Retirement organizations are cited as evidence that racing does indeed have a heart, but the lack of a nationwide network of facilities remains one of the industry's fundamental woes.
Michael Blowen's idea to open a retirement farm for pensioned stallions and make the ex-racehorses a tourist attraction has been a big success.
Fasig-Tipton Texas has cataloged 170 yearlings to its Aug. 27 auction at Lone Star Park, which will have a 4 p.m. start time. The sale is expected to run to about 9 p.m., making it the first night auction that Fasig-Tipton Texas has had at Lone Star.
Peaks and Valleys, who as a 3-year-old was named Canada’s Horse of the Year in 1995, has died at Gardiner Farms in Canada at age 20.
Big Brown, the Three Chimneys stallion whose yearlings sold for an average of $82,712 at auction in 2011, will not shuttle to the Southern Hemisphere this year “due to a laceration to a hind leg” that became infected, Three Chimneys said.
Led by a 2-year-old filly maiden race winner who sold for $200,000, 26 horses of racing age sold for an average of $48,980 at Sunday’s first-ever paddock sale at Del Mar.
The gross and average prices of Sunday’s Paddock Sale at Del Mar will provide conventional barometers for the 44-horse sale. Another assessment of the Sunday evening event will be its long-term impact through the number of horses who remain active in Southern California, and whether the first-year event can attract new owners to the sport.
Ice Box, the winner of the 2010 Florida Derby who stood his first year at stud in 2012, will be moved from Calumet Farm in Lexington, Ky., to Three Chimneys in Midway, Ky., for the 2013 season, Three Chimneys announced on Thursday.
Sherriff’s Deputy, dam of 2007 and 2008 Horse of the Year Curlin, was euthanized at Fares Farm in central Kentucky because of complications of laminitis, the farm announced Thursday. Sherriff’s Deputy was 18.
He is no longer led, prancing, from his paddock to the breeding shed. Sales pavilions no longer echo with invigorating auctioneers’ sing-song as his yearlings sell for seven-digit figures. And Overbrook Farm, which he helped thrust into the international racing spotlight, dispersed its stock more than two years ago. Storm Cat – now 29 – is a living legend, residing far from the spotlight at his Overbrook home in Lexington, Ky.
