Inevitably, the explosion in stallion book size that began in the early 1990s led to a severe reduction in the number of stallions at stud compared to the number of mares. The dramatic reduction in the overall size of the breeding population dictated by the global economic meltdown of 2008 reduced the available choices in bloodlines even more drastically.
Michael Blowen did not hear voices that said, “If you build it, they will come.” But everyone did think he was out of his mind when he told people his concept for Old Friends.
“People told me, are you crazy? This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Blowen, founder and president of Old Friends, of his initial effort to solicit support for the fledgling idea.
Grade 2 winner Valid could make his return from a year-plus layoff in the $75,000 Bosselman/Gus Fonner Stakes at Fonner Park on April 29 after selling to owner Tom Thurman for $15,000 on Monday at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.
Fonner’s signature race would be the 7-year-old Valid’s first start since winning the Grade 3 Skip Away Stakes at Gulfstream Park on April 2, 2016.
With Triple Crown winner American Pharoah’s first foals starting to arrive, one of a commercial buyer’s final chances to pick up a member of his first crop in utero comes at Keeneland January, where seven mares in foal to the young star will be offered, mainly in the early portion of the sale.
Among the many brilliant observations on the Thoroughbred credited to the Italian master Federico Tesio is that success along a female line often appears to follow a wave pattern. Mares along a given female line may produce well enough for many generations followed by a seemingly inexplicable explosion of talent set off by a single mare.
Sequel Stallions New York, in Hudson, N.Y., released its advertised stud fees for the 2017 breeding season, with perennial state powerhouse Freud holding the top spot at $10,000.
A 19-year-old son of Storm Cat, Freud's fee goes unchanged from the 2016 season. A full brother to prominent sire Giant’s Causeway, Freud’s list of runners was led last year by Argentine Group 1 winner Must Go On, Group 2 winners Key Dance and Street Lolo, and U.S. Grade 3 winners Sharp Azteca and Lubash.
With a new year unfolding, the historic Middleburg Training Center of Virginia will soon have a new purpose.
Virginia horseman and real estate entrepreneur Randy Rouse has donated the Middleburg facility to the Thoroughbred Retirement Fund, providing additional acreage to house its retired racehorses and programs. The deal was completed Dec. 29 – one day before Rouse, a noted figure in the steeplechase community, celebrated his 100th birthday.
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah’s first foal has arrived.
The highly anticipated arrival, coming early in the foaling season in North America, is a colt born Tuesday at the Seitz family’s Brookdale Farm in Versailles, Ky. The farm, a full-service Thoroughbred boarding and sales operation, happily reported that the bay colt with white points was born at 12:30 a.m.
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah's first foal has arrived.
The highly-anticipated arrival, coming early in the foaling season in North America, is a colt born Jan. 3 at the Seitz family’s Brookdale Farm in Versailles, Ky. The farm, a full-service Thoroughbred boarding and sales operation, “happily” reported that the bay colt with white points was born at 12:30 a.m.
Mary Jo Pons, matriarch of Maryland’s Country Life Farm, died Jan. 2 at Bright View Assisted Living in Bel Air, Md. She was 87.
A native of Baltimore, Pons spent her entire life living in her home state of Maryland.
"I only ever moved once," she told the Baltimore Sun in 2011. "And it was to live [at Country Life] with Joe Pons."
