Few things help build the résumé of a freshman sire like an impressive maiden winner at Saratoga Race Course. When that maiden winner just misses setting a track record in her first start, it’s that much better.
Freedom Child, runaway winner of the Grade 2 Peter Pan at Belmont Park in May, emerged from the Jim Dandy with a high suspensory ligament tear in a hind leg and has been retired to Country Life Farm in Maryland.
The Jockey Club projects another year of declines for the 2014 North American foal crop, with an expected 22,000 foals based on reports of mares bred, down 4 percent from the 2013 estimate.
She’s All In, who is on the brink of $1 million in career earnings after finishing second to Royal Delta in last month’s Grade 1 Delaware Handicap, was among the Oklahoma-bred runners honored at a Friday night gala jointly put on by the Thoroughbred Racing Association of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Racing Commission. The event recognized individuals and horses that led their divisions in Oklahoma-bred earnings in 2012.
A federal magistrate has ordered animal rights groups that won a temporary ban on horse slaughter in the U.S. to post a $500,000 bond to potentially cover revenue lost by the plants during the trial, the Associated Press reports.
St. Nicholas Abbey, the Coolmore Grade/Group 1 winner now recovering from two recent surgeries, appears to be making good progress nearly two weeks after colic and pastern-fusion procedures in Ireland, according to Coolmore.
New York-based sire Cosmonaut earned his first win at stud on August 8 when Marvin’s Miracle held on gamely to win a maiden special weight at Saratoga Race Course by three-quarters of a length.
Freshman sire Colonel John was represented by his first graded stakes winner on Wednesday when Concave prevailed by a half-length to win the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar.
Grade 2 winner Run Away and Hide entered stud at Darby Dan Farm in 2009 as a young horse with an abbreviated racing career who showed talent but would face long odds in the competitive Kentucky bloodstock market. The son of City Zip retired after only three starts – all wins – during his 2-year-old season in 2008, but his prospects as a stallion were iffy at best. Still, he had demonstrated enough ability on the racetrack to project potential for his offspring.
Proceeds from the auction benefit CANTER’s program to care for, evaluate, and retrain donated former racehorses as they prepare for new careers off the racetrack.
