Walmac Farm will consolidate its operations from two locations to one, putting its 248-acre property on Paris Pike between Paris and Lexington, Ky., up for sale.
Opened in 1976 by John T.L. Jones Jr., the Paris Pike location houses Walmac Farm’s stallion operation, which has been home to more than 100 stallions, including Nureyev, Miswaki, Alleged, Lord At War, Shecky Greene, Salt Lake, Songandaprayer, and Phone Trick. Walmac Farm currently stands Successful Appeal and Mr. Sidney.
Swifty Farms in Seymour, Ind., will add a pair of relocating stallions to its roster for the 2017 breeding season, Cashel Castle and Wolfcamp.
Cashel Castle, a 17-year-old son of Silver Ghost, comes to Swifty Farms from Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Illinois, and will stand for an advertised fee of $1,000.
Grade 2 winner Wilburn has been sold to Rockin’ Z Ranch in Beggs, Okla., where he will stand the 2017 breeding season for a fee to be announced later.
The 8-year-old son of Bernardini previously stood at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., where he debuted for the 2012 breeding season and stood in 2016 for $3,500.
Wilburn will continue to be available to breeders who invested in the stallion through Spendthrift’s Share the Upside program under the same terms.
Grade 1 winner Victor’s Cry has been sold to Holden Thoroughbred and Running Quarter Horse Farm in Greenfield, Ind., where he will stand the 2017 breeding season.
The 11-year-old son of Street Cry stood the 2016 season at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., after being relocated from Park Stud in Orangeville, Ontario, where he debuted as property of Spendthrift in 2012.
“We hope there’s a ton of upside,” said Holden farm owner Jay Holden. “We really feel pretty fortunate to have him here. It looks like his foals will be able to run short as well as long.”
The prognosis for the 2016 yearling market among consignors is so uniform from person to person that it feels as though a cue card of talking points had been passed around the sale grounds and memorized.
Almost to the number, they describe the increasingly selective nature of the market, with buyers swarming toward the horses with the fewest perceived flaws and driving up their prices while trying to land them. If you have one of those in your shed row, you’re golden.
The family of 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta is having an active summer in advance of the mare’s Hall of Fame induction on Aug. 12.
One of the mare’s accomplished half-sisters, the stakes winner Where’s Bailey, is the dam of She’s Not Here, who scored a repeat victory in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Stakes on July 16. The mare’s youngest runner, Richmond Street, finished second in a Saratoga maiden special weight race on Saturday. Both of those runners are by Street Cry, the sire of Zenyatta.
Two-time Horse of the Year Curlin enjoyed another stellar weekend as he puts together a career year as a stallion, with three graded stakes winners in less than 24 hours.
Stellar Wind, last year’s Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old filly, highlighted the weekend by prevailing in a battle of champions, outgaming Beholder to win the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar by half a length.
Claiborne Farm stalwart Seeking the Gold, who died last week at age 31, will have an enduring impact for generations thanks to his outstanding résumé as a broodmare sire, as evidenced by Lord Nelson’s victory in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar.
Lord Nelson, who is by Pulpit and out of the Seeking the Gold mare African Jade, has developed into one of the better older sprinters on the West Coast, winning all three of his starts this season. He took last month’s Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita prior to winning the Bing Crosby.
The Juddmonte juggernaut rolled into Saratoga on Saturday in the imposing form of Flintshire, who added a sixth graded stakes win to his globe-trotting record with an easy victory in the Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes. Like almost all of Juddmonte’s runners, Flintshire is a homebred, as were his sire, leading French sire Dansili, and dam, Group 2 winner Dance Routine, and three of his four grandparents.
Seeking the Gold, a Grade 1 winner and prominent sire at Claiborne Farm, was euthanized Thursday due to the infirmities of old age. He was 31.
The son of Mr. Prospector was a third-generation member of the Phipps family breeding program and raced as a homebred for Ogden Phipps throughout his career.
“We’re saddened by the loss of this magnificent racehorse and stallion,” said Daisy Phipps Pulito, granddaughter of Ogden Phipps. “He meant so much to my grandfather and the Phipps Stable breeding program.”
