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.”
With Honors, a stakes-winning 2-year-old filly trained by Keith Desormeaux, has been retired and will be bred next spring to Medaglia d’Oro, Alex Solis Jr., the racing manager for the Roth family’s LNJ Foxwoods stable, said Wednesday.
“She’s off to Claiborne Farm,” Solis said, referring to where the Roths board their mares.
The Auerbach family, trainer Barry Abrams, and their partners bought California racing history for $80,000 in 1996.
In June of that year at Hollywood Park, the partnership claimed Unusual Heat on a day the then 6-year-old won a one-mile turf race. Within two years, Unusual Heat began his stud career at a small farm in Hemet, Calif.
Lucky Pulpit’s reign atop the California sire ranks was cemented less than a quarter of the way through 2016, as California Chrome stormed down the stretch to dominate the $10 million Dubai World Cup.
The victory in what was then the world’s richest race helped California Chrome become North America’s all-time leading earner, with career earnings standing at $14.5 million following his win in the Los Alamitos Winter Challenge on Dec. 17.
Haynesfield, a former Kentucky stallion and Grade 1 winner, was recently moved to California for the 2017 breeding season. The millionaire racehorse could draw significant attention from the state’s breeders after recent changes among the leading stallions.
Unusual Heat, who led California stallions in progeny earnings six times from 2008-2013, was pensioned in October. Another top stallion, Tribal Rule, died in 2014, even though his progeny are still performing well.
California’s freshman sire class of 2017 sits poised to be one of the most competitive groups in recent memory, not only among its own ranks, but for the state’s overall leading juvenile sire title.
Eight stallions have 10 or more foals in their debut crop. Four of the stallions are Grade 1 winners.
The most prolific of the newcomers, and the one whose yearlings were best received at auction, is Smiling Tiger. The 9-year-old son of Hold That Tiger stands the 2017 breeding season at Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif., for an advertised fee of $4,000.
The gamble will take all of 2017 to unfold.
California owner and breeder Richard Barton has amassed a massive broodmare band in recent years and has sent many of them to the young stallion Champ Pegasus, whose first foals race next year. By next Christmas, Barton is hoping the stallion will be the talk of California racing.
