The international Godolphin operation's U.S. arm announced Monday that its president and racing manager Jimmy Bell will retire from his day-to-day involvement at the farm by the end of the year and that the farm's Michael Banahan will take on an expanded role as a result.
Joseph and Helen Barbazon's Pleasant Acres Stallions of Morriston, Fla., stood 12 stallions in 2021 and is continuing to add to its roster for 2022. The farm will introduce multiple graded stakes winner Leinster and Bellavia, and the roster also will be joined by Never No More, who is moving down from Winding Creek Farm in Maryland.
The influence of the late Sunday Silence, who spent his entire stud career in Japan, was in evidence Saturday at Keeneland in the pedigrees of Brazilian-bred Grade 1 winner In Love and British-born Grade 1 winner Blowout.
The late champion and leading sire Giant's Causeway had just three foals in his final crop. Two were in action on Saturday's card at Keeneland, and the stallion has at least one additional stakes horse to burnish his legacy.
The seemingly ageless sire More Than Ready swept the turf graded stakes races for juveniles at Belmont over the weekend, as his daughter Bubble Rock won the Grade 3 Matron Stakes on Saturday and Slipstream won the Grade 3 Futurity on Sunday.
Ken McPeek bought Curlin as a yearling, and the colt went on to become a Hall of Famer and top sire. Breeders' Futurity winner Rattle N Roll is a grandson of Curlin, and McPeek says he sees mental and physical qualities in Rattle N Roll that remind him of his Hall of Fame grandsire.
The Jockey Club has released its breeding statistics and resulting foaling statistics for the 2020 season, reporting that 1,447 stallions covered 29,699 mares in North America, leading to a continued contraction of the foal crop.
Multiple Grade 1 winner Lord Nelson, who fought through laminitis to have a stud career, has succumbed to the dreaded hoof disease. Spendthrift Farm announced Thursday that the 9-year-old son of Pulpit has been euthanized.
In the midst of an outstanding season – he ranks sixth on the general sires list through Sunday – Munnings recorded his second Grade 1-winning son on Saturday when Jack Christopher won the Champagne Stakes at Belmont. Jack Christopher could prove to be an important horse for Munnings's legacy.
With a bevy of stakes races for juveniles around the country over the weekend, three prominent sires each recorded a milestone victory.
