The race records of the half-brothers Ghostzapper and City Zip are, in a sense, mirror images of each other. City Zip was a top-class 2-year-old, winning the Grade 1 Hopeful and three other graded stakes from 11 starts, but he was not quite as effective at 3, though still a very fast horse, and retired to stud at 4. Ghostzapper, by contrast, raced only twice at 2 but did not win his first stakes until late fall of his 3-year-old season.
Grade 1 winner Archarcharch was represented by his first winner at stud on Friday at Keeneland when Tia Flor won a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds by 9 ¼ lengths.
The dark bay or brown filly completed the 4 ½-furlong race in :52.63 seconds to break her maiden in her second start. Her first start came at Keeneland on April 15, where she finished fifth. Marco Castaneda trains the filly for owner Eladio Acevedo, and she was ridden by Rolando Aragon.
Grade 1 winner and young sire Warrior’s Reward will shuttle to the newly-founded Spendthrift Australia for the 2015 Southern Hemisphere breeding season.
The 8-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro will participate in Spendthrift’s Share the Upside program while in Australia, standing for an advertised fee of $10,695 ($13,750 Australian), or $8,555 ($11,000 Australian) for a standard live foal contract.
Champion Uncle Mo got his first winner with his first starter on April 23 at Keeneland, as Outwork handily scored in a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds and could be headed to stakes company next.
Outwork, the post-time favorite, won by 2 1/4 lengths while stopping the clock in :52.79 seconds for the 4 1/2 furlong sprint. The colt races as a homebred for Mike Repole, is trained by Todd Pletcher, and was ridden by John Velazquez - the same connections as his sire.
Prince Bishop and African Story, winners of the past two editions of the Dubai World Cup, have been retired from racing and will reside in the Godolphin stables going forward.
The pair of 8-year-old geldings both had their final starts in this year’s Dubai World Cup in March, with Prince Bishop besting Horse of the Year California Chrome by 2 ¾ lengths for the win. African Story was unsuccessful in defending his own 2 ¾-length victory from 2014, finishing sixth to Prince Bishop this year.
Adelaide, a Grade/Group 1 winner in the U.S. and Australia, has been retired from racing and will enter stud during the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season at Coolmore Australia in Jerrys Plains, New South Wales.
A fee for the 4-year-old son of Galileo will be announced at a later date.
Smuggler, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2005, died April 16 at Claiborne Farm due to complications from foaling. Her foal, by War Front, was also lost.
A member of the vaunted Phipps family breeding program, the 13-year-old Unbridled mare was out of champion Inside Information and a half sister to Illicit, the dam of multiple Grade 2 winner Gone Astray.
Easter Bunnette, the dam of 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace, died April 18 due to hemorrhaging caused by foaling her Bernardini colt. She was 17.
Headley Bell of Mill Ridge Farm said the foal is doing well and has adapted to his new nurse mare.
“He’s a fabulous foal,” Bell said. “We couldn’t be any more pleased and thankful that he’s here and healthy.”
Vinery Stud in Scone, New South Wales, Australia, has released its stud fees for the 2015 Southern Hemisphere breeding season, headed up by U.S. shuttle sire More Than Ready.
More Than Ready will stand his 15th Southern Hemisphere season for $51,127 ($66,000 Australian). He stands the Northern Hemisphere season at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., for an advertised fee of $50,000.
