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.
Knicks Go, a leading candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, will stand at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky., upon the conclusion of his racing career, the farm announced Monday.
California Angel has wildly exceeded her modest expectations. Trainer George Leonard III found an angel in the rough when he advised owner Chris Walsh to acquire the filly at the OBS June sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age. They spent just $5,500 for the filly, small change at major-market Thoroughbred sales – especially against the $213,700 the filly has earned to date, with victories in both her starts on turf from three career outings.
Thunderous Affair and Forthegreatergood were selected as the overall champions at the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover, held Oct. 12-17 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky.
Claiborne Farm has acquired the rights to Silver State, whose biggest win came in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, considered a stallion-making race.
