Dolphus Morrison, breeder of Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra and also her initial owner, died on Oct. 26 in Columbia, Md. He was 82.
Morrison, who had been CEO of SMI Steel in Birmingham, Ala., before retiring in 2003, had been born in Alabama. In addition to Rachel Alexandra, he bred multiple Grade 1 winner and $2.1 million-earner You, by You and It, and Grade 3 winner Gold Edge, by Eddington.
Frank Stronach thinks highly of the Breeders’ Cup Classic as a stallion-making race. That’s no secret.
Five Classic winners have resided on Stronach’s Adena Springs stallion roster, and Shaman Ghost surely will have a place in the stud barn regardless of the outcome Nov. 5 at Santa Anita. But a Classic win by the homebred colt would be a history-making achievement that would take generations to match.
Phyllis Wyeth liked the strapping, white-faced colt delivered by her mare Tempo in the spring of 2009. The new arrival represented the fourth generation of Thoroughbreds in a line her family had cultivated since 1964, when her late mother, Alice du Pont Mills, had purchased a mare.
Wyeth intended to keep the colt and race him in the colors of her Chadds Ford Stable, but her accountant advised her to sell him to bolster her stable’s tax standing as a business, not a hobby.
Drosselmeyer, winner of the 2010 Belmont Stakes and the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Classic, has been sold for stud duty to stand in Brazil at Stud TNT, where he had been a shuttle stallion for the last five Southern Hemisphere breeding seasons. The 9-year-old son of Distorted Humor had stood at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., for the Northern Hemisphere breeding season since 2012, beginning with a $17,500 stud fee. This past Northern Hemisphere season, he had stood for a fee of $10,000.
Taylor Made Stallions in Nicholasville, Ky., released the advertised fees for its 2017 stallion roster, including Grade 1 winner Mshawish, who will stand his first season for $20,000.
California Chrome, the 2014 Horse of the Year and probable favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, will have his debut stud fee determined and announced following the race.
Grade 3 winner Den’s Legacy has been retired from racing and will debut at Mighty Acres Farm in Pryor, Okla., joining prominent Oklahoma sire Mr. Nightlinger, who relocates to the farm for the 2017 breeding season.
Mr. Nightlinger will stand for an advertised fee of $2,000, while a fee for Den’s Legacy will be announced at a later time.
Who is the best racehorse in the world in 2016?
With a decisive Breeders’ Cup just around the corner in November, most Americans would probably nominate California Chrome, who has galloped unbeaten and basically unchallenged through his six starts this year. For Europeans, the most likely answer would be Almanzor, who beat Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Found in both the Champion Stakes at Ascot last week and the Irish Champion Stakes a few weeks previously at Leopardstown.
Pioneerof the Nile, the sire of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, will stand for $110,000 to lead the expanded WinStar Farm stallion roster in 2017, the operation announced Saturday.
The fee for Pioneerof the Nile, who entered stud in 2010, represents a slight decrease from last breeding season, when the stallion stood for $125,000, more than double his 2015 fee of $60,000. He is led on the track this year by Grade 1 winners Classic Empire and Midnight Storm.
Grade 2 winner Exhi will relocate to Highfield Stock Farm in Okotoks, Alberta, for the 2017 breeding season, and will stand for an advertised fee of $3,000 Canadian.
The 9-year-old son of Maria’s Mon previously stood at Park Stud in Mono, Ontario, where he was advertised in 2016 for $3,500.
Exhi has sired two crops of racing age, with 10 winners and combined progeny earnings of $337,812. His leading runners include stakes winners Victory Day and Norm’s Big Bucks, as well as stakes-placed That’s a Stretch.
Breeding activity in North America this past breeding season was down 2.5 percent from the 2015 season at this same reporting time, The Jockey Club said in its annual Report of Mares Bred, released Friday. In 2016, a total of 33,746 mares were bred to 1,423 stallions, compared with 34,627 mares bred to 1,449 stallions last year. The number of active stallions was down 1.8 percent from 2015 and down 8 percent from 2014.
