There’s the old joke about a mother who had two sons. One ran away to sea and the other was elected vice president. And neither was heard from again.
Well, if that same woman had once owned a stallion prospect who went to stud in Japan, she’d probably never hear of him again, either.
While Kentucky sires cover more mares annually than all other state programs combined, regional breeders rely on in-state sires for their mares and to also take advantage of state breeding incentive programs. A total of 228 stallions stood in Kentucky during the 2018 breeding season – and 986 stood in North America outside Kentucky during the season.
In 2019, there are 61 new stallions reported to be standing in North America, and two-thirds of those will be outside of Kentucky. Here’s a look at some of the new stallions by state.
California
Oscar Performance tossed his head and stepped sideways on the end of the lead shank, turning a white-rimmed eye toward the horizon, beyond the rolling hills surrounding Mill Ridge Farm. Oscar Performance’s familiar former stall in trainer Brian Lynch’s barn is less than five miles away at Keeneland – where Hal Price Headley, the father of Mill Ridge’s Alice Chandler, served as the first president.
A common criticism of the centuries-old Thoroughbred industry is that the wheels of change and innovation turn at a snail’s pace. But in the case of the Pegasus World Cup in late January, the race has so quickly been embraced that even the all-important bloodstock market has adjusted its traditional practices to accommodate the opportunity the lucrative race provides.
In early February 2015, American Pharoah returned to the work tab in California for the first time since being scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile due to injury, with no guarantee that he would maintain his form off the layoff. The young broodmare Stage Magic wandered the fields at Glennwood Farm in Kentucky, carrying a Scat Daddy colt whom she would deliver the following month. The Triple Crown trophy had still been gathering dust since Affirmed outdueled Alydar in the 1978 Belmont Stakes.
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.
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 21st 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.
