Grade 1 winner Harmonize has been retired and will be bred to More Than Ready for her first season as a broodmare.
Owner Larkin Armstrong announced the retirement of the Scat Daddy mare, whom he purchased for $80,000 as a Keeneland September yearling, on his Twitter account. He said that Harmonize, who he referred to as a "dream horse," would reside at Brookdale Farm in Kentucky.
Long Island Sound, who earned a Group 3 victory Ireland, will retire to Pleasant Acres Stallions in Morriston, Fla., for the 2018 breeding season, where he will stand for an advertised fee of $5,000.
The 5-year-old War Front horse won four of 10 starts for earnings of $213,315, headlined by a win in the Group 3 Paddy Power Diamond Stakes in Ireland. He also finished second in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes and third in the Group 3 Tercentenary Stakes in England.
Sassicaia, a Grade 3 winner and seven-figure auction graduate, has been retired from racing and will make his stallion debut at Elite Thoroughbreds in Folsom, La., for the 2018 breeding season.
The 7-year-old son of Bernardini will stand for $2,000.
Both the positives and negatives of the big book era of the Thoroughbred breeding industry can be read in the details of the stud career of 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper. With the victory of his daughter Ghostly Presence in the Tropical Park Oaks on Saturday, Ghostzapper stands ninth on the 2017 general sire list, the fourth year in a row he will rank among the nation’s top 20 sires.
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.
