Leading first-crop sire Union Rags will stand for the second-highest advertised fee on the Lane’s End stallion roster in 2017, rising to $50,000.
Union Rags, a 7-year-old son of Dixie Union, stood at the Versailles, Ky., farm for $35,000 in 2016. He leads all North American first-crop sires by earnings with $1,114,054, highlighted by Grade 1 winners Dancing Rags and Union Strike.
A number of owners and trainers will be supporting New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program by pledging a percentage of their 2016 Breeders’ Cup World Championship purse earnings to New Vocations, which rehabilitates, retrain, and rehomes retired racehorses. This will be the seventh year owners and trainers have donated a percentage of their Breeders’ Cup purse earnings, and so far from such efforts more than $380,000 has been raised, with 100 percent of funds raised supporting the program’s aftercare efforts.
A multinational partnership has been formed to stand multiple Grade/Group 1 winner Flintshire in Kentucky.
Flintshire was to make his final start as the morning-line favorite in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Turf and then retire to Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms in Kentucky. Hill ‘n’ Dale is one of four partners in his stud career, along with owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms, the China Horse Club, and S.F. Bloodstock.
Flintshire’s fee will be announced later.
A multinational partnership has been formed to stand Flintshire, a Grade/Group 1 winner in three different countries and the morning-line favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms in Lexington, Ky., upon his retirement following the Breeders’ Cup.
The partnership is composed of Flintshire’s owner-breeder, Juddmonte Farms, John G. Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms, S.F. Bloodstock, and China Horse Club.
Managers of major stud farms know that the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile is a fertile hunting ground for stallion prospects, so they will closely watch Saturday’s race at Santa Anita.
“Top-class 2-year-old form is always a positive when it comes to a stallion’s CV [curriculum vitae],” said Dermot Ryan, manager of Coolmore America in Versailles, Ky. “For a horse to win a major 2-year-old race, he obviously needs natural ability but also the right temperament and physical makeup to deal with the pressures of racing from Day 1.
Indiana’s fast-growing stallion roster added a pair of Grade 1 winners for the 2017 breeding season, with Sahara Sky retiring to R Star Stallions in Anderson, and Turbo Compressor relocating to Breakaway Farm in Dillsboro.
Sahara Sky, an 8-year-old son of Pleasant Tap, will stand for a fee of $4,000 in his debut season. He retires with eight wins in 27 starts for earnings of $1,181,583, running the majority of his career for the partnership of trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and Sweetwater Stable.
Three Chimneys Farm announced today stud fees for its stallions for 2017, and all but one will have the same fee as this year. The exception is 16-year-old Sky Mesa, whose stud fee for the next breeding season will be $15,000, down from $20,000 in 2016.
The two Three Chimneys stallions with the highest fees for 2017 do not yet have foals of racing age. The first foals of Will Take Charge, who stands for $30,000, are weanlings. Palace Malice, who stands for $20,000, covered his first mares this past breeding season.
Kennedy, a winning son of A.P. Indy from the family of Bernardini, will relocate to River Oaks Farm in Sulphur, Okla., for the 2017 breeding season, where he will stand for a fee of $1,250.
The 8-year-old horse previously stood at Rockin’ Z Ranch in Beggs, Okla.
Just before the Breeders' Cup, WinStar Farm is rolling out an incentive program for breeders of stakes horses by its program.
The WinStar Incentive Network (WIN), which begins this Friday, Nov. 4, will make available more than $1 million in "WinStar dollars," applicable for one year toward the fee of any WinStar stallion. To become eligible for the network, breeders are required to breed two mares to any stallion on the farm's roster.
The success of freshman sire Dialed In has led to a doubling of his stud fee for 2017. Darby Dan Farm announced its 2017 fees today, and the Lexington, Ky., farm indicated that Dialed In, third on the 2016 freshman sire list, will stand for $15,000, up from $7,500 in each of his first four years at stud.
Dialed In, by Mineshaft, has sired two stakes winners, including Grade 2 Saratoga Special winner Gunnevera, and he has 15 winners from 31 starters and progeny earnings of $744,959, behind only Union Rags and Gemologist.
