Vertigineux, the 2008 Broodmare of the Year and dam of 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, died last year of colic, the Coolmore Stud Facebook page announced Tuesday.
According to the international breeding and racing operation’s post, the daughter of Kris S. was sent to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky., but efforts to save the mare were unsuccessful. She was 20 years old.
Grade 2-placed Lion Hearted, a mainstay among the Maryland sire ranks, died May 28 of an apparent heart attack after breeding a mare at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, Md.
The 19-year-old son of Storm Cat stood at Northview Stallion Station for his entire career at stud, arriving at the farm for the 2001 breeding season. He stood his final year for an advertised fee of $2,500.
American Pharoah’s march toward his date with destiny in the Belmont Stakes is very much a team effort. Those at the helm are well known, as Zayat Stables’ homebred champion and dual classic winner is in the hands of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and multiple classic-winning jockey Victor Espinoza. Assisting in the wings is a team that includes assistant trainers Jimmy and Dana Barnes, exercise riders Jorge Alvarez and Martin Garcia, and groom Eduardo Garcia.
Much ado has been made about the homegrown success of dual classic winner American Pharoah, who is a product of Zayat Stables, which bred and raced his sire (Pioneerof the Nile) and raced and owned his dam (Littleprincessemma).
One piece of the puzzle that often goes overlooked resides at Le Mesa Stallions in Carencro, La.
Champion Zenyatta was confirmed in foal to Claiborne Farm stallion War Front on Wednesday, carrying what would be her fourth foal. The official Zenyatta website reported that the 2010 Horse of the Year was scanned 36 days in foal after an April cover.
The foal will be the second between War Front and Zenyatta, an 11-year-old Street Cry mare, after first producing a filly in 2014. However, that filly was euthanized at six months old following a paddock accident. Zenyatta was not bred for the 2015 foaling season.
Willcox Inn, a Grade 2 winner and first-year sire, was euthanized due to injuries from a paddock accident on May 24.
The 7-year-old son of Harlan’s Holiday was finishing his debut season in the breeding shed at Saratoga Stud in Stillwater, N.Y., where he was standing for an advertised fee of $5,000.
With her victory in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes on Memorial Day at Santa Anita Park, the Ontario-bred racemare Hard Not to Like added to the worldwide reputation of her sire Hard Spun. The stallion – who currently is based at Darley’s American headquarters in Lexington, Ky. – has five graded/group stakes winners in four different countries thus far in 2015, according to DRF’s SirePowered Results.
In the 35 years since Spectacular Bid followed up his champion 2-year-old male campaign with another championship campaign at 3, only one horse has completed a similar double. From the end of World War II through the 1970s, though, such a championship double was fairly common, and, indeed had been throughout the 20th century in America.
