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.
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.
