Four of the five entries in the $98,000 Rockville Centre Stakes last Saturday at Belmont Park hailed from the first crops of their sires, and three filled out the trifecta.
The six-furlong race for New York-bred juveniles was led at every point of call by What a Catch, a colt from the first crop of Grade 1 winner Justin Phillip, making him the first stakes winner for the sire.
Illuminant, a Grade 1 winner, has been retired from racing.
Trainer Michael McCarthy said the 5-year-old Quality Road mare displayed signs of minor discomfort coming out of a workout last week, and follow-up tests showed enough accumulated wear to convince owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, SF Bloodstock and Sol Kumin to retire her.
Grade 1 winner Connect has officially been retired and will enter stud in 2018, Lane's End Farm announced on Tuesday.
Connect injured a suspensory ligament while training toward last month's Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, for which he likely would have been favored. At the time, his connections indicated the injury would likely prove career-ending. Owner Paul Pompa had previously inked a deal to stand the son of Curlin at Lane's End upon the conclusion of his racing career.
Zulu Magic, a young sire in Michigan, died suddenly on Monday. He was 12.
The son of Johannesburg stood at Davidson’s Tracks-N-Time in Midland, where he was advertised for $1,000 during the most recent breeding season.
“We are heartbroken,” said Cindy Davidson, owner of Davidson’s Tracks-N-Time. “His foals were just starting to race, the oldest being 3-year-olds. We’re hoping his future foals leave him a little legacy in the years to come.”
Zulu Magic has sired three winners from four starters, and sits 10th on Michigan’s sire list by progeny earnings.
Turf racing provides less than 35 percent of purse money in North American racing, which makes it very difficult for top turf horses to succeed as stallions. That is what makes Kitten’s Joy’s feat of leading the American sire list in 2013 all the more remarkable. Almost 74 percent of the more than $70 million that the progeny of Kitten’s Joy have earned to date has come from races over turf, a powerful bias that the 2004 champion turf male has overcome to rank in the top five on the American sire list each of the last five years.
The popular Ben's Cat, who recently arrived at his new home in Kentucky to begin his retirement, underwent colic surgery Thursday.
The 11-year-old gelding was operated on by Dr. True Baker at the renowned Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington to repair an epiploic foramen entrapment – the displacement of a segment of small intestine through a small hole. He is currently recovering at the clinic.
The Queen’s Plate is worth only listed black type status in the international pattern system because it is restricted to Canadian-breds, but it remains Canada’s greatest and most prestigious race, as well as one of the richest, with a $1 million purse. Despite that munificent prize and because it is a restricted stakes, the quality of the winners of the Queen’s Plate is highly variable. But it is almost certain that this year’s winner, Holy Helena, is a high-class filly by any standard.
Two freshman sires recorded their first stakes wins over the weekend: Animal Kingdom’s Sunny Skies won the Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs, and Surrender Now, by Morning Line, won the Landaluce Stakes at Santa Anita.
Grade 1 winners Paddy O’Prado and Corinthian have been sold to stand at Evicmen Harasi in Kemalpasa, Turkey.
Paddy O’Prado previously resided at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., while Corinthian was at Pin Oak Lane Farm in New Freedom, Pa.
