Nearly six months after suffering a career-ending injury while training in Ireland, multiple Grade/Group 1 winner St Nicholas Abbey's long battle against various complications ended when he was euthanized Tuesday morning during colic surgery.

Tom Bowman, D.V.M., the co-founder and former partner in the Mid-Atlantic-based Northview Stallion Station, will join as a partner in the newly-formed Heritage Stallions Inc.

Bowman joins his son, Brooke Bowman, D.V.M., as well as Maryland horseman Louis Merryman, as partners in the new venture, located in Chesapeake City, Md. Tom Bowman and his wife Chris have been the leading breeders in Maryland for six of the last eight years.

Dancin Renee, New York’s Horse of the Year in 1997, was euthanized following a battle with laminitis Jan. 11 at the Old Friends Thoroughbred retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky. The daughter of Distinctive Pro was 22.

A “Celebration of the Thoroughbred” party, featuring a benefit auction, will be held on the eve of the Eclipse Awards, on Friday, Jan. 17, at Gulfstream Park to benefit the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA).

The event will be held in Gulfstream Park’s walking ring, beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern, and is open to the public with a minimum $20 donation. The event will be highlighted by live, silent and online auctions, beginning at 8:30 p.m., with proceeds going to supporting retired Thoroughbreds in the TAA’s programs.

Over the past two years, few buyers have made a bigger splash in the auction market than Mandy Pope of Whisper Hill Farm.

The Citra, Fla., resident purchased the most expensive broodmare in North America in both 2012 and 2013 and has shown a flair for buying fan favorites who make their way through the auction ring.

T. Wayne Sweezey and Mandy Pope first met in the 1980s, when he was managing Darby Dan Farm and she began selling horses through the operation.

“Mandy had a nice little band of broodmares, and I would have been happy to have those mares she had then,” Sweezey said. “And her goal was to get to Fasig-Tipton and sell a horse for $100,000.”

At most horse sales, the candidates for top-priced horse can be counted on one hand, and the final results rarely vary from the presale script. At the 2005 Barretts March sale of select 2-year-olds in training, however, only one of the two “obvious” horses performed as expected in the sales ring.

A report released by the Retired Racehorse Training Project revealed the results of a nationwide study of how Thoroughbred ex-racehorses are transitioned into second careers.

The report was based on a survey conducted in late 2013, in which owners of 4,200 ex-racehorses from 47 states and Canada responded to 23 questions.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Rumor, winner of the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes in 2013 and three other stakes, has been retired and will be bred in coming months, trainer Richard Mandella said.

A 6-year-old mare by Indian Charlie, Rumor finished her career with 6 wins in 17 starts. She earned $418,391. Owned by Ramona Bass, Claiborne Farms, and Adele Dilschneider, Rumor finished third in the Playa Del Rey Stakes at Hollywood Park on Dec. 15.

Albert Coppola Sr., a longtime owner and breeder whose greatest success came with 1982 Travers Stakes winner and Canadian champion Runaway Groom, died on Dec. 29 in Virginia. He was 89.