Just a stone’s throw from her favorite racetrack at trainer Wesley Ward’s Keeneland-adjacent property, champion Judy the Beauty is thriving in her second career as a broodmare. The Ghostzapper mare delivered her first foal, a filly from the first crop of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, on April 21.

Broodmares who exert as important and pervasive an influence on the breed as great sires generally occur no more than a few times per century. Almost always they must exert that influence through great sire sons, as Urban Sea has done through her sons, the incomparable Galileo and the outstanding Sea The Stars.

Memories of Silver, a Darby Dan homebred who was both a Grade 1 winner and producer for the historic operation, was euthanized Sept. 18 due to the infirmities of old age. The Silver Hawk mare was 24.

Bred by the Galbreath/Phillips Racing Partnership, Memories of Silver first raced in the name of Darby Dan steward John Phillips’s late father, James W. “Wally” Phillips, and later for John Phillips and his mother, Joan. The mare was trained throughout her career by Jimmy Toner, who continues with the operation’s homebreds today.

Ken Ramsey has made a successful stallion of his homebred champion Kitten’s Joy by marching to the beat of his own drum. Soon, he and his stallion might be playing for a different audience.

The Nicholasville, Ky.,-based owner and breeder said he needed to boost the commercial appeal of Kitten’s Joy, a 16-year-old who was North America’s leading sire by earnings in 2013 and currently sits second in this year’s standings behind Unbridled’s Song.

Cyrus Alexander, a Grade 3 winner and seven-figure yearling, is in the midst of his first Southern Hemisphere season at stud at Boris Schwartzman’s Haras Barlovento in Peru.

The deal to export Cyrus Alexander was brokered by bloodstock agent Marette Farrell, who reported on her website Wednesday that he already has mares confirmed in foal.

Ever since he first stepped onto the public stage at the 1996 Keeneland July sale of selected yearlings, Arch has been a star. Purchased that day for $710,000 by Seth Hancock of Claiborne Farm as agent for Claiborne and Adele Dilschneider, Arch validated that investment by winning 5 of 7 starts, all at 2 and 3, including the Grade 1 Super Derby. His stud career has been solid but not spectacular. 

ARCADIA, Calif. – Bolt d’Oro, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity earlier this month and one of the nation’s leading 2-year-olds, will stand at stud at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., at the conclusion of his racing career, owner and trainer Mick Ruis and farm owner B. Wayne Hughes said on Sunday.

Hughes was at Santa Anita on Sunday to watch Bolt d’Oro work five furlongs in 1:01.40 in advance of the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Saturday. The $300,000 FrontRunner Stakes is a key prep for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar on Nov. 4.

Proceed, a six-time stakes winner, will begin his stallion career at A & A Ranch in Anthony, N.M., during the 2018 breeding season for a fee to be announced later.

The 6-year-old son of Desert God retired with 8 wins in 11 starts for earnings of $468,329. He was a standout in his native New Mexico, taking the Mine That Bird Derby, Sunland Park Handicap, New Mexico Classic Cup Championship Colts and Geldings Stakes, Red Hedeman Mile Stakes, New Mexico State University Handicap, and Albert Dominguez Memorial Stakes.

The Jockey Club’s 2016 breeding statistics, released Thursday, revealed a slight decline in breeding activity among both stallions and broodmares during the 2016 breeding/2017 foaling season.

The report shows 1,863 stallions covered 36,045 mares in North America during the 2016 breeding season, resulting in 21,624 live foals reported in 2017. Compared with the 2015 season, active stallions fell 3.1 percent from 1,923, while mares dipped 2.5 percent from 36,964.

A good horse can come from anywhere.

That racing truism has been used for centuries to explain the emergence of a talented racehorse from unfashionable parents and sometimes unfathomable locations.