Kingmambo returns to stud duty

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Kingmambo, ranked among the top 20 sires in North America last year, has resumed his place in the Lane's End breeding shed. Kingmambo, the 15-year-old Mr. Prospector horse who stands at Lane's End for $300,000, had a series of physical ailments that prompted the farm to pull him from duty.

Kingmambo initially was withdrawn from the lineup in February because of a cut behind one of his knees. In early March, X-rays and a bone scan showed that he also had arthritis near the base of his neck, and Lane's End revealed that the stallion might also have a case of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, an infection that can cause muscle atrophy and incoordination. He remained off covering duty for a month.

The stallion returned to breeding on April 16, when the farm successfully test-bred him to a mare, Lane's End owner Will Farish said. The farm has been breeding him to one mare a day.

"He covered mares for four days running, and each day we saw improvement," Farish said. "Everybody's very happy."

Farish said the farm would continue to limit Kingmambo's breeding activity to one mare a day for "an undetermined amount of time," until the stallion is ready to cover more. He added that Kingmambo is "improving steadily."

Farish said that EPM is no longer a concern. "We think he had a bout of EPM," he said. "We treated him for it, and he's over it. It was never confirmed totally, but there were plenty of signs."

EPM tests can be invasive, involving a spinal tap, and so farms often treat for the disease without confirming a positive case of it.

"He had a number of different things, none of which we could put our finger on at the time," Farish said. "The veterinary team did a wonderful job of working through the whole thing. We're going to be cautious with him. We're not going to push him back into covering two mares a day or anything. I think he'll end up covering a respectable number of mares."

Bartok changes residences

California stallion Bartok, sire of multiple stakes winner Bartok's Blithe, has relocated from Warren's Thoroughbreds in Hemet, Calif., to Rancho San Miguel near Paso Robles, Calif. His fee remains private.

A 14-year-old Fairy King stallion, Bartok also is the sire of Euro Empire, a stakes winner who placed in the Grade 1 Oak Leaf and Del Mar Debutante stakes. He also has gotten the stakes-placed runners Bar Breeze, Bewitching Bartok, Blowing Bartok, and Bar Bon.

Bartok is a stakes-winning son of the Shirley Heights mare Euromill.

* Chimes Band, sixth-leading sire in New Mexico this year, died in January from complications of surgery to treat wobbler syndrome. The Dixieland Band-Chimes horse, a Grade 2 winner, was 14.

* Lexington's professional baseball team, the Lexington Legends, will host a Horse Industry Appreciation Day at Applebee's stadium on April 30. The event, co-sponsored by Drexel Heritage Furniture, has the support of the Kentucky Equine Education Project and major farms in the area, which will provide displays and prizes. Airdrie Farm will give away a one-year, 10 percent share in the 2-year-old filly Devine Afternoon.

* A group of women in the Thoroughbred business has raised $150,000 on behalf of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at the University of Kentucky, which will use the funds for advanced ultrasound and research for early detection of ovarian cancer. The group includes Thoroughbred breeders Helen Alexander, Staci Hancock, Benny Bell Williams, and others. More information is available at their site, www.ladiesforlife.com.