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.
Stakes winner Mosler has been retired from racing and will enter stud in 2017 at Josh and Mike Pons’s Country Life Farm in Maryland.
Mosler arrived last Sunday at Country Life, which has formed a syndicate to stand the horse with Adele B. Dilschneider, who purchased Mosler as a yearling and campaigned him on the track; and Dilschneider’s longtime business partner, Seth Hancock of Claiborne Farm, who bred the horse in the name of his Cherry Valley.
Grade 1 winner Discreet Cat will relocate to Darley Japan for the 2017 breeding season.
The 13-year-old son of Forestry stood this past breeding season at Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Ky., for an advertised fee of $7,500. His fee in Japan will be announced at a later time.
Discreet Cat has sired six crops of racing age, with 277 winners and combined progeny earnings of more than $23.5 million.
Prominent commercial sire War Front's breeding fees are increasing to $250,000 in 2017, Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., announced Monday.
The 14-year-old son of Danzig stood for $200,000 in 2016, a season that has produced runners including Grade/Group 1 winners Avenge and Brave Anna; Grade/Group 2 winners On Leave, Roly Poly, and War Decree; and Grade/Group 3 winners American Patriot, Long Island Sound, Intelligence Cross, Royal Artillery, and War Flag.
It took about 12.7 seconds for Time and Motion to charge her final furlong down the center of the Keeneland turf course late Saturday afternoon, delving between Hawksmoor on the rail and a flying Harmonize on the outside, thrusting her elegant bay head with its distinctive blaze toward the rapidly approaching wire.
But in those brief seconds, well over half a century of Thoroughbred history was racing through the mind of Darby Dan Farm owner John Phillips as he stood in the rocking Keeneland grandstand, surrounded by a crowd of almost 30,000 willing those three fillies home.
Two winters ago on one of my visits to Jimmy Crupi’s New Castle Farm to inspect the 2-year-olds training there owned by Vincent and Teresa Viola, I could not help noticing the elegant, beautifully made Tapit filly in a corner stall at the other end of the shed row from the Viola’s Greenpointcrusader. The dam’s name written on the stall door evoked memories of a chilly spring day at Keeneland more than a decade earlier when I had collected on one of my very rare racetrack wagers on the 3-year-old debut of a filly named Ellie’s Moment, by Kris S.
Even after he was pensioned from stallion duty three years ago, Quiet American remained a prominent presence at Darley’s Jonabell Farm near Lexington, Ky.
The high-headed bay continued to reside in the back stallion barn at the farm’s manicured stallion complex, sharing an aisle of the barn with 1994 Horse of the Year Holy Bull and the since-deceased Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Cherokee Run. Quiet American continued to attract visitors in his old age and was feted with a 30th birthday party at the farm April 29, his foaling date.
