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Two of the best horses in the handicap division returned last Saturday in familiar venues and echoed past glories with explosive performances, setting up a contentious second half of the year on both coasts that should result in an exciting Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park.
Freshman sire Giant Gizmo achieved the rare feat of having his first winner come in a stakes race when Spin the King prevailed in a dramatic stretch run in the Clarendon Stakes on July 7 at Woodbine.
Grade 1 winner Eddington will stand the 2014 breeding season at Ballena Vista Farm in Ramona, Calif., for a fee to be announced at a later date. The 12-year-old son of Unbridled had spent his entire stallion career to date at Claiborne Farm, retiring to the Paris, Ky., operation for the 2006 breeding season.
Few horses in modern history, both on the racetrack and in the breeding shed, have faced higher expectations than Dancethruthedawn. The Sam-Son Farms homebred was well regarded from birth as the first filly out of 1991 Canadian Triple Crown winner and prolific broodmare Dance Smartly, who was among the most decorated runners to emerge from the operation’s foundation family.
Although she won 10 stakes races and earned a championship, Wilderness Song never quite gained the fame she deserved, racing for much of her career in the shadow of her stablemate, 1991 Canadian Triple Crown winner Dance Smartly. Wilderness Song was again relegated to the background when joining Dance Smartly in the broodmare band at their birthplace, Sam-Son Farms in Milton, Ontario, as Dance Smartly produced two classic winners.
The success the young stallion Square Eddie has with his first crop of runners this year has a homemade feel.
The victory of Trading Leather, by Teofilo, in the Group 1 Irish Derby on June 29 expanded the burgeoning reputation of Teofilo’s sire, Galileo, as a sire of sires. But the victory of Ambivalent, by Authorized, in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes at The Curragh the following day may herald similar implications for Galileo’s chief rival, Montjeu, as the world’s best sire for the last decade.
Woodford County Animal Control and Kentucky Department of Agriculture officials have opened an animal neglect investigation at a portion of Hopewell Farm that brothers Duane and Wayne Murty have leased.
Americans John Moores and Charles Noell have purchased all of the bloodstock held by Ireland’s Kilfrush Stud, including dual Group 1 winner Immortal Verse, with a view toward breeding to race and sell, according to a report Wednesday in Racing Post.
The result of last week’s Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park brought satisfaction to astute handicappers who selected 8-1 shot Centralinteligence and watched the 5-year-old gelding pull away to a 3 1/2-length victory. It did not take long, however, for a secondary wave of enthusiasm to rise following Centralinteligence’s first stakes win, as remarks disseminated throughout social media celebrating the first Grade 1 winner for 2004 champion and dual classic winner Smarty Jones.
