OwnerView, an industry-led initiative to encourage ownership of Thoroughbreds, has introduced the New Owner of the Year award to honor a newcomer who has been successful in the sport and had a positive impact on racing.
The award will be presented at the Thoroughbred Owner Conference held in January at Gulfstream Park.
The sensation of the 1923 racing season in England was a beautiful gray filly named Mumtaz Mahal. Bred by the famous Sledmere Stud of Lady Sykes, the daughter of the great The Tetrarch out of the good sprinter Lady Josephine, by Sundridge, had been the highest-priced yearling of 1922 at 9,100 guineas (roughly $680,000 today adjusted for inflation) and indeed the second-highest-priced yearling filly sold up until that time only to the immortal Sceptre.
A number of championships were decided at the Breeders’ Cup on Oct. 30-31, with fortunes made and dreams dashed through the 13 races. The biggest winner of all may well have been Ashford Stud, home now to Triple Crown hero American Pharoah – who blitzed the Classic field and solidified his status as one of the best racehorses seen in decades. With that came validation of a high stud fee for the son of Pioneerof the Nile when he covers mares for the first time in 2016 at the Versailles, Ky., farm.
J. Michael O'Farrell Jr.’s Ocala Stud announced stud fees for its expanded stallion roster for 2016, which includes new stallions The Big Beast and I Spent It.
Based in Ocala, Fla., Ocala Stud will stand 12 stallions for the upcoming breeding season, adding established Florida stallions Awesome of Course, Brooks ‘n Down, and Hear No Evil.
Castleton Lyons announced on Friday that Gio Ponti will stand the 2016 breeding season at the Lexington, Ky., farm for a fee of $12,500 and Justin Phillip will stand for $5,000.
Three-time Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti, a 10-year-old son of Tale of the Cat out of Chipeta Springs, by Alydar, is the sire of two stakes-placed juvenile winners in his first crop to race this year. Gio Ponti won 12 of 29 starts during five seasons on the track and earned $6,169,800. He won seven Grade 1 races, including the Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes twice and the Arlington Million.
Millennium Farms in Lexington, Ky., announced stud fees for its 2016 stallions, with three of its four stallions - Even the Score, Giant Oak, and Ice Box - standing for $7,500, and the other, I Want Revenge, standing for $5,000.
Even the Score, a 17-year-old son of Unbridled’s Song out of Ashtabula, by Rahy, has sired dual Grade 1 winners Dullahan and Take the Points among his 34 black-type winners. His progeny have earned more than $41 million.
The stallions Justenuffhumor and Toccet have been sold to stand in Turkey in 2016 in deals brokered by Schumer Bloodstock.
Justenuffhumor, a 10-year-old son of Distorted Humor out of Justenuffheart, by Broad Brush, stood this past breeding season at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in New York for a fee of $2,500. A 15-year-old son of Awesome Again out of Cozzene's Angel, by Cozzene, Toccet had stood at Mighty Acres in Oklahoma in 2015 for a fee of $2,500.
Pollard’s Vision, sire of champion Blind Luck, will stand the 2016 breeding season at Mighty Acres in Pryor, Okla. He had stood the past breeding season at Pleasant Acres Stallions in Morriston, Fla. His fee for next year will be announced later.
Pollard’s Vision will stand alongside Kipling, Save Big Money, and The Visualiser at Mighty Acres, a division of Center Hills Farm.
Xixixi, a winning half-brother to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, will begin his stud career in 2016 at Xanthus Farm near Gettysburg, Pa. The 4-year-old son of Maimonides will stand for a fee of $5,000.
Xixixi won twice, both times at six furlongs, in 17 career starts, earning $83,299. He last raced when sixth on a sloppy track in the Mr. Prospector Stakes in June at Monmouth Park.
