The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance will award $2.4 million in grants to its 42 accredited facilities for 2014 to assist with the management, rehabilitation, and adoption of former racehorses in their care.
The grant amount is a significant increase from the previous year, when 23 facilities received a combined $1 million in grants.
The Niarchos family, operating under the name of Flaxman Holdings Ltd., earned the fourth annual John Deere Award as outstanding breeders of the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series and the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
Irish sire Kodiac set a record for single-season 2-year-old winners by a North American or European stallion when his son Cry No More won his debut Nov. 30 in Sweden.
Cry No More’s victory gave Kodiac 43 individual juvenile winners for 2014, besting the mark of 42 established by half-brother Invincible Spirit in 2010, and matched by Kheleyf in 2012. American classic winner and champion Sunday Silence, who became a breed-shaping sire in Japan, holds the world record with 51 individual juvenile winners in 2004.
Heritage Place, a Quarter Horse auction house in Oklahoma City, will conduct its third annual winter mixed Thoroughbred sale Saturday. There are 134 horses cataloged for the sale, covering both breeding and racing stock. The auction starts at 11 a.m. Central.
Spence Kidney, general manager of Heritage Place, was pleased with the catalog.
“I think this is the best set of horses we have had since the inception of our Thoroughbred sale three years ago,” he said. “We truly have something for everyone.”
Music City, a stakes-winning son of City Zip, will make his stallion debut in 2015 at Win Row Farm in Lebanon, Ohio for an advertised fee of $1,000.
The 8-year-old horse won six of 16 career starts for $158,639 during his on-track career, highlighted by a win in the Morluc Stakes at Churchill Downs, and placings in the WEBN Stakes at Turfway Park and the Humphrey S. Finney Stakes at Laurel Park.
Grade 2 winner Gervinho has been retired from racing and will stand the 2015 breeding season at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez, Calif., for an advertised fee of $3,500.
The 4-year-old son of Unusual Heat finished his career with four wins in nine career starts for earnings of $422,140, highlighted by victories in the Grade 2 Sir Beaufort Stakes, as well as the listed Zuma Beach Stakes and Oceanside Stakes. He also placed in a pair of additional Grade 2 races.
Gervinho was trained by Carla Gaines for Keith Brackpool, who retains ownership of the stallion.
Fort Larned, winner of the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic, will relocate to Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs South in Williston, Fla., for the 2015 breeding season.
Fort Larned, a 6-year-old son of E Dubai, began his stallion career at Adena Springs’ Kentucky farm in 2014, where he covered 78 mares in his first season. Adena Springs announced earlier this week that its Florida stallion division would re-open for the 2015 season. Fort Larned will now stand alongside fellow young stallions Capo Bastone, Hunters Bay and City Wolf at that location.
Like everything else in the world of Thoroughbred breeding, the records of full brothers as stallions are extremely variable. For every highly successful pair like Graustark and His Majesty, there are multiple sets of highly contrasting results like Mr. Prospector and Red Ryder or Northern Dancer and Transalantic. As a general rule, though, if two full brothers were high-class racehorses and one is a good sire, it is much more likely that the other also will be than if one brother failed as a racehorse as Red Ryder and Transalantic.
The Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association released its advertised fees for the 2015 breeding season, featuring several names familiar to U.S. breeders.
Leading the group at the JBBA’s Shizunai Stallion Station on the island of Hokkaido will be 2003 Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker, who will command roughly $29,205 (3.5 million Japanese yen). The 14-year-old son of Unbridled entered stud in the U.S. for Juddmonte Farms in 2004, and was later purchased by the JBBA to stand his first season in Japan in 2011.
U S Ranger will relocate to Rancho San Miguel in San Miguel, Calif., where he will stand the 2015 breeding season for an advertised fee of $3,000.
The 10-year-old son of Danzig previously stood at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky. He is the sire of two crops of racing age. He has sired three stakes winners to date: Grade 3 winners Solitary Ranger and Lawn Ranger; and Australian Group 3 winner Get the Nod.
