Excaper, winner of the 2014 Grade 2 Connaught Cup Stakes and runner-up in the 2011 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, has been retired to stand at Francisco Bravo’s River Oaks Farms in Sulphur, Okla., as the property of Mike Grossman in a deal brokered by Chad Schumer. The son of Exchange Rate will stand for a fee of $2,000.
War Emblem, the champion 3-year-old male of 2002 and pensioner at Old Friends Equine Thoroughbred retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky., was gelded to comply with national and state import regulations.
Timber Country, a United States champion and classic winner who went on to become a successful sire in Japan, has died. The son of Woodman was 24.
From a bloodstock standpoint, Mohaymen is one of the horses who ticks all the boxes on this year's Kentucky Derby trail. By a leading sire who also is a commercial juggernaut and out of a graded stakes winner who had already produced a Grade 1 winner, Mohaymen co-topped the 2014 Keeneland September yearling sale.
Coolmore’s Ashford Stud of Versailles, Ky., has purchased Waterford Farm in nearby Midway, Ky., for more than $10 million. Ashford Stud purchased the six tracts of land that make up Waterford in two separate transactions of more than $5 million each. In total, the 725-acre farm was purchased for $10,135,072.
The New York-bred Moanin, the only non-Japanese-bred runner in the February Stakes, set a track record in winning the Group 1 event at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday.
Cassatt is entered in the Jersey Lilly Stakes on Saturday at Sam Houston, marking the first attempt on turf for the graded stakes-winning earner of more than $700,000. On paper, the daughter of leading sire Tapit is well suited to the move.
On a stakes-loaded Saturday card at Fair Grounds with major events on both the main track and turf, there was one dominant sire, as Candy Ride sired a pair of stakes winners: Gun Runner, who took a step forward on the Kentucky Derby trail by winning the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes, and Chocolate Ride, who posted a repeat victory in the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap. Candy Ride, a Ride the Rails horse standing at Lane's End Farm in Versailles, just missed getting a third stakes winner on the card, as his Eagle finished second in the Grade 3 Mineshaft.
Congrats has become known as a solid filly sire and lived up to that billing again on Saturday. The A.P. Indy stallion, who stands at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., was represented by three stakes winners on the day – longshot Venus Valentine in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds, unbeaten Cash Back in the Melody of Colors at Gulfstream, and stalwart Haveyougoneaway in the Spring Fever at Oaklawn.
When Alert Bay earned $47,500 for a second-place finish in the $251,000 California Cup Turf Classic at Santa Anita on Jan. 30, he became the 62nd California-bred to surpass $1 million in career earnings.
