Grade 3 winner Twice the Appeal and multiple Grade 2-placed winner Sway Away have both been retired and will begin their stallion careers at Premier Equine Center in Oakdale, Calif.
Both stallions will stand for free with a private treaty this season, with stud fees for 2014 to be announced at a later date. Breeders must pay all fees associated with the farm.
A half-brother to Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom was foaled April 10 at Shadai Farm on the island of Hokkaido, Japan.
The new colt, by Shadai stallion and Japanese racing legend Deep Impact, is out of the Group 3-winning Acatenango mare Dalicia, who Shadai purchased for 230,000 guineas (about $395,000) at the 2009 Tattersalls December sale.
More than 500 British flat races throughout the year will benefit from a share of a 1-million pound prize money contribution from the British Trustees of the European Breeders’ Fund, Racing Post reports.
Listed stakes races supported by the EBF for 3-year-olds and up will be run with a minimum purse of 40,000 pounds (about $61,250), while listed stakes for 2-year-olds will be run for at least 35,000 pounds ($53,600). The number of listed stakes encompassed by the EBF contributions will increase by 16, bringing the total to 40.
I'll Call kept it all in the family for his connections on Friday, winning at first asking in a one-mile turf maiden special weight event on Keeneland’s opening day.
The 3-year-old Smart Strike colt is a full brother to multiple graded stakes winner Smart Bid and a half-brother to multiple stakes winner Deal Making, both of whom were also trained by Graham Motion. Owner and breeder George Strawbridge, Jr., bred the family's first three dams.
Michael’s Flyer, a stakes-placed winner and pensioned stallion, was euthanized due to the infirmities of old age April 4 at Ellen Jackson’s Victory Rose Thoroughbreds in Vacaville, Calif. He was 27.
A son of Flying Paster, Michael’s Flyer won four of 29 starts over four seasons and earned $117,087. He finished second in the 1992 Berkeley Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.
European champion Mastercraftsman’s first runner as a sire was a winner, as Master Carpenter took a maiden special weight event on Friday at Leicester in England.
The 2-year-old colt, out of the winning In The Wings mare Fringe, ran greenly in the early going but rallied strongly and pulled clear in the final sixteenth. He finished the about five furlong race in 1:04.03 over turf rated as soft, defeating second-place Beau Nash by 2 1/2 lengths.
The story of Funny Cide almost reads like a Hollywood screenplay.
A modestly priced New York-bred before it was cool to be a New York-bred, Funny Cide was bought by Sackatoga Stables, a group of likable high-school chums who traveled to races like a varsity football team going to regionals, and together, they went on a journey that took them to the doorstep of Triple Crown immortality.
In recent years, Acclamation’s life has changed every few months.
When he was not based at the track with trainer Don Warren, amassing a career record of 11 wins in 30 starts, six Grade 1 victories, and earnings of $1,958,048, he was resting at owner Bud Johnston’s farm in Sanger, Calif.
In 1949, trainer Henry Dailey and owner Alec Ramsey pulled their unbeaten star out of retirement to compete against his own Triple Crown-winning son. The older horse won in a battle royal and was promptly returned to his upstate New York farm.
Far-fetched? Perhaps, but then again, maybe not altogether. Dailey, Ramsey, and their ebony-coated champion were penned to life by Walter Farley in his beloved novel “The Black Stallion,” but the scenario described has been played out in the real world for centuries, for better and, sometimes, for worse.
