Hades
Gelding by Awesome Slew – The Shady Lady, by Quality Road
Bred in Florida by Ocala Stud, Joseph M. O’Farrell III, David O’Farrell, et al ($130,000 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. spring 2-year-old purchase by D. J. Stable)
Two-time Eclipse Award champion female sprinter Goodnight Olive has been retired from racing and will be bred to rising young sire Not This Time.
Goodnight Olive was purchased for a co-sale-topping $6 million at Fasig-Tipton’s November mixed sale in Kentucky by John Stewart, who has become a major new player on the auction scene as he acquires stock to build a breed-to-race operation. Stewart initially announced his intention to campaign the Ghostzapper mare in 2024, and she did return to trainer Chad Brown’s Payson Park barn before the retirement announcement.
Not only did five-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief get on the board with his first graded stakes winner of 2024 on Saturday, he continued to advertise his growing legacy, as three of his sons sired stakes winners on the same day.
National Treasure, the 2023 Preakness Stakes winner who took last Saturday’s Pegasus World Cup in his most recent start, will have a future as a stallion at Spendthrift Farm.
The farm announced Thursday that it had acquired the breeding rights to National Treasure, a 4-year-old son of Quality Road who races for the partnership of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Robert Masterson, Stonestreet Stables, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital, and Catherine Donovan. A next start has yet to be determined for the colt, who remains in training with Bob Baffert.
Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man has been moved from Kentucky to Adena Springs North in Aurora, Ontario, for the 2024 breeding season.
A 16-year-old son of 2-year-old champion Macho Uno, Mucho Macho Man has sired 10 black-type winners, including Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup victor Mucho Gusto, Grade 1-winning turf runner Mucho Unusual, and multiple graded stakes winner City Man.
Mucho Macho Man’s stud fee is $4,500 Canadian, stands and nurses.
On January 27, Lucky Appeal became the first winner for Blue Star Racing’s stallion Breaking Lucky. In the $33,000 Maiden Special Weight at Sam Houston Race Park, Lucky Appeal ralied from the rear and won by a neck –covering 5-1/2 furlongs on a fast track in 1:07.72.
Triple Crown winner Justify, coming off a breakout season at stud, has already recorded his first graded stakes winner of 2024 and appears lined up for continued success with a strong group of 3-year-olds coming into this year, a well-bred group of 2-year-olds, and a strong book of mares committed to him for the upcoming breeding season.
War Front, the flagship of the current roster at historic Claiborne Farm, quietly put together another consistently outstanding season.
War Front was North America’s leading living turf sire by progeny earnings in 2023. He had a remarkable strike rate with 33 winners, including 10 stakes winners, from 91 starters for a turf bankroll of $5,863,936.
That placed him behind only the late English Channel (Calumet Farm), and just ahead of the versatile leading sire Into Mischief (Spendthrift Farm) to make him the living leader in the category.
Justify was a breakout success as a racehorse, crossing the line first in all six of his starts in 2018, including a sweep of the Triple Crown series. The Horse of the Year, now based at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, enjoyed breakout success as a sire in 2023, with six Grade/Group 1 winners, tied for most by a North American sire with Into Mischief (Spendthrift Farm).