While summertime in Saratoga is a busy stretch for New York’s equine population, Grade 1 winner The Cliff’s Edge is taking it easy nearby as a pensioner.
The 16-year-old son of Gulch spends his days in his spacious indoor/outdoor paddock near the stallion barn at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where his biggest concerns during a recent visit appeared to be finding the right spot in his field to get dusty, and then the right patch of grass for a snack.
Mendelssohn, who led the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale at $3 million, won his maiden Sunday at The Curragh in Ireland for the Coolmore team and trainer Aidan O’Brien.
It was the second outing for the son of the late Scat Daddy. Mendelssohn was eighth on debut going seven furlongs last month. He stretched out to a mile for his breakout performance. The colt is out of Broodmare of the Year Leslie’s Lady, making him a half-brother to four-time Eclipse Award champion Beholder and Grade 1 winner and prominent sire Into Mischief.
Longtime horseman Ben Walden has announced that he will disperse his Thoroughbred holdings, more than 50 horses, at this fall’s Keeneland September and Keeneland November sales.
Walden, the brother of WinStar Farm executive Elliott Walden, and his wife, Elaine, are heavily involved in Christian ministry and associated pursuits. Ben Walden cited those time commitments involved as a factor in his decision, which he said he wrestled with for some time.
It’s been seven years since Lisa’s Booby Trap came from Finger Lakes and scored an underdog victory in the Loudonville Stakes at Saratoga, but her name was still heard Saturday when her first foal, a Big Brown colt, sold to SGV Thoroughbreds for $135,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling sale.
Lisa’s Booby Trap earned a cult following for succeeding in spite of her humble beginnings – she’s blind in one eye and has a club foot – and those same factors create another uphill battle when it comes to marketing her foals.
The Jockey Club projects a North American registered foal crop of 21,500 for the 2018 foaling season, marking a 4.4 percent decrease from the projected crop in 2017.
If the projection holds, it would illustrate a continued decline in the North American foal crop, which has not posted a year-over-year gain since 2005, which produced 38,365 foals. A foal crop of 21,500 would mark the lowest annual foal population since 1966, when 20,228 foals were registered.
Antony Beck’s Gainesway and Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm have acquired interests in Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit, and the colt will stand at Gainesway in Lexington, Ky., upon his retirement from racing.
The 3-year-old son of Gainesway’s cornerstone sire, Tapit, will be raced in partnership with his initial group of owners – Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Bridlewood Farm, and Robert LaPenta. Todd Pletcher trains the colt.
The only thing missing from the burgeoning resume of three-time leading American sire Tapit is a reputation as a sire of sires. At 16 years old, the son of Pulpit has not yet had many opportunities to prove himself on that score, but with more than 30 sons currently at stud, it is highly likely that his eventual success in that sphere is more or less inevitable.
Grade 1 winner Tom’s Tribute will relocate to Rancho San Miguel in San Miguel, Calif., for the 2018 breeding season and will stand for an advertised fee of $2,000.
The 7-year-old son of Lion Heart previously stood at Magali Farms in Santa Ynez, Calif., where he recently completed his second season at stud. He stands as property of DP Racing.
