Elusive Quality, a world-record-setting miler and North America’s leading sire of 2004, has been euthanized due to the infirmities of old age, Darley said on Wednesday. He was 25.

Vics, a horse owned and raced in the U.S. by the Korean Racing Authority, has been exported to begin his stallion career in South Korea, making a bit of history in the process.

Solomini

Curlin – Surf Song, by Storm Cat

Bred in Kentucky by veterinarian Glenna R. Salyer ($270,000 purchase by Zayat Stables at 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale)

Proven young classic sire Curlin doesn’t just have Eclipse Award champion Good Magic eyeing the Kentucky Derby from his most successful crop of juveniles. His arsenal also includes the consistent Solomini, who is bolstered by a long-winded female family.

Eclipse Award champion World Approval added more hardware to his collection, including the award for Florida-bred Horse of the Year, as the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association recognized its Florida-bred champions for 2017 at its annual awards banquet and gala Monday night in Ocala. 

Virginia’s racing and breeding programs sit on opposite ends of the spectrum.

On one side, the Virginia-bred banner has flown proudly over champion Stellar Wind, who became an Eclipse Award winner on the track and topped last year’s Keeneland November breeding stock sale with a $6 million price tag. On the other, the state has been without a significant live meet since Colonial Downs closed its doors in 2014.

Brereton and Libby Jones’s Airdrie Stud has never been in the market for the $10 million stallion coming off the racetrack. Airdrie has focused instead on horses just below that top tier, horses of proven top-class ability with perhaps a bit of a hole in their race records or pedigrees that meant they had to prove their worth to breeders before they could attract the best mares at high-dollar stud fees.

Noted breeder and farm owner Ben Walden, whose involvement in the Thoroughbred industry has shifted recently, has taken a key role with Adena Springs, also undergoing changes.

Walden will serve as director of marketing and bloodstock consultant for Frank Stronach’s nationwide operation. Stronach announced last October that he will sell Adena’s flagship farm in Kentucky and will expand his programs in California and Maryland to bolster the industry in those states, where he owns racetracks.

Shaman Ghost, a Grade 1 winner and Canadian champion, has been relocated to Lovacres Ranch in Warner Springs, Calif., for the remainder of the 2018 breeding season and will stand for an advertised fee of $7,500.

The 6-year-old son of Ghostzapper was retired in December and initially stood at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez, Calif., for a fee of $10,000. In late February, the horse’s owner and breeder, Adena Springs, reduced his fee to $7,500, retroactive to any contracts signed before the price change.

Bolt d’Oro
Medaglia d’Oro–Globe Trot, by A.P. Indy
Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm ($630,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling purchase by Ruis Racing)

Multiple Grade 1 winner Bolt d’Oro helped power a career year for sire Medaglia d’Oro and this spring will look to give his sire another career accomplishment, as the elite stallion is still hunting his first Kentucky Derby win.

This year’s class of second-crop sires has had three runners earn Beyer Speed Figures of 90 or more in 2018, and residents of Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., have sired two of them.