Caravel, whose signature victory came in the 2022 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, has officially been retired, and is expected to be bred to Triple Crown winner Justify in the upcoming breeding season.
The news on Pennsylvania-bred Caravel, first reported by Lancaster Farming, is unsurprising. The 6-year-old Mizzen Mast mare was a $2.4 million buyback at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, with information on her future plans not immediately available that week.
The Pennsylvania Horse Racing Association (PHRA), an organization dedicated to marketing and promoting thoroughbred and harness racing, as well as both thoroughbred and standardbred breeding, has launched a new podcast, “Hot 2 Trot.” Hosted by Ashley Eisenbeil and Dawnelle Mock, the podcast is seeking to carve out its own niche by offering in-depth, offbeat, and, at times, irreverent interviews with a range of individuals working in all aspects of both thoroughbred and harness racing, as well as thoroughbred and standardbred breeding.
Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice and dual-surface Grade 1 winner Yoshida will stand the 2024 season at Darley Japan, the farm has announced. Palace Malice formerly stood at Three Chimneys Farm, where he entered stud in 2016. He represents a nascent investment in Curlin’s sireline for Japan. Meanwhile, Yoshida, who entered stud at WinStar Farm in 2020, is a representative of the most prominent sireline in Japan.
Southern California sprint sensation Bolden, a dual-surface winner who exhibited sub-1:08 speed during his undefeated racing career, will initiate stallion duties at Rancho San Miguel in 2024. The 5-year-old son of Santa Anita Park track record-holder and leading California sire Square Eddie will stand for an introductory fee of $3,500, live foal guarantee.
Eclipse Award champion sprinter and perennial leading sire Speightstown’s story was one of perseverance and patience. He was a milestone horse in various ways for his connections, who tended him through injuries and later colic surgeries to reach the pinnacle of both his careers.
WinStar bid farewell to the versatile stallion, who left a number of first- and second-generation progeny to carry on his legacy, on Dec. 8 as the farm announced that he had been euthanized at age 25 due to foot issues from old age.
Multiple Grade 1 stakes winner Gufo has been retired to stud at Ballycroy Bloodstock north of Toronto as perhaps the most exciting new stallion in Ontario for 2024.
A flashy chestnut trained by Christophe Clement, Gufo made all 21 of his starts on the grass, winning nine races and earning $2,176,530. The 6-year-old son of Declaration of War won the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga twice and took the Grade 1 Belmont Derby at 3. He graduated second time out at 2 in a maiden special at Gulfstream under Irad Ortiz Jr.
Eclipse Award champion sprinter Speightstown, who went on to a prolific stallion career at WinStar Farm, was euthanized on Friday due to foot issues from old age, the farm reported. The son of Gone West was 25.
“We’ve been through a lot together in the last 19 years,” WinStar stallion manager Larry McGinnis said in the release. “We’ll miss our friend.”
Violence, whose champion Forte is among his six graded stakes winners this year, will be limited to a book of 125 mares in order to maximize his chances of success in the upcoming breeding season and has thus had his stud fee lowered to $40,000 at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm.
John Sikura, president of Hill ‘n’ Dale, said that for part of the 2023 breeding season Violence was “missing too many of his mares” in a statement released late Sunday night. The farm did not specify what the stallion’s issues were.
While breeders prepare for the arrival of the first Kentucky-sired foals by Girvin after the turn of the year, the young stallion’s Florida-bred crops continue to roll on for him.
Seminole Chief won the FTBOA Florida Sire In Reality Stakes, while Honey Dijon won the FTBOA Florida Sire My Dear Girl Stakes, giving the stallion a sweep of those $300,000 races Saturday at Gulfstream Park. He is the third stallion to sweep the two races in the same year, according to FTBOA records, joining Fortunate Prospect (1994) and Awesome of Course (2011).
The stock of the relatively young broodmare Puca continues to skyrocket, as Dornoch, a full brother to her Kentucky Derby winner Mage, became a graded stakes winner with his game victory in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct.
The first three foals out of Puca, a stakes-winning daughter of Big Brown, are all stakes horses – a powerhouse start to the broodmare career of the mare who, at age 11, likely has many years of production ahead of her.
