Walter Bay, owner and breeder of champion Quarter Horse Cold Cash 123 and track president of Mount Pleasant Meadows in Central Michigan, died of cancer on June 6 at age 75.
A native and resident of Clare, Mich., Bay was the owner and CEO of trucking company Tandem Transport Corp., where he worked for 42 years. He also served as president of the Michigan Trucking Association in 1991, and was its chairman from 1992-1993.
The deal took 15 minutes and could have been done faster if they’d skipped the small talk.
Mike Pegram vividly remembers his conversation with the late Scoop Vessels in the fall of 1994, negotiating for the stallion In Excess to move to the historic Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall, Calif.
The two men knew the arrangement they wanted and made it happen fast.
“We formed a partnership, and the rest is history,” Pegram said earlier this month.
William Boorhem, a leading owner and breeder in Louisiana, died May 31 in Dallas, Texas. He was 91.
Boorhem’s Foxwood Plantation in Belcher, La., was named Louisiana’s breeder of the year for nine consecutive years. Foxwood Plantation’s biggest breeding successes include 1996 Arkansas Derby winner Zarb’s Magic and stakes winners Zarb’s Luck, Leslie’s Love, Zarb’s Dahar, Our Love, My Star Runner and Zarbycat.
Group 1 winner French Fifteen has been retired and will enter stud next year at Haras du Logis Saint Germain in Normandy, France.
The 4-year-old Turtle Bowl colt was a multiple stakes winner in France as a juvenile, capturing the 2011 Group 1 Criterium International for his signature victory and also finishing second in the Group 3 Prix Thomas Bryon.
Lexington’s Rood and Riddle equine hospital will buy the Saratoga Equine Veterinary Service in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., giving the firm a local foothold near the major New York summer racing center of Saratoga Racecourse.
Rood and Riddle initially established a presence in the Empire State when one of its veterinarians and shareholders, Dr. Scott Ahlschwede, began providing ambulatory veterinary services in New York.
There were no graded stakes scheduled at Belmont Park on Saturday but still plenty of quality racing, as members of one of the strongest state-bred programs in the nation took center stage in seven stakes races on New York Showcase Day.
Sequel Stallions New York’s Freud picked up two victories on the program with Bouwerie Stakes winner Lovely Syn and Mount Vernon Stakes winner Shakeira.
Australian champion More Joyous has been retired and will ship to England to be bred to unbeaten champion Frankel on Southern Hemisphere time, her owner John Singleton has announced.
Priscilla Godsoe, a young show-jumping trainer and foxhunter in Pennsylvania, has a couple of special reasons to root for Kentucky Derby winner Orb if, as expected, he runs in the June 8 Belmont Stakes. Their names are Cause of Freedom and Well Well.
Cause of Freedom is Orb’s 7-year-old half-brother by Alphabet Soup, and he’s a foxhunter and show-horse sale prospect at Godsoe’s Pennsylvania farm. Well Well, Godsoe’s retired show hunter and fox-hunting partner, now serves as a stable pony for Shug McGaughey’s barn and is Orb’s regular companion during morning training.
