Racing in Michigan continued last year – albeit on the smallest of scales – at Mount Pleasant Meadows with a 28-day meet. Accordingly, the number of mares bred to stallions in the state dropped by half in 2011.
For the first time in nine years, Mercer Mill did not lead Ohio's stallion rankings. That honor went to Tropical Storm, who transferred to the state before the start of last year’s breeding season, with his progeny winning $206,307.
Following the deaths of Ghazi and Supremo, several stallions, such as Joey Franco, were transferred to Minnesota to bolster the local stallion ranks.
The Iowa stallion ranks should feel the impact of a local favorite in the next few seasons as 17-time winner Native Ruler enters stud in 2012.
Indiana's breeding numbers have been on the upswing for the last several years, since the introduction of casino gaming at the state’s two Thoroughbred racetracks in 2008.
Euroears could have retired to stud in Kentucky, the Thoroughbred breeding capital of the world. But with his owners in the stallion business, too, he will launch his breeding career in Oklahoma at their JEH Stallion Station in Wynnewood.
Carrol Castille acquired one of the most promising studs to enter Louisiana in several years in Closing Argument, but there's more to this story than just the horse.
Even higher purses at Illinois racetracks aren’t going to change the recent trajectory of the Illinois breeding landscape. And that trajectory has been downward.
The Arkansas breeding industry picked up two significant sources of speed for 2012 in J Be K and The Daddy. The stallions are standing at Trophy Club Training Center in Royal, the former Kilkerry Farm which was owned by the late Bob Holthus.
Four years after the bloodstock market crash, breeders and stallion managers in Kentucky are finding value in sharper, more efficient business practices.
