I'm a Chatterbox stamped herself as one of the clear favorites for the Kentucky Oaks over the weekend, winning the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks by 2 1/2 lengths to complete a sweep of Louisiana's prep series for the filly classic.
The filly is from the first crop of Munnings, who posted three victories on the weekend to continue his 2015 season. According to DRF's SirePowered Results, 18 foals by Munnings have combined to win 22 races since Jan. 1, led by I'm a Chatterbox's three stakes triumphs.
Champion Groupie Doll’s first foal, a Tapit colt, arrived ahead of his due date, on March 5, and remains under the care of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital near Lexington, Ky.
Groupie Doll, a 7-year-old Bowman’s Band mare boarded at Timber Town Farm near Lexington, was due to deliver March 11. A normal equine gestational period is considered to be 345 days, with foals arriving prior to 320 days considered premature. Foals delivered early may be weak and are particularly vulnerable to illness or infection.
In the year since the passing of Clarence Scharbauer Jr., the Valor Farm operation he founded in Pilot Point, Texas, has continued his legacy of producing quality horses. My Golden Song ranks third on the state’s general sire list on the strength of his recent Grade 2 winner Thegirlinthatsong. Silver City has emerged as the hottest young stallion in Texas, and Scharbauer’s final stakes winner, Fiftyshadesofgold, has been bred to leading stallion Tapit.
The list of shuttle stallions that have truly been equally successful in both hemispheres is astonishingly short. In fact, it may really be a club of one.
It was the late, great Danehill who legitimized the shuttle concept in the 1990s by becoming an eight-time leading sire in Australia, but he also led the sire list in England twice and three times in France. Danehill has established multiple branches of his sire line in both hemispheres.
A hatching of Eastern tent caterpillars, which have been associated with Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS), was reported March 23 in Scott County, Kentucky, north of the heart of the Thoroughbred breeding industry in Lexington.
Tent caterpillars are one of the first insects to become active in the spring, hatching from eggs laid last summer on wild cherry, cherry, apple, and related trees. Populations of the caterpillars have been climbing over the past few years, a trend likely to continue in the near future.
Smart Strike, a Grade 1 winner and two-time leading North American sire, was euthanized Wednesday due to complications from laminitis. He was 23.
The son of Mr. Prospector was a cornerstone of the Lane’s End stallion roster, in the midst of his 18th season at the Versailles, Ky. farm. His stud fee was $100,000 in 2015.
Multiple Group 1 winner Toronado will shuttle to Swettenham Stud in Victoria, Australia, for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season.
The 5-year-old son of High Chaparral is in the midst of his debut breeding season at The National Stud in Newmarket, England, after an on-track career that featured six wins in 12 starts for earnings of $1,212,812. He was a five-time stakes winner in England, highlighted by the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes and Sussex Stakes, the Group 2 Champagne Stakes, and the Group 3 Craven Stakes. He is also Group 1-placed in France.
Just days after the death of legendary trainer Allen Jerkens, Classic Point scored an emotional victory in taking the Grade 2 Inside Information Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Allen Jerkens had trained Classic Point for owner-breeder Joseph Shields Jr. until summer 2014, when she was turned over to Jerkens’s son and fellow trainer, Jimmy Jerkens.
Classic Point, who is out of the Langfuhr mare Discerning, posted a Beyer Speed Figure of 82 in her third consecutive stakes victory.
A good horse can come from anywhere, and have any kind of pedigree.
But good horses occur far more rarely from unfashionable pedigrees than from those replete with the heavy black type of graded stakes winners.
That is why the California Chromes of our small, insular world make such wonderful, populist stories. It also is why we must celebrate the Grade 1 success of horses such as Warren’s Veneda, winner of the Santa Margarita Handicap on March 14 at Santa Anita.
