DRF Breeding sales editor Joe Nevills makes his selections for the 2016 Eclipse Awards in the form of haiku; a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.
Ballots for the Eclipse Awards are due Tuesday, Jan. 3, with the finalists being announced shortly thereafter. The awards will be presented on Saturday, Jan. 21 at Gulfstream Park.
The 25-horse catalog for the 2017 Pegasus Training and Rehabilitation Center 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age sale is now available online.
The auction will take place March 21 at the Redmond, Wash., training center, beginning at 1 p.m. Pacific. A training preview will be March 20 beginning at noon, and horses will be available for inspection March 18-19 from noon to 3 p.m.
The auction returns in 2017 by popular demand after an extended hiatus. Horses cataloged for the sale are trained by the Pegasus staff up to their time at auction.
Make no mistake, Zach Madden enjoyed the holiday weekend, but he was the first to admit his mind was on the future.
The Dec. 26 opening-day card at Santa Anita loomed, with Conquest Enforcer entered in the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile Stakes for his first start under new colors. Madden scouted the colt at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale and signed the $785,000 ticket as agent for a partnership including Ron Paolucci’s Loooch Raching Stables.
The outstanding broodmare Cara Rafaela, best known as the dam of champion Bernardini, has been euthanized due to the infirmities of old age, the Godolphin/Darley operation of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum reported on Friday. Cara Rafaela, a 23-year-old Quiet American mare pensioned in 2014, had been living out her retirement at Sheikh Mohammed’s Gainsborough Farm in Versailles, Ky.
In a year of international synergy in the ever-more-global Thoroughbred bloodstock industry, three stallions dominated their corners of the globe: Japanese Triple Crown winner Deep Impact, the world’s leading sire due to staggering purses in his home country; the ineffable Galileo in Europe; and Tapit, who keeps setting the bar higher for himself in North America.
To reach the highest pinnacles of achievement, the physical and mental aspects of a Thoroughbred must be in perfect balance. As a racehorse, Bellamy Road possessed sufficient speed and stamina to provoke dreams of gold statuettes for the mantelpiece. He is, however, a huge horse, and his size and weight made it difficult and finally impossible to keep him sound long enough to earn the plaudits his talent might have garnered.
Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist is recovering from colic surgery performed Dec. 22 in Lexington, but is expected to be ready for the start of his first breeding season in mid-February.
The surgery on Nyquist, who is set to enter stud next year at Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Kentucky, was performed at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute.
Jess’s Dream, the first foal out of 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, has been retired from racing and will enter stallion duty at Ocala Stud in Ocala, Fla. for an advertised fee of $5,000.
A 4-year-old son of Curlin, Jess’s Dream raced once, winning a 1 1/8-mile maiden special weight at Saratoga in a thrilling last-to-first effort as a 3-year-old in 2015.
Turkoman, the champion older horse of 1986 and a prominent broodmare sire, was euthanized Wednesday due to ongoing hind-end issues. He was 34.
The son of Alydar had resided at E.A. Ranches in Ramona, Calif. since 2005, and had been pensioned there since 2008, save for a brief stint at another farm.
“He meant a lot to us,” said Sherrie Tellam, assistant manager at E.A. Ranches. “He was very famous. He had people that came out just to visit him. A gal came out every weekend and brought him bananas. He was a great racehorse, he was a great sire, and a great broodmare sire.”
