Jake Delhomme, the retired NFL quarterback whose family races as Set-Hut Stables, was elected president of the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association during a meeting Saturday at Louisiana Downs. Delhomme was nominated by outgoing president Dexter Gary.
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Discreet Dancer, a Grade 2-winning son of Discreet Cat, has been retired due to a tendon injury. Stud plans have not been announced. The 4-year-old colt had been enjoying a solid campaign in 2013, winning the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap and finishing third in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap.
The racing headlines over the past weekend were dominated by a Saturday afternoon of excellence for Ken and Sarah Ramsey, the excitement of which has rarely been matched by the sport’s elite owner-breeders save for Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup events. In the span of a little more than one hour, the Ramseys took down the Grade 1 Secretariat, the Grade 1 Sword Dancer, and the Grade 1 Arlington Million (the last via disqualification) with a trio of come-from-behind turfers by their flagship stallion Kitten’s Joy: Admiral Kitten, Big Blue Kitten, and Real Solution.
Hasili, a Juddmonte homebred, has been a jewel in Khalid Abdullah's outstanding broodmare band. The 22-year-old daughter of Kahyasi produced six graded or group stakes winners for the operation, several of whom continue to play a significant role in its racing and breeding successes. That was strongly in evidence last weekend, as Romantica, out of Hasili's champion daughter Banks Hill, captured the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet on Sunday at Deauville. One day earlier, Dank and Dandino, both sired by Hasili's son Dansili, captured stakes on Arlington Park's prominent program.
Grade 2 winner Soldat has been retired from racing and will stand the 2014 breeding season at John Sykes’ Woodford Thoroughbreds near Ocala, Fla.
Although he is a son of Ramsey Farm flagship stallion Kitten’s Joy, Real Solution lacks the ‘Kitten’ moniker attached to many of the top runners carrying the operation’s red and white silks.
Dashing Blade, a three-time Group 1 winner and leading sire in Germany, was euthanized at age 26 due to neurological problems, Racing Post reports.
Catching up with Wando, the most recent winner of the Canadian Triple Crown.
In a long and extraordinarily consistent stud career, Green Desert sired 99 stakes winners to date (with eight 2-year-olds still in the pipeline) from 1,238 foals (8 percent), including 12 Group 1 winners, but none of them was an obvious successor at stud. Nevertheless, Green Desert has developed into one of the best sires of sires of the era, with his sons Oasis Dream, Cape Cross, Invincible Spirit, Desert Sun, and Volksraad all established as top sires somewhere in the world.
