Grade 1 winner Stately Victor has been relocated to Fair Winds Farm in Waynesville, Ohio, for the 2014 breeding season, where he will stand for an advertised fee of $3,000.
The 7-year-old son of Ghostzapper stood his first season at stud last year at Buck Pond Farm in Versailles, Ky., and his first foals will arrive in 2014.
Grade 2 winner James Street and stakes-placed Wolfcamp have been retired from racing, and will stand the 2014 breeding season at Fruitful Acres Farm in Aguanga, Calif.
Grade 3 winner James Street will stand for an advertised fee of $10,000 in his first year. The 7-year-old son of El Prado raced the bulk of his career as a homebred for Eugene Melnyk, winning seven of 28 career starts for earnings of $637,723.
When Wall Street executive Vincent Viola and his wife, Teresa, decided to get back into Thoroughbred racing in 2011, they turned to Terry Finley, president of West Point Thoroughbreds, for help. Both Finley and Vinny Viola are graduates of the United States Military Academy, and, during a 10-year hiatus from horse racing after dabbling in the game in the late 1990s, Viola had observed Finley’s series of Grade 1 winners that raced in the West Point Thoroughbreds silks.
There are a few hints that these are the folks who pinhooked a 2-year-old for a world-record $16 million. Still, what is the enduring impression of Randy Hartley and Dean De Renzo? They’re just a couple of hardworking horse lovers trying to keep their business rolling.
There have to be hundreds, if not thousands, of breeding farms throughout North America not unlike Ocala’s Wicklow Farm, the one J.R. Cavanaugh owns on the southwestern outskirts of this horse-crazy Florida town.
Wicklow consists of 10 acres, much of it just spots of grass futilely trying to cover all that ubiquitous Florida sand atop the calcium-rich limestone. Evidently, much of the farm has been kept up as needed – or not – resulting in a delightful slice of rural Americana forged in the spirit of rugged individualism.
Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Concern and champion steeplechaser Tuscalee comprise the Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Fame’s class of 2014.
The ceremonial honor is open to Maryland-bred flat runners and steeplechase horses that have been retired from racing for at least five years. The Hall of Fame is a joint production of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and the Maryland Racing Media Association.
Multiple Grade 1 winner Mucho Macho Man was named Florida’s 2013 Horse of the Year on March 9 by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
The 6-year-old son of Macho Uno, along with the other state-bred award winners were honored at the 54th FTBOA Awards Gala at the Circle Square Cultural Center in Ocala, Fla.
Grade 2 winner The Name’s Jimmy was euthanized March 7 at Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Center in Georgetown, Ky., at the age of 25 following prolonged and worsening mobility issues.
Bred in Illinois by Triple D Stable, the son of Encino was a $20,000 purchase at the 1991 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March sale of selected 2-year-olds in training by Chuck Calvin, as agent for Brian and Jan Burns’s Mount Joy Stables.
Daniel J. Lopez's Geeky Gorgeous has been honored as the New Jersey-bred Horse of the Year for 2013. The 5-year-old Devil His Due mare, who was bred by Joe-Dan Farm, also garnered awards as the state’s champion handicap mare and champion sprinter.
