Awesome Patriot, a Grade 3-placed stakes winner, will relocate to Mapleton Thoroughbred Farm in Polk, Ohio, for the 2018 breeding season and will be advertised at a fee of $2,500.

Service Stripe, a veteran stallion throughout America’s flyover country, was euthanized Wednesday due to the infirmities of old age. He was 26.

The son of Deputy Minister last resided at Caines Stallion Station in Wynnewood, Okla., where he arrived in 2011, and was pensioned in the middle of the 2016 breeding season. He was buried on the farm.

“He had fans all around the country,” said farm owner Ellen Caines. “I’ve gotten calls and letters from people, and it’s amazing the people who followed him and follow him to this day.”

Trojan Nation, a Grade 1-placed runner, has been retired from racing and will enter stud at Golden Creek Equine in Cheyenne, Wyo., for the 2018 breeding season at an advertised fee of $1,000.

The 4-year-old son of Street Cry will stand at a reduced fee of $750 for stakes-winning mares or producers of stakes winners. He is also available to non-Thoroughbred mares.

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The somewhat irrational American prejudice against turf horses as stallions makes it difficult for a turf specialist to really succeed as a stallion in the United States. Even Kitten’s Joy, one of the world’s best sires who led the American sire list in 2013, has enjoyed relatively little success as a sire of sales yearlings and has never had a $1 million yearling.

Hootenanny, a Grade 1 winner, has been retired from racing and will enter stud at Buck Pond Farm in Versailles, Ky., during the 2018 breeding season.

An advertised fee has yet to be determined for the 5-year-old son of Quality Road, who finished his on-track career with five wins in 16 career starts and earnings of $876,698.

The California stallion ranks are in a season of change. The state’s general sire list provides a snapshot of that shifting landscape, with recently deceased state stalwarts, prominent active stallions with California-sired progeny, and accomplished newcomers to the region all playing a role.

The career of Danzing Candy was a work in progress when he was sidelined with an injury last summer.

Danzing Candy won consecutive graded stakes at Lone Star Park and Santa Anita in May and July and would have been favored in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar in late August when a hairline fracture of a sesamoid was detected.

Danzing Candy was immediately retired. A few months later, Danzing Candy was bound for a stud career at Rancho San Miguel in San Miguel, Calif.

When California owner Terry Lovingier left Kentucky in mid-November, he was bound for home with a renewed breeding operation.

Lovingier had reached an agreement to stand Stay Thirsty at his Lovacres Farm in Warner Springs, Calif. To support the young stallion, Lovingier purchased 10 broodmares at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale alone.

“By the time I left to come back, I made the deal,” Lovingier said of the acquisition of Stay Thirsty.

Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer for The Stronach Group, was relocated from his regular post at Gulfstream Park to Santa Anita Park earlier this year with the aim of observing the California track’s functions, identifying flaws in the operation, and fixing them.

During various check-ins with the media over the summer, Ritvo said one of the most serious issues facing California’s racing industry, beyond just Santa Anita, was a low horse population, which led to small field sizes.

The ebbs and flows of racing seasons will see certain stallions fluctuate when it comes to the quality and quantity of top performers in a given year. One of the stallions seeing the biggest boosts in 2017 was Malibu Moon, whose foals achieved a Beyer Speed Figure of 90 or higher on 26 more occasions than in 2016.