German classic winner Caspar Netscher, who finished eighth in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, has returned to training after suffering from fertility problems in his first season at stud.

Group 3 winner Bullet Train, a three-quarter-brother to unbeaten champion Frankel, will shuttle to stand the upcoming Southern Hemisphere season at Bowness Stud in New South Wales, Australia.

The 6-year-old Sadler's Wells horse entered stud this season at Wintergreen Stallion Station near Midway, Ky., where he is based for a $7,500 fee. He will stand in Australia for about $9,641 ($10,000 Australian).

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A memorial service will be held on Thursday for Dan Steeves, a prominent member of the Ontario racing industry who managed Woodlands Farm while working with his wife, Gail Wood, at the Hillsburgh facility.

Steeves, 61, died last Saturday after suffering a heart attack the previous day.

The service will take place at 2 p.m. at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, 81 Trafalgar Rd., Hillsburgh. Visitation will begin one hour before the service.

Continuity and change are two themes consistently at the forefront of Thoroughbred racing.

Historic farms continue operations as they pass from hand to hand. The sport’s most prestigious events are run each year without interruption, with a new cast of characters. Each season, top horses retire to stud to perpetuate their bloodlines – and are quickly replaced on the racetrack by a new generation.

“Calumet laid it over the competition like ice cream over spinach.”
– Pulitzer Prize-winning sportswriter Red Smith

Warren Wright was born 138 years ago this fall in America’s heartland of Springfield, Ohio, the son of a traveling salesman, grandson of a miller, great-grandson of a tavern-keeper . . . blue-collar lineage back to 1636, when a Puritan ancestor turned up in this country seeking religious freedom.

Coolmore stallions Henrythenavigator and Dylan Thomas will shuttle to stand the upcoming Southern Hemisphere season at Haras Don Alberto in Chile.

Both stallions are based at Coolmore Ireland in Co. Tipperary.

Teardrop, a three quarter-sister to Grade 1 winner Pyro, broke slowly from the outside post but still proved much the best in her career debut Thursday at Churchill Downs, drawing off in the stretch for a 3 3/4-length victory.

The 2-year-old Tapit filly, who runs as a homebred for Winchell Thoroughbreds, is trained by Steve Asmussen. Rosie Napravnik was aboard as Teardrop covered five furlongs in :58.40 on a track rated fast.

In Excess, a four-time Grade 1 winner who went on to become a dominant California sire, died last week at the age of 26, Vessels Stallion Farm announced Thursday. He had been a pensioner at the Bonsall, Calif., farm since 2011.

In Excess sired Grade 1 winners Romance is Diane, a track record-setter at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita, and Musical Chimes, who also was a French classic winner. Among In Excess’s other graded stakes winners were Excessivepleasure, Above Perfection, Romanceishope, and Icantgoforthat. He also sired millionaires Texcess and Valentine Dancer.

Australia’s 2010 champion sprinter Starspangledbanner, who returned to training after having fertility trouble at stud in 2011, is set to try a breeding career again.

English-based stallion Archipenko was represented by his first winner on Thursday when Lady Penko won a 1,200-meter (about six furlong) turf race in Florence, Italy.

The 2-year-old filly is out of the Danehill Dancer mare Lady Rengali, won by 2 1/2 lengths. She covered the distance in 1:16 over turf rated as soft.