Teardrop, a three quarter-sister to Grade 1 winner Pyro, broke slowly from the outside post but still proved much the best in her career debut Thursday at Churchill Downs, drawing off in the stretch for a 3 3/4-length victory.
In Excess, a four-time Grade 1 winner who went on to become a dominant California sire, died last week at the age of 26, Vessels Stallion Farm announced Thursday. He had been a pensioner at the Bonsall, Calif., farm since 2011.
Australia’s 2010 champion sprinter Starspangledbanner, who returned to training after having fertility trouble at stud in 2011, is set to try a breeding career again.
English-based stallion Archipenko was represented by his first winner on Thursday when Lady Penko won a 1,200-meter (about six furlong) turf race in Florence, Italy.
The Retired Racehorse Training Project (RRTP) has selected 26 participants for the RRTP Thoroughbred Makeover training challenge, which runs from now through October.
The history of the evolution of Thoroughbred pedigrees is essentially a history of changing patterns of inbreeding. In the late 18th century, the English racehorse transformed from an animal designed to gallop four miles at a relatively slow pace to one required to run at a much faster pace over much shorter distances through inbreeding to early foundation sires Godolphin Arabian, Darley Arabian, Herod, and Eclipse.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum’s Darley has hired Gerry Duffy, previously WinStar Farm’s stallion seasons director, to be general manager of Darley’s Kildangan Stud in Ireland.
Preakness Stakes winner Oxbow returned Racing Hall of Famers D. Wayne Lukas and Gary Stevens and historic Calumet Farm to the national stage with his 1 3/4-length score May 18.
Trainers Bruce Levine and Jena Antonucci will be among the industry speakers participating in The New York Racing Association, Inc.’s next “New Owners Luncheon” on Sunday, June 2 at Belmont Park.
The Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s Ontario Division will honor the outstanding Ontario-bred winners of 2012 at its 31st annual awards dinner Friday, June 14 at Copper Creek Golf Club in Kleinberg, Ontario.
