Heading into 2016, A. P. Indian was a useful minor stakes winner but certainly nothing approaching a national standout. In his 6-year-old season, however, the gelding has blossomed for trainer Arnaud Delacour, winning six straight stakes races, including a pair of Grade 1 events.
The most recent victory in the streak came in the Grade 2 Phoenix Stakes on opening day at Keeneland, and the gelding will head out to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita as one of the favorites.
Creator, winner of the 2016 Belmont Stakes, has been sold to the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association, which intends to retire the colt from racing and stand him at Shizunai Stallion Station in Hokkaido, Japan, for the 2017 breeding season.
The 3-year-old son of Tapit finishes his career with 3 wins in 12 starts for earnings of $1,610,320. He was trained by Steve Asmussen.
Canadian champion Hunters Bay will relocate to Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs North in Aurora, Ontario, for the 2017 breeding season.
The 9-year-old son of Ghostzapper had previously resided at Adena Springs South in Williston, Fla., after debuting at stud in 2014 at Heritage Stallions in Maryland. His first foals are yearlings of 2016.
It takes a village to raise and campaign a top racehorse – and two men who worked closely with Triple Crown champion American Pharoah behind the scenes are among the finalists for the inaugural Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards, presented by Godolphin.
Whatever the Coolmore partnership pays trainer Aidan O’Brien it is not enough.
That is the No. 1 lesson learned from a packed trans-Atlantic weekend of prep races for the Breeders’ Cup a month hence that began at Chantilly on Saturday morning and ended at Santa Anita on Sunday evening.
Veteran trainer Bernie Flint was beaming in the Churchill Downs winner’s circle on Saturday – and not just because One Mean Man had captured the $100,000 Jefferson Cup for his fourth stakes win of the year. The victory was particularly gratifying because One Mean Man is the latest standout from a family of horses Flint has been involved in developing for more than two decades.
As her horses waited to go through the ring at the Keeneland September yearling sale, Kelli Cross could fully appreciate the value of standing on her own two feet.
The auction was a groundbreaking time for Kelli and Kenny Cross’s Sovereign Farm, which offered its first consignment at the premier auction under the Crosses’s own banner.
A year earlier, the chances of the Crosses fielding a consignment at all seemed remote.
Swifty Farms in Seymour, Ind., has a pair of new additions for its 2017 roster, in Fort Prado and champion sprinter Benny the Bull.
Fort Prado, a 15-year-old son of El Prado, previously stood at Buck Pond Farm in Lexington, Ky., where he moved in 2012 after entering stud in Illinois.
Fort Prado has sired four crops of racing age, with 48 winners and progeny earnings in excess of $2.7 million. His leading runners include Grade 3 winner Prado’s Sweet Ride, stakes winners Bold Rally, Lakotadreamcatcher, and R Dub, and Grade 3-placed Afortable.
Elnaawi, a Grade 1-placed stakes winner, has been retired from racing and will enter stud at Indiana Stallion Station in Anderson, Ind., for the 2017 breeding season for an advertised fee of $2,500.
The 6-year-old son of Street Sense finishes with five wins in 22 starts over five seasons of racing for earnings of $407,305. He raced for owner Shadwell Stable and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.
Hidden Lake, the champion older female of 1997, was euthanized Thursday morning at Old Friends Equine Retirement in Georgetown, Ky., due to the infirmities of old age.
A 23-year-old daughter of Quiet American, Hidden Lake had resided at Old Friends since 2009, when she was donated by then-owner Robert S. Evans.
Bred in Kentucky by Charles Nuckols and Sons, Hidden Lake was a $13,000 purchase out of the 1994 Keeneland September yearling sale by Jim Weir and his son Dennis, who campaigned Hidden Lake for the bulk of her career with trainer Walter Greenman.
