Two of Maryland's oldest and most prized Thoroughbred farms are located eight miles apart. Until two months ago, one was bursting at the seams, with no room for expansion, while the other sat nearly idle, its handsome old barns badly in need of paint, its training track overgrown with weeds.
All of that changed on Aug. 16, when Josh and Mike Pons, who operate family-owned Country Life Farm in Bel Air, completed the purchase of Merryland Farm in Hydes.
There will be a new rich kid on the stallion block when the Ontario breeding season gets underway next spring.
Multiple champion One Way Love, the richest offspring of former Canadian stallion Regal Classic, will began stud duty at John Carey's T.C. Westmeath Stud in Caledon.
John Hillier, who owned the horse in partnership with Bruno Schickedanz, has bought out Schickedanz's fifty percent share and will be making his first venture into the stallion business.
Schickedanz has retained some breeding rights to the stallion.
More than 100 registered New York-breds were among the 541 sold at Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic three-day Eastern fall yearling sale in Timonium, Md. on Oct. 1-3.
The 101 New York-bred yearlings sold brought $1,263,600, while another 35 registered New York-breds were not sold when they failed to meet their reserve prices. The top-selling yearling went for $180,000.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Highlighted by a $2,436,000 Danehill colt bought by John Magnier and Michael Tabor, Ireland's prestigious Goffs Orby yearling sale concluded Wednesday with declines in gross revenue and average price. But those dips, coming in comparison to a record-breaking 2000 auction, were deceptive, and this year's two-day sale signaled that, at least for now, there's still a strong market for boutique yearlings.
The result sheet reveals that gross revenue for 372 yearlings sold in 2001 slid 10 percent to $35.9 million, while average price fell 15 percent to $97,000.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Thoroughbred breeders would get emergency loans to cover losses caused by mare reproductive loss syndrome under a provision of a farm bill passed by the House of Representatives Oct. 5.
Approved by a 291-201 vote, the bill goes to the Senate, which likely will considered it by year's end.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Bertrando is having a career-best season at stud this year, attracting the attention of stud farm owners in Kentucky and Japan.
While the 12-year-old Bertrando remains at River Edge Farm in Buellton, Calif., farm owner Marty Wygod, who holds a majority interest in Bertrando, says he has received inquiries about the stallion's status.
One factor in Bertrando's future is what his colt Officer accomplishes in October. Officer was to start as a heavy favorite in Saturday's Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, a prep to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Oct. 27.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Essence of Dubai's victory in the Grade 2 Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meet last weekend was the first stakes success for a progeny of freshman sire Pulpit.
A son of A.P. Indy, Pulpit was bred and raced by Claiborne, and he stands at the Hancock family's Claiborne Farm near Paris, Ky. The handsome bay was one of the most popular sires in this freshman crop and was also the leading first-crop sire of yearlings by average last year.
Most people give the Internal Revenue Service a wide berth, but John Michelotti, a small New York breeder and farm owner, has had pleasant dealings with the agency.
After reading about an IRS auction nearby Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Michelotti went there and bought three of the four mares offered at the sale for approximately $25,000. Two of those mares, Senorita Constanza and M. J. Bean, have been his best producers. The other, Seasons Comerant, won a couple of races for Michelotti before retirement and was bred to A.P Jet, which resulted in her first foal, a colt born last year.
The inaugural Shawan Downs steeplechase meet, located several miles north of Baltimore, demonstrated what citizens can accomplish when they support a cause. On Sept. 29, the beneficiaries were more than 10,000 steeplechase patrons who enjoyed the beauty of nature on a crisp, fall day, highlighted by a seven-race card of excellent hurdle and timber racing.