The rapid-fire victories of Chief’s Crown in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes and Contre-dance in the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes at the 1984 Saratoga meeting created some serious buzz for the second crop of their sire, Danzig, at the subsequent Keeneland September yearling sale. The principal beneficiary of that excitement was the late Lee Eaton and partners, who sold a beautiful colt out of Foreign Courier, by Sir Ivor, an unraced daughter of their blue hen mare Courtly Dee, for $650,000.

Arromanches, sire of multiple Grade 2 winner Caixa Eletronica, died in his paddock Wednesday night at age 20.

The stakes-placed winning son of Relaunch last stood at Buckshot Stables in Liberty, Ind., for a private fee.

“I had him for close to 11 years, and it was really like losing an old friend,” said Ron Dafler, who co-owned Arromanches in a partnership and stood the horse at his farm. “He was a good old horse.”

Courtesy Claiborne FarmBlame

The Kentucky Horse Council has hired Susan Schneider as its executive director, effective Aug. 21.

Schneider succeeds Ginny Grulke, who retired after eight years in the position.

The $2.4-million All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs is billed as North America’s richest race on the calendar for 2-year-olds of any breed, but a number of entries in the flagship Quarter Horse race’s 28 trials are the direct progeny of Thoroughbreds.

The American Quarter Horse Association has a special registry and numbering system for Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred crosses, referring to them as “index horses.” Those horses are allowed to compete in AQHA events, including racing, with certain breeding restrictions to maintain their status within the registry.

The lawsuit to allow cloned horses to enter the American Quarter Horse Association registry saw action once again on August 12, when a district court judge announced that she will enter an injunction requiring the AQHA to register clones and their offspring.

One of two companies that applied to slaughter horses and earlier this year was granted a permit to open has now dropped the plan, saying it will focus on beef instead.

Allan Murray, owner of Murmur Farm and Berkley Training Center in Darlington, Md., died August 13 at age 80.

Murray, a native of Havre de Grace, Md., became interested in Thoroughbreds at an early age, attending the races at the town’s eponymous track. He began his breeding operation in 1959, based in Churchville, Md.

While his farm grew to over 100 horses, Murray spent nearly four decades working at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, an army post on the Chesapeake Bay used to test military equipment. He retired in 1989 to focus solely on his breeding operation.

John Stuart, president of Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services, was born into the Thoroughbred world. His mother started the Stallion Service Bureau in 1960 in Virginia with Tyson Gilpin, and before that, she worked for a decade at Liz Whitney Tippett’s Llangollen Farm.

“I grew up to be a bloodstock agent,” said Stuart, 62, who is from Upperville, Va., not far from Paul Mellon’s Rokeby headquarters, which provided one of Stuart’s most memorable sales consignments. “I was lucky to sell the last crop of Mr. Mellon’s yearlings for his estate.”

Due Diligence took command early and never looked back, showing a powerful kick down the stretch to win his debut effort by 7 1/2 lengths on Monday at Saratoga Race Course.

The dark bay or brown War Front colt completed the 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight race in 1:02.65 over turf labeled as firm, with jockey Javier Castellano aboard. Due Diligence earned a 73 Beyer Speed Figure in his debut.