Grade 1-winning millionaire Majestic Harbor has been retired and will take up stud duties in 2017 at Swifty Farms in Seymour, Ind., joining a growing roster at that operation. His fee will be announced at a later date.

Majestic Harbor, an 8-year-old son of Rockport Harbor, last raced in June, finishing third, beaten less than a length, in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs. Prior to that, he won the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes on the Kentucky Oaks undercard – his second graded triumph of the season, adding to the Grade 3 Mineshaft Handicap at Fair Grounds.

Australian champion Vancouver will shuttle to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., for the 2017 Northern Hemisphere breeding season.

The 4-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro debuted at stud this summer at Coolmore Australia during the Southern Hemisphere season. A fee will be announced at a later time.

-- Edited Press Release --
 
The Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) will honor former Kentucky governor and founding KEEP member Brereton Jones and Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm of Georgetown, Ky., as recipients of the inaugural Industry Vision Award during the KEEP Equine Industry Conference on October 18 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Lexington, Ky. The award was established to recognize distinguished leadership in Kentucky’s equine industry.

Grade 1 winner Java’s War has been retired from racing and will stand the 2017 breeding season at Colebrook Farm in Uxbridge, Ontario, for an advertised fee of $3,000 Canadian.

Java’s War, a 6-year-old son of War Pass, finished his on-track career with 3 wins in 19 starts for earnings of $713,807. He raced as an Ontario homebred for Charles Fipke, and was trained by Ken McPeek, Barclay Tagg, and Roger Attfield.

Justice Farm in Lexington, Ky., will debut two stallions during the 2017 breeding season – Grade 3 winner Looking Cool and Grade 3-placed stakes winner Harry’s Holiday.

Harry’s Holiday will stand for an advertised fee of $3,000, while Looking Cool will debut for $2,000. Both stallions will eventually be relocated to Indiana for future breeding seasons after starting in Kentucky.

Two-time Grade 1 winner Brody's Cause and Grade 3 winner Cinco Charlie will stand at Spendthrift Farm in 2017, and will be available as part of the farm's Share the Upside incentive program.

Naming Thoroughbred racehorses is very much an art rather than a science, but one suspects that there is a very good story behind the name of the rapidly rising young sire Into Mischief.

Unlike many well-named horses, there are no strong clues in his pedigree. Into Mischief is by Harlan’s Holiday out of Leslie’s Lady, by Tricky Creek, and exactly how one gets the name Into Mischief out of that remains a mystery to everyone except perhaps B. Wayne Hughes, who purchased him for $180,000 at the 2007 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s March sale of selected 2-year-olds in training.

Unusual Heat, California’s all-time leading sire by progeny earnings, has been pensioned from stud duty at age 26.

The son of Nureyev will reside as a pensioner at Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif., where he most recently stood.

Unusual Heat has sired 16 crops of racing age, with 399 winners and progeny earnings in excess of $42.4 million. He was California’s leading sire by earnings every year from 2008 to 2013, and finished atop the standings by turf earnings in each of the past 12 years.

Bloodstock agent Justin Casse went to the 2014 Arqana December breeding stock sale in Deauville, France, and signed tickets for two weanlings and a pair of broodmare prospects.

Keep Quiet, one of those weanlings, confirmed that the voyage was a successful one on Sunday by winning the Grade 3 Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland and earning a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Union Rags is beginning to break the freshman sire race open, as he recorded the second Grade 1 winner of his nascent stud career when Dancing Rags captured the Alcibiades Stakes on opening day at Keeneland. She will now head to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, along with the stallion’s Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante winner, Union Strike.