The Lieutenant, a graded stakes-winning half-brother to unbeaten Triple Crown winner Justify, has been retired and will begin his stud career at Sequel Stallions in Hudson, N.Y.

The Lieutenant, by Street Sense and out of the Grade 3-placed Ghostzapper mare Stage Magic, will stand for an introductory fee of $6,500 at Sequel. Justify is, of course, set to begin his stud career at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky for $150,000, making the son of Scat Daddy the most expensive incoming stallion on the continent.

Like stallions, even the best broodmares tend to produce their best foals in their first five or six years at stud.

Natalma famously produced Northern Dancer as her first foal at age 4 after being bred late as a 3-year-old. Conversely, Somethingroyal was an old lady of 18 when she produced Secretariat as her 13th foal, but then she had already thrown top stakes winners Sir Gaylord, First Family, and Syrian Sea as her third, sixth, and ninth foals.

Multiple Grade 1 winner Ransom the Moon is the lone newcomer for the upcoming season at Calumet Farm, which has pared down its Kentucky roster, the farm revealed on Wednesday as it announced its stud fees for 2019.

Stakes winner Star of Goshen, the dam of classic sire Pioneerof the Nile, has died, owner Zayat Stables reported on Wednesday. The Lord At War mare was 24, and had produced her final foal in 2015.

Star of Goshen, bred by Lavin Bloodstock, was a $175,000 juvenile purchase and raced for Gary and Betty Biszantz’s Cobra Farm, winning 3 of 5 starts. Her career was highlighted by an 11-length victory in the 1997 La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs, in which Ajina, that year's eventual champion 3-year-old filly, finished fourth.

The chasm between dirt and turf horses that opened to Grand Canyon dimensions in the early 21^st century remains a conundrum for American commercial breeders. American buyers tend strongly toward pedigrees they view as dirt pedigrees, often balking even at outstanding yearlings by dirt sires out of turf mares, or vice versa. At the same time, though, commercial breeders are acutely aware that the biggest spenders remain the Coolmores, Godolphins, and Al Shaqabs, who all focus first and foremost on turf horses.

Cloud Computing, whose career since he won the 2017 Preakness Stakes was marked by fits and starts due to injury, has officially been retired and will enter stud in 2019 at Spendthrift Farm.

The 4-year-old son of Maclean's Music will be offered via Spendthrift's Share the Upside incentive program for a fee of $8,500, or will stand for an advertised fee of $7,500 on a standard stands-and-nurses contract.

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When Eclipse, by Orlando, was imported to the U.S. in the late 1850s by Richard Ten Broeck and Francis Morris, he arrived at a propitious moment for a horse of his specific proclivities. Although he had dead-heated for the win in the 10-furlong Newmarket Stakes with subsequent Epsom Derby winner Beadsman, he was primarily a speed horse, as evidenced by his victory in the Clearwell Stakes at Newmarket as a 2-year-old the previous year.

Champions Arrogate and Gun Runner traded blows throughout their racing careers. Arrogate, racing’s leading money winner, ran down Gun Runner for a dramatic victory in the 2017 Dubai World Cup. But that turned out to be the final win of his career, and by the end of the season Gun Runner had turned the tables, winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic to secure the Horse of the Year title.

Juvenile champion and Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist led a group of first-crop weanling sires that included several fellow Eclipse Award champions at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Nyquist, who stands for Darley, was represented by the most expensive youngster from the group – a $600,000 filly sold to Larry Best’s OXO Equine – and led his class by average, with three sold for an average of $335,000.

Two-time Horse of the Year and Taylor Made stallion California Chrome finished with an average of $109,500 from six sold.

The pattern many breeders follow in the contemporary big-book era of stallion management can be a major problem for all but the most elite prospects. It is generally easy to get plenty of quality mares to a first-year stallion who starts his career in the $20,000 to $40,000 range, but for his second through fourth crops, commercial breeders looking to cash in on the premium buyers pay for first-crop stallions move on to the next similar prospect, and then the next.