Lent, a half-brother to Breeders' Cup Classic winner Fort Larned, set the stage for a big night for his connections, defeating a field of well-bred runners in a maiden special weight event Saturday night at Churchill Downs, just hours before his famed older relative romped in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap.
Bayou circuit legend and all-time Louisiana-bred earnings leader Star Guitar was named Louisiana Horse of the Year for the fourth consecutive year last week. The Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association held its annual meeting on June 8 at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, where it also honored several other prominent Louisiana-bred horses and state breeders.
Heavenly Prize, a multiple Grade 1 winner and champion for Ogden Phipps who went on to become a successful broodmare, died earlier this year. The daughter of Seeking the Gold, who was boarded at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., was 22.
California sire Caros Love, a multiple stakes winner who set the U.S. record for the fastest two-turn dirt mile, was euthanized May 31 at Rancho San Roberto Farm in Bakersfield, Calif., due to complications from the infirmities of old age. He was 29 years old.
Champion Zenyatta has been confirmed in foal to young Claiborne Farm sire War Front, for what would be her third foal. The 9-year-old Street Cry mare was scanned at 37 days in foal Friday.
A popular expression used to describe an appealing horse in the bloodstock market is to say that he or she “ticked all the boxes.” For breeder William S. Farish III, Palace Malice’s triumph in the Belmont Stakes did just that.
Indian Evening, a Grade 2-placed stakes winner, will begin his stallion career in 2014 at Ellen Jackson’s Victory Rose Thoroughbreds in Vacaville, Calif., standing for an advertised fee of $3,000.
W. Cothran “Cot” Campbell, president of the trailblazing Dogwood Stable partnership, always felt there were bright things in the future for Palace Malice, a well-regarded colt who, through a run of bad luck, entered the Belmont Stakes without a graded stakes victory to his name.
There was a time in American Thoroughbred breeding when soundness and stamina were cherished right alongside speed and class in a prospective stallion. If a horse had aged well on the racetrack, so much the better. If he could stay 1 1/2 miles, better still. Curlin was that kind of horse – filled with every wonderful quality that old-time horsemen like John E. Madden or “Bull” Hancock would have loved. For them, patience was a supreme virtue. If a young stallion didn’t throw out a boatload of speedball juveniles in his first crop, so what? Give ’em time.
Who was the fastest racehorse who ever lived? Well, the answer to that question depends on many factors, not least one’s definition of “fastest.” Is it the horse who reaches the highest top speed in a race? Is it the horse who records the fastest time over normal racing distances, which is a measure of average speed over those distances? If so, which distance?
