A hatching of Eastern tent caterpillars, which have been associated with Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS), was reported March 23 in Scott County, Kentucky, north of the heart of the Thoroughbred breeding industry in Lexington.
Smart Strike, a Grade 1 winner and two-time leading North American sire, was euthanized Wednesday due to complications from laminitis. He was 23. The son of Mr. Prospector was a cornerstone of the Lane’s End stallion roster, in the midst of his 18th season at the Versailles, Ky. farm. His stud fee was $100,000 in 2015. Smart Strike was known as one of North America’s most versatile stallions, siring elite runners on all surfaces and in several countries. He was North America’s leading sire in 2007 and 2008, coinciding with the two Horse of the Year campaigns of his greatest son, Curlin.
Multiple Group 1 winner Toronado will shuttle to Swettenham Stud in Victoria, Australia, for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season.
Just days after the death of legendary trainer Allen Jerkens, Classic Point scored an emotional victory in taking the Grade 2 Inside Information Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Allen Jerkens had trained Classic Point for owner-breeder Joseph Shields Jr. until summer 2014, when she was turned over to Jerkens’s son and fellow trainer, Jimmy Jerkens.
A good horse can come from anywhere, and have any kind of pedigree. But good horses occur far more rarely from unfashionable pedigrees than from those replete with the heavy black type of graded stakes winners. That is why the California Chromes of our small, insular world make such wonderful, populist stories. It also is why we must celebrate the Grade 1 success of horses such as Warren’s Veneda, winner of the Santa Margarita Handicap on March 14 at Santa Anita.
Diabolical’s career at stud thus far has been all about starting fast. Diabolical, a 12-year-old son of Artax, was New Mexico’s leading active sire by progeny earnings in 2014, propelled by a fleet of stakes-level 2-year-olds that made him the only North American sire standing west of the Mississippi River last year to finish in the top 50 by juvenile earnings.
Songandaprayer arrived in Louisiana as the state’s leading general sire, and not much has changed since. The 17-year-old son of Unbridled’s Song ranks as the Bayou State’s top stallion for the third year in a row.
Richard Hessee’s purchase of Brahms to stand at stud in Arkansas a few seasons ago could not have come at a better time. Sunbean was on the cusp of developing into one of the stallion’s leading earners, just starting to build a name for himself in his native Louisiana. At the same juncture, Hessee brought Brahms to his Trophy Club Training Center in Royal, Ark.
Not For Love, a cornerstone stallion of the Maryland breeding program for close to two decades, has been pensioned from stud duty due to a reproductive hematoma.
Multiple Grade 3 winner Wiseman's Ferry, best known as the sire of two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan, died March 17 at Dana Point Farm in Lenhartsville, Pa. A cause of death has yet to be determined for the 16-year-old Hennessy stallion.
