Horse Racing Alberta, the governing body for racing in the Canadian province, named its champions for the 2012 racing year, led by a pair of standout geldings.
Toccetive was named Alberta’s 2012 Horse of the Year, having won the province’s marquee race, the Grade 3 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park. The now 4-year-old Toccet gelding, out of the Two Punch mare Punching, also secured the province’s champion sophomore honors.
Ohio’s breeding industry hit rock bottom in the spring of 2011.
Only 124 mares were bred statewide that year, a far cry from the 1,380 bred two decades ago in the halcyon days before neighboring states raised the stakes by adding casino gaming to their racetracks. To put it into perspective, 50 North American stallions bred more mares on their own in 2011 than the entire state of Ohio.
Only accredited Ohio Thoroughbreds and/or Ohio-foaled Thoroughbreds are eligible for the Ohio Thoroughbred Race Fund stakes program, which includes the Best of Ohio Series.
Following are the rules that define an accredited Ohio Thoroughbred and an Ohio-foaled Thoroughbred, according to the Ohio Racing Commission.
What is an accredited Ohio Thoroughbred?
A horse conceived in Ohio and born in the state that is both:
Widely considered the greatest European racehorse of the 20th century, the undefeated Ribot always was very much a longshot on pedigree to found an enduring male line.
His sire, Tenerani, was best at two miles, a distance well out of the mainstream even in the 1950s, and hailed from an obscure Italian branch of the St. Simon male line. And though Ribot’s dam, Romanella, by El Greco, was a champion Italian juvenile filly, her pedigree antecedents were almost equally obscure to American eyes.
Joyeuse, a half-sister to unbeaten champion Frankel as well as two other group stakes winners, impressed in her career debut Tuesday at Lingfield Racecourse in England, winning a maiden event for 2-year-old fillies by 3 1/4 lengths.
Memorial Day weekend brought a busy slate of graded stakes activity across the U.S., but the racing spotlight was focused squarely on Belmont Park's holiday card and its trio of Grade 1 events. Monday’s Metropolitan Handicap, traditionally a touchstone race for breeders, assembled several of the handicap division’s top performers and, as it turned out, produced one of the year’s most exciting finishes.
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.
