 upset at Remington Park in 2012 when he won the $300,000 Springboard Mile over eventual champion Will Take Charge, has been retired, said trainer Danele Durham. The horse will enter stud next year at Brazos Reproduction Center in Weatherford, Texas.
The Jockey Club has released statistics for the 2015 breeding season and 2016 foaling year, showing nearly even statistics as compared to last year at this time.
Last year's champion turf male Big Blue Kitten, winless this year, has been retired and will take up stud duties in 2017 at Brad Kelley's Calumet Farm.
Expectations can be deadly – especially when combined with a high price tag. When Fusaichi Pegasus went to stud in 2001, his $100,000 initial stud fee made it imperative that he sire a string of high-class horses right from the get-go. That did not happen, and when his progeny developed a reputation for having inherited their sire’s combustible temperament, buyers and breeders quickly soured on the 2000 Kentucky Derby winner.
Grade 1 winner Bobby’s Kitten will become the first son of Kitten’s Joy to stand in Europe, as it was recently announced that the 5-year-old horse has been retired to Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, England, for the 2017 season.
Even as Pennsylvania racing makes headlines with the national-level stars being drawn there, the home team is struggling, as a bill signed this year to put racing under a new commission has affected statebred incentives being paid out to Pennsylvania Thoroughbred breeders. And thus, perhaps the most important event on the state's Thoroughbred calendar this month will occur when the state's government reconvenes.