LEXINGTON, Ky. - The stud fee for Overbrook Farm's leading sire Storm Cat will rise from $400,000 to $500,000 for the 2002 breeding season, making his the highest fee in North America for next year.
Storm Cat, an 18-year-old son of Storm Bird, is the sire of more than 85 stakes winners worldwide and has current progeny earnings of more than $64 million. This year alone, his runners have earned more than $3.9 million.
This is the fourth increase in his fee since 1999, when he stood for $200,000.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Ashford Stud, Coolmore Stud's Kentucky division, dominates The Jockey Club's report of breeding activity in 2000 with its stallions filling the list's top five spots.
Tale of the Cat headed the list with 176 mares bred, producing 124 live foals reported as of Aug. 31, 2001. Following that sire were four more Ashford stallions: Hennessy, with 166 mares bred, Stravinsky, 164, Southern Halo, 153, and Grand Slam, 149.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The principal topic of comment around the Bluegrass the past week has been Point Given. First came the unfortunate news that the big chestnut son of Thunder Gulch had injured a tendon and been retired. But not far behind has been the considerable comment and speculation about where Point Given would go to stud.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Four months after mare reproductive loss syndrome devastated some breeding operations with early and late fetal losses in an estimated 2,400 mares, Kentucky's commercial Thoroughbred breeders are waiting for scientific answers and preparing for the disease's economic impact in the auction ring.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A larger catalog and a sagging market led to an 18 percent decrease in the average price at this year's Canadian Breeders Sales select yearling auction at the Woodbine Sales Pavilion on Tuesday.
The 182 yearlings sold grossed $6,458,000, averaging $35,484. At the 2000 sale, 173 head fetched $7,527,900, for an average of $43,514. The number of yearlings not sold was 74, compared with 60 last year.
LAS VEGAS - Before the advent of the Breeders' Cup, the Woodward Stakes was a race that often crowned the Horse of the Year. Although it is now one of many Grade 1 preps for the Breeders' Cup Classic, it is still a prestigious race, and its storied history has produced many electrifying moments of the sport, especially during the decade of the 1960's.
Kelso, the legendary gelding who was Horse of the Year for an unprecedented five years (1960-1964), won the Woodward three consecutive years (1961-1963), and his most memorable loss came in the 1964 Woodward.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A total of 269 Canadian-bred yearlings are set to go on the auction block beginning at 1 p.m. Tuesday in the Canadian Breeders Sales select sale at the Woodbine Sales Pavilion.
The sale has the potential be quite strong, because of Woodbine's lucrative purse structure and the overall quality of the catalog.
Trainer Bob Tiller, who purchased unbeaten stakes winner Rare Friends for $27,000 from last year's sale, said he wouldn't be surprised to see a strong yearling market this year.
It's September and that means school's back, football and hockey seasons are around the corner, and, for Ontario's Thoroughbred industry, it's time to buy and sell yearlings.
"I call it harvest time," said Michael C. Byrne, owner of Park Stud and operator of Canadian Breeders' Sales, which holds its annual select yearling sale on Tuesday, beginning at 1 p.m. "It's the one day we have to sell the crop."
The select sale has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years with increases in average price of 11 percent in 1999 and 26 percent last year.
August was a memorable month for Pete Siegel, a New York-based owner and breeder.
Siegel sold New York-bred Fearless Legacy, the sale topper at Fasig-Tipton's preferred yearling sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and also watched a mare he owns, Love Shy, earn black type in a Fort Erie stakes by finishing third. Siegel plans to add Love Shy to his small broodmare band upon her retirement.