One of the leading 3-year-old fillies in North America – Sweet Reason, the winner of the Grade 1 Acorn and Grade 1 Test in New York in her last two starts – was bred in partnership by Beth Harris and her husband, Brent, whose extended family owns 1,000 acres of rich farmland known as Westwind Farm in Bowling Green, Ky.
The victory of Cristina’s Journey in the Grade 2 Pocahontas Stakes on Sept. 6 serves as a reminder of Any Given Saturday’s prowess as a racehorse and makes one wonder if he might have done better at another stallion station, where he would not have been seen as the third or fourth choice among the horses on offer.
Brian Lyle has joined the stallion sales team at B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., the farm announced Thursday. A 17-year veteran of the Thoroughbred industry, Lyle previously worked for seven years as the boarding and stallion seasons manager at Ro Parra’s Millennium Farms.
Grade 3 winner Brethren, a half-brother to classic winner and current leading freshman sire Super Saver, will stand the 2015 breeding season at Joe and Helen Barbazon’s Pleasant Acres Farm in Willston, Fla.
Multiple Grade 1 winner and young sire Smiling Tiger will relocate to Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif., for the 2015 breeding season.
Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs has hired Eoin Ryan to succeed Eric Hamelback as the operation’s general manager.
Bob Gulick, former director of sales at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co., died on Aug. 30 in Ocala, Fla. He was 92.
The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.) program announced recipients of its two non-competition awards for 2014 on Monday. The T.I.P. Thoroughbred of the Year Award was given to Nightwatch, and the T.I.P. Young Rider of the Year Award was split among five riders.
When the 2010 Kentucky Derby winner, Super Saver, retired to his birthplace, WinStar Farm, in 2011, he ticked all but one of the boxes commercial breeders want in a prospective stallion. He was precocious enough to win the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes as a 2-year-old. He trained on at 3 to win the Kentucky Derby in impressive fashion. He hails from the best female family in the American Stud Book. He is a correct, exceptionally handsome individual, beautifully balanced, and an outstanding mover.
Ken and Sarah Ramsey, whose Ramsey Farm stallion Kitten’s Joy led the general sire rankings in 2013, were named both National Owners of the Year and National Breeders of the Year Friday evening at the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s annual awards dinner in Lexington, Ky.
