Four years after thrilling fans at the last Breeders' Cup at Del Mar with a decisive victory in the Classic, Gun Runner has a filly from his first crop, Echo Zulu, poised to repeat his season-ending heroics as the favorite in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
The international Shadwell Stables operation experienced a monumental loss this year as its founder, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum, died in March. But even as the powerhouse stable navigates that loss and evaluates its operations, it has continued to show the strength of Sheikh Hamdan's program.
World-renowned sire Galileo, whose death in July sent shockwaves through the racing world, will look to posthumously extend his lead as the Breeders' Cup's all-time leading sire by money won. Meanwhile, the action this week at Del Mar could also shift the leaderboard of the event's leading living sires.
Regally bred multiple graded-stakes winner Tacitus will stand at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky., in 2022, with partners including his breeder, Juddmonte Farms, the operations announced Monday.
The Metropolitan Handicap has long been considered a stallion-making race, showcasing the brilliance so valued in the American marketplace and the ability to carry that speed beyond a true sprint distance. Now the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, inaugurated in 2007, also has begun to develop the looks of a stallion-making event.
The popular sprinter Firenze Fire, a graded stakes winner in five consecutive years and a 13-time stakes winner overall, will stand stud at Arrow Stud in Japan next year, his current owner Ron Lombardi said Tuesday.
Maryland celebrated its state breeding program and stallions on Saturday, with Jim McKay Maryland Million Day at Laurel Park. But Maryland's brightest star of the year was not in attendance. Maryland-bred Knicks Go was breezing at Churchill Downs on Saturday in preparation for a cross-country trip to Del Mar and the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Goldencents was the busiest stallion in North America in 2021, as sons of Into Mischief took the top three spots on the leaderboard, according to the annual Report of Mares Bred, released by The Jockey Club on Monday morning.
Champion Essential Quality will be retired following the Breeders' Cup and will join the Kentucky stallion ranks for Sheikh Mohammed’s international Godolphin racing and Darley stallions operation, along with Maxfield, the farm announced Monday.
Classic sire Distorted Humor, a flagship stallion for WinStar Farm, has been pensioned from stallion duty and will live out his retirement at his longtime home.
