Montbrook, a Grade 3 winner and a successful Florida-based sire who was pensioned earlier this month, was humanely euthanized on April 12 at J. Michael O’Farrell, Jr.’s Ocala Stud in Ocala, Fla., due to declining health. The Buckaroo horse was 23.
Montbrook was the state’s leading sire in 2002, 2003, 2008, and 2009. The stallion, who was born, raised, and stood his entire career at Ocala Stud, was pensioned after only getting one mare in foal from 12 bred earlier this breeding season.
Group 1 winner Art Connoisseur was represented by his first winner April 23, when Der Blaue Reiter won his career debut at Great Yarmouth Racecourse in England.
Trained by George Baker for owner Clive Washbourne, Der Blaue Reiter covered five furlongs on turf rated good in 1:03.16. The Irish-bred chestnut colt is the ninth winner from 12 starters out of the Secreto mare Kafayef.
Top racemare and broodmare Air Groove, the 1997 Horse of the Year in Japan who went on to produce two Group 1 winners, died after giving birth to a King Kamehameha colt at Northern Farm on the island of Hokkaido, Japan April 23. The Tony Bin mare was 20.
"She was the most successful horse in my farm, both in her racing and breeding careers," Northern Farm's Katsumi Yoshida told the Racing Post. "She had always been at the center of the Northern Farm history. I want to say thanks again to her many fans who cheered her on."
Belmont Stakes winner Colonial Affair, who helped jockey Julie Krone make history in the classic, died in his stall the morning of April 23 at Haras El Paraiso in Capitan Sarmiento, Argentina, where he had stood for the last decade. The Pleasant Colony horse was 23.
With both Thoroughbred racetracks in south Florida scheduled to begin hosting competing year-round race meets this summer, the Florida HBPA and Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association have requested the two tracks settle their differences for the sake of the state’s population of horses and horsemen, which risk being over-extended.
Captain Steve, winner of the 2001 Dubai World Cup, died in Japan on April 21 of acute heart failure, reports Kate Hunter, communications manager of Paca Paca Farm.
The 16-year-old son of Fly So Free had been standing at stud in Japan since 2002, most recently at Schichinohe Stallion Station in northern Japan.
Saturday’s Illinois Derby at Hawthorne Race Course, a Grade 3 event and the signature race on the track’s calendar, was not included in Churchill Downs’ new Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying series this spring, a dismissal that generated much debate among Triple Crown followers. This caused Hawthorne officials to reschedule and re-market the 1 1/8-mile Illinois Derby as a prep for the May 18 Preakness Stakes, and based on Saturday’s result, that plan seemed ingenious in hindsight.
Champion Kodiak Kowboy was represented by his first winner as a sire by his first foal to race, when Bear Facts won a 4 1/2-furlong trial race for the Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders Association Spring Sales Stakes on April 19 at Turf Paradise.
Street Cry will stand for a fee of about $112,794 ($110,000 Australian) at Darley’s Kelvinside Stud in New South Wales, Australia, this Southern Hemisphere breeding season, highlighting the 23 stallions the international breeding operation will stand between two farms.
