Silver Springs Farm in Bourbon County, Ky., has been purchased by Steve and Shelly Johnson of Midway, Ky.
The 298-acre property has operated as Silver Springs since it was first developed in 1985 by noted horseman Randy Roberts for the late John and Marie Costelloe of Co. Kildare, Ireland, named for the large natural limestone spring that supplies water for the farm’s livestock. It was listed for $2.5 million by Kirkpatrick and Co.
On an August night in 2000, the racing world was focused on the old Evangeline Downs in Carencro, La. Hallowed Dreams was attempting to win her 17th consecutive race in the track’s $36,000 Millennium Stakes and break a tie for the longest modern win streak in North America.
At the time, the undefeated filly shared the then-mark of 16 straight wins with Cigar, Citation, and Mister Frisky. She had built her streak in her home state of Louisiana, winning stakes at each of its tracks by margins of up to 10 lengths. Hallowed Dreams looked like a lock in the Millennium.
Most breeders spend a lifetime searching for that one mare that seems to produce only high-class runners, no matter the sire. Those who find an Urban Sea, Hasili, or Grey Flight are automatically successful. Those lucky enough to find more than one are well on their way to greatness.
Garden Secrets, a Grade 1 producer and half-sister to Hall of Famer Silverbulletday, was euthanized July 22 at Glenary Farm in Frankfort, Ky., Blood-Horse reports.
The 22-year-old Time for a Change mare was homebred in Virginia by the late Paul Mellon, out of the Grade 2-winning Tom Rolfe mare Rokeby Rose. She won one of 14 starts over three seasons of racing in the mid-1990s for earnings of $40,740.
Garden Secrets was sold to Glenary Farm for $51,000 at the 1995 Fasig-Tipton New York horses of racing age sale, where she remained as a broodmare upon her retirement.
Canadian champion Added Edge has parlayed a successful ontrack career into a spot atop Iowa’s sire list that will soon have to be considered perennial.
The 14-year-old son of Smart Strike is the state’s leading sire by progeny earnings, with 25 winners and combined earnings in excess of $554,000 through last Monday – more than $108,000 ahead of his closest competitor. If Added Edge can maintain that position, he will complete his third straight year as Iowa’s leading general sire.
Darley stallion Hard Spun will return to Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum’s Lexington, Ky., division at Jonabell Farm for the 2015 breeding season after standing the 2014 season at Darley Japan. The 10-year-old Danzig horse stood at Darley’s complex on the island of Hokkaido in Japan for 4 million yen (about $40,000) after moving there in October 2013.
Grade 1-placed stakes winner Wildcat Brief will relocate to Foxfield Farm in Oxford, Pa., for the 2015 breeding season, standing for an advertised fee of $1,500.
The 8-year-old son of Forest Wildcat previously stood at Walnford Stud in Allentown, N.J., for the same fee. He entered stud in 2013, and his first foals are weanlings of 2014.
Grade 1 winner and young sire Einstein will be moved to Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs Canada in Aurora, Ontario, for the 2015 breeding season, at a fee to be determined.
The 12-year-old son of 1985 Horse of the Year Spend a Buck previously stood at Adena Springs Kentucky in Paris, Ky., where he resided since entering stud in 2010. His fee for the recently-completed breeding season was $7,500.
Einstein has sired two crops of racing age, and his eight winners through July 30 are led by Grade 3-placed Rankhasprivileges and multiple stakes-placed E Equalsmcsquared.
