Noble Bird earned the first Grade 1 victory of his career in Saturday night’s Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs, holding off Lea in a furious stretch rally.
The Foster was the first Win and You’re In qualifying race toward the Breeders’ Cup Classic, to be contested Oct. 31 at Keeneland. With Noble Bird now targeting the major summer stakes en route to the fall event, sire Birdstone, standing at Gainesway in Lexington, Ky., is poised for a solid season.
The sixth and final day of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age sale under-tack show saw three more juveniles tie for the fastest overall time for a one-furlong breeze Saturday, bringing the number of horses to work in 9.80 seconds to 16.
The following juveniles earned the co-fastest time of the breeze show over the Ocala Training Center’s all-weather Safetrack surface.
When Secretariat crossed the finish line 31 lengths in front at the 1973 Belmont Stakes, it broke a 25-year Triple Crown drought, then the longest hiatus between Triple Crowns since Sir Barton first accomplished the feat in 1919. A few months previously, Secretariat had already been syndicated for stud duty at Claiborne Farm for a then-record valuation of a little more than $6 million.
Grade 1 winner Gemologist will shuttle to Haras Santa Olga Farm in Santiago, Chile to stand his first Southern Hemisphere breeding season.
The 6-year-old son of Tiznow will cover the last mares from his third season at stud on Sunday, and will enter quarantine Monday. His first foals are yearlings of 2015.
The deal to stand Gemologist in Chile was brokered by Sullivan Bloodstock in Chile in conjunction with Matt Bowling Bloodstock in Lexington, Ky.
New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program will hold a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the construction of its new racehorse adoption facility at Mereworth Farm in Lexington, Ky., on Wednesday, June 24 at 11 a.m. Eastern.
Among those scheduled to speak during the ceremony will be Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning, WinStar Farm CEO Elliot Walden, and Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day. A light lunch will follow.
Four juveniles turned in the fastest time over an eighth of a mile Tuesday during the second session of the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co's. June sale. The auction, which is for 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age, runs from June 16-19.
Following are the horses who set the fastest breeze time of the day of 10 seconds over the Ocala Training Center’s all-weather Safetrack surface.
The Breeders' Cup has announced that Calumet Farm of Lexington, Ky., has been named an official farm partner of the Breeders' Cup World Championships.
The 2015 Breeders' Cup will be held Oct. 30 and 31 in Lexington. Historic Calumet, which is currently under the leadership of Brad Kelley, is located virtually adjacent to the racetrack, on Versailles Road in Lexington.
Pioneerof the Nile sired eight individual winners between May 2 and June 6, according to Daily Racing Form’s SirePowered Results. However, there’s a particular one of those who will be remembered forever. American Pharoah, a second-crop son of the WinStar Farm sire, raced into history as the 12th Triple Crown winner and first since 1978 with a victory in the Belmont Stakes on June 6 at Belmont Park.
American Pharoah will be ushered into life at stud with monumental expectations when he retires from the track, whether or not he wins the Triple Crown.
If the colt sweeps the U.S. classics, he will become the 12th member of the exclusive club, the first 11 members of which reside in the Hall of Fame. However, their records at stud are not as uniformly praised, ranging from breed-shapers to near sterile.
While many of the Triple Crown winners made at least a dent at stud with their first generations, their names can still be found in the pedigrees of today’s notable runners – some of them front and center, and others buried deep within the bloodlines.
