Funny how success changes attitudes.
The Northern Dancer male line spent the 1990s and most of the first decade of the 21st century completing its conquest of the globe, while retreating on the continent of its birth. Of course, Northern Dancer himself was born in Canada and first achieved fame through his victories in the 1964 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, and he led the sire list in England four times but only once in North America.
DRF Breeding compiles information on the first reported foals for first-year-sires.
Among the stallions expected to be represented by their first foals this winter and spring are 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb, and that year's Preakness Stakes winner Oxbow. Animal Kingdom, winner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby, will also be represented by his first Northern Hemisphere crop this spring.
Reports are listed alphabetically by stallion name below. To report the first foal for a stallion, please email pressreleases@drf.com.
Encosta de Lago, a leading Australian sire and Group 2 winner, has been pensioned from stallion duty at Coolmore’s Australian base.
The 22-year-old son of Fairy King has sired 16 crops of racing age for 1,033 winners and combined progeny earnings of more than $118.6 million. He has sired 75 graded/group stakes winners and finished 2008 and 2009 as Australia’s leading sire. Encosta de Lago was also Hong Kong’s leading sire in 2012.
Grade 3 winner Can the Man has been retired from racing and will stand the 2015 breeding season at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., for an advertised fee of $5,000.
The 4-year-old son of Into Mischief – himself a popular young sire at Spendthrift - will participate in Spendthrift’s Share the Upside program, and breeders will earn a lifetime breeding right after producing one foal.
Liberty Lover, who won five races last year at 2, and Proceed, winner of the Mine That Bird Derby, were among the New Mexico-breds honored as divisional champions during a Jan. 29 banquet in Albuquerque. The New Mexico Horse Breeders’ Association also recognized Dr. Leonard Blach with a lifetime service award and named Diabolical as the state’s leading general sire in 2014.
Stay Gold, a multiple Group 1 winner and sire of Japanese Horse of the Year Orfevre, has died at age 21, Racing Post reports.
The son of Sunday Silence resided at Big Red Farm in Japan, sharing the stud barn with dual classic winner I’ll Have Another and Dubai World Cup winner Roses in May. He stood the 2014 breeding season for an advertised fee of $68,126 (8 million Japanese yen).
Richard W. Lossen, a prominent owner, breeder, and bloodstock agent, died Tuesday at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington, Ky., at age 76.
An Ohio native, Lossen followed his parents on the rodeo circuit in his youth before his family settled in Warren, Ohio, to train Thoroughbreds. Lossen spent his summers as an exercise rider, groom, and hotwalker for his father, Joseph Lossen, in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia.
The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.) has approved awards and classes for nearly 750 shows in 43 states or Canadian provinces for 2015.
The show disciplines covered by the T.I.P. include eventing, dressage, Western and English pleasure, hunter/jumper, Western performance, games, polo, and polocrosse. A full calendar of events is available on the T.I.P. website.
Australian champion Pierro was Australia’s most active stallion during the 2014 Southern Hemisphere breeding season, covering 220 mares in his second year at stud.
The 6-year-old son of Lonhro stood the season at Coolmore Australia, where he was advertised for a fee of about $60,217 ($77,000 Australian).
The stud career of Birdstone has been as odd as any stallion’s in recent memory. Despite retiring to Gainesway in 2005 with victories in the classic Belmont Stakes and Grade 1 Travers and Champagne to his credit, he never has been particularly popular with breeders but sired the classic winners Mine That Bird and Summer Bird, plus the graded winners Birdrun, Livin Lovin, and S. S. Stone, as well as two other stakes winners from his first crop of 66 named foals.
