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.
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.
