Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky. has announced the stud fees for its 2015 stallion roster, with no immediate changes from the previous breeding season. Popular commercial sire War Front once again leads the roster, standing for an advertised fee of $150,000.
Olly Tait, Darley’s chief operating officer, will leave the organization in November, concluding a 15-year tenure.
Soviet Star, a French classic winner and prominent sire, died Tuesday at Ballylinch Stud in Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, Racing Post reports.
Silver Deputy, a stakes winner and leading sire, was euthanized Saturday due to the infirmities of old age at Brookdale Farm in Versailles, Ky., where he lived as a pensioner. He was 29.
Treve, who won her second consecutive edition of the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday, has been retired from racing and will join the broodmare band of owner Sheikh Joaan al-Thani in 2015.
Claiborne Farm’s Trappe Shot, represented by his first yearlings this year, quickly established himself as a name coveted by buyers at the Keeneland September yearling sale. By the end of the auction, the son of Tapit was North America’s leading first-crop sire by average sale price, with 64 yearlings sold in 2014 for an average of $120,500 through Sept. 23.
No horse has been more heavily promoted after first-crop success in recent years than Bernardini. And if reality has not yet quite lived up to the hype, Bernardini repeatedly has proven that he is capable of siring high-class runners and producing exceptionally handsome sales horses who bring very good prices.
Multiple Grade 1 winner Alpha has been retired from racing and will make his stallion debut in 2015 at Becky Thomas’ Sequel Stallions in Hudson, N.Y., for an advertised fee of $8,500.
Two major prep races for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies will be contested on Saturday at Belmont Park. The Grade 1 Champagne and Frizette Stakes – each contested at a one-turn mile - have compact, but competitive fields. With a forecast that calls for a 90 percent chance of rain in the area on Saturday, handicappers will need to pay particular consideration to the variables of added distance and off-track aptitude when examining the contenders’ past performances and pedigrees.
Stakes winner Hashtag Bourbon is likely to be among the favorites in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity on a star-studded Saturday afternoon at Keeneland – and with good reason. The colt’s pedigree lends itself nicely to the task of success at 1 1/16 miles.
