Rare Opportunity went through the ring at the 1994 Keeneland January sale of horses of all ages as an afterthought. Bred by Henryk de Kwiatowski’s Kennelot Stables during his time as owner of Calumet Farm, the unraced 2-year-old filly quietly hammered for $5,500 to the late breeder Bob Anderson and headed to Anderson Farm in St. Thomas, Ontario.
The two most important attributes that elevate a stallion from the ranks of the merely successful to superstar status are the ability to consistently sire legitimate classic prospects and juvenile graded stakes winners. Although two-time Horse of the Year Curlin sired a classic winner in his first crop in 2013 Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice, he did not sire a juvenile graded winner until the 2015 Saratoga meeting when Exaggerator won the Grade 2 Saratoga Special and Off the Tracks captured the Grade 3 Schuylerville.
With this season's 2-year-old racing about to begin in earnest, two of the highest-priced offerings of the season, both by freshman sires, are working steadily in California toward their racing careers.
There's a little bit of everything in San Felipe winner Danzing Candy's pedigree – turf and dirt, sprinters and stayers. The colt, by promising young sire Twirling Candy, has emerged as one of the West Coast's leading Kentucky Derby candidates entering this weekend's Santa Anita Derby.
Well Dressed, the dam of 2009 Dubai World Cup winner Well Armed, was euthanized Monday at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky., due to complications from foaling. She was 19.
Tranquility Lake, a multiple Grade 1 winner and multiple Grade 1-producing broodmare, has died at age 21, her owners announced Tuesday.
Effinex, who finished second to American Pharoah in the Breeders' Cup Classic and went on to win the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, has been named named New York's Horse of the Year.
There is no relation between racing's “Jones boys,” former Kentucky governor Brereton C. Jones and trainer Larry Jones. On paper, anyway.
Nyquist’s impressive victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby all but assures that the unbeaten champion 2-year-old male of 2015 will start as the favorite for the Kentucky Derby. Nyquist’s Florida Derby victory, however, will not remove the doubts many pedigree pundits have raised about whether or not there is sufficient stamina in his pedigree for him to stay the 10-furlong Kentucky Derby trip.
A massive bonus offered by Fasig-Tipton to its sale graduates paid off major dividends in its first year – both for Gulfstream Park and the horse in question.
