Joseph B. Hickey Jr., the longtime general manager of Windfields Farm in Maryland, died Tuesday in Easton, Md. He was 86.
Hickey was with Windfields for about 25 years but had a varied career in the Thoroughbred sport. He also served as a publicist at Pimlico, a Maryland racing commissioner, a turf writer, and a historian of the sport. The latter was especially fitting, as Hickey had spent much time in close proximity to history-making horses, races, and breeders.
Bertolini, a leading European first-crop sire and the broodmare sire of 2012 Japanese Horse of the Year Gentildonna, has died at age 17, according to Racing Post.
The Danizg horse was 17 and reportedly died of a heart attack after covering a mare at Haras des Faunes in France, where he was standing his first season after starting his career in England.
Red Rocks, the Irish-bred winner of the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Turf and a freshman sire at Centro Equino Arcadia in Italy, was represented by his first winner in that country on Wednesday, when Crissolo took a 1,000-meter (about five furlong) maiden event at Milan.
Trained by the Grizzetti Galoppo stable, the 2-year-old bay colt romped by 15 lengths in his career debut. He is out of the winning Indian Danehill mare Pesach.
DRF Breeding staff writer Joe Nevills analyzes the Kentucky Derby field, in post position order, in the form of Haiku; a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.
Black Onyx
Clicks with Breen, Bravo
His best might not be enough
With that brutal post
Oxbow
Calumet reborn
A legacy to uphold
He ain’t Alydar
Revolutionary
Hard-nosed, gritty colt
Gets Churchill’s gutsiest jock
Post three’s no problem
Miner’s Mark, who beat Colonial Affair by a nose to win the 1993 Jockey Club Gold Cup, was euthanized on April 30 at Blue Ridge Farm in Upperville, Va., his caretaker Patricia Ramey confirmed Thursday.
The Mr. Prospector horse was 23 and had been at Blue Ridge since 2004. Before that, he stood at Lane’s End in Kentucky, Dunhill Stud in Florida, and Pin Oak Lane in Pennsylvania.
During the month of April, chaos reigned in the Simon household as we prepared to move from Lexington, Ky., to New York City. For weeks, we’d existed in a surreal explosion of cardboard boxes, up to our eyeballs in the bittersweet detritus of 26 years of life in a well-loved home.
One of the most surprising developments in international racing and breeding over the past decade has been the renaissance of the German Thoroughbred. Even as German racing has experienced financial difficulties and some internal upheaval, German breeding has made unexpected inroads on international racing, and the principal agent of that renaissance is perhaps the most surprising development of all.
Marchfield, a two-time champion older horse and young sire in Canada, has been sold to Moutonshoek Stud in South Africa, Racing Post reports.
The 9-year-old son of A.P. Indy began his stallion career in 2011 at Park Stud in Ontario. He was represented by 41 foals in his first crop.
There were some awe-inspiring performances by the human participants at the Keeneland spring meet that ended April 26, notably the single-meet records established by owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey, trainer Mike Maker, and jockey Joel Rosario.
But just below all that Keeneland clatter could be heard a buzz of a familiar sort: Trainer Wesley Ward dominated the spring “baby races” yet again, prompting folks to wonder aloud how he does what he does with those first-time-starting 2-year-olds of his.
