Salute the Sarge got off to a fast start last year when his Kentucky-sired first crop produced 13 winners and a $490,733 progeny bankroll, enough to put him on top of Louisiana’s freshman sire ranks.
Songandaprayer relocated from Kentucky’s Walmac Farm to Louisiana’s Copper Crowne this year and arrived as the state’s leading general sire with 2012 progeny earnings of $6,180,000, and as their leading juvenile sire with earnings of $1,197,868. He also led North American sires by winners with 179, and he led in Louisiana by stakes winners with 11, and by stakes wins with 17.
There has been a distinct power shift in the Southwest breeding market since the advent of gaming at tracks in the region. Louisiana has risen to the forefront with slot machines helping the state build an incentive program that paid out more than $25 million in 2012.
Every year, thousands of fans descend upon central Kentucky to admire their favorite Kentucky Derby winners as they enjoy their post-racetrack lives on the farm. As it turns out, quite a few visit Roswell, N.M., to do the exact same thing. As travelers enter the southeast New Mexico town, they are greeted by a sign welcoming them to the home of 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, who resides at co-owner Mark Allen’s Double Eagle Ranch.
Nearly one month following abdominal surgery for foaling complications, 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra continues a steady recovery at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., despite a bump in her progress last week.
Kazzia, a standard-bearer for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Darley operation on the racetrack and as a broodmare, died Sunday from post-foaling complications at age 14.
New York stallion Bank Heist was represented by his first foal, a dark bay or brown filly, on Feb. 28 at J Jeps Farm in Anville, Pa.
Last Saturday brought two more qualifying stakes events in the Kentucky Derby Championship Series as the Triple Crown prep season continued to unfold. The Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby and Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes each awarded 50 valuable points to the respective winners, vaulting them to a tie at the top of the Road to Kentucky Derby points standings after former points leader Ive Struck a Nerve was declared out of the Derby earlier in the week.
It was dead winter in Kentucky, that February afternoon I chose to visit one of the great sires of the modern era. I had planned to pay homage to Storm Cat, to acknowledge his impending 30th birthday, to gaze upon a living masterpiece of equine art before it was too late. But how badly did I want that?
While All Too Hard’s name and qualifications to be considered the world’s best 3-year-old in training might be unfamiliar to Americans, the name of his much more famous half-sister will not be. All Too Hard is a younger half-brother of the highest-rated racehorse in training anywhere in the world, the undefeated Black Caviar, who won her 23rd consecutive race just a week before All Too Hard captured the Group 1 Futurity Stakes at Caulfield on Feb. 23.
