Coast-to-coast sensation Little Mike, who won three Grade 1 races in 2012 including the Breeders’ Cup Turf and was an Eclipse Award finalist in the champion turf male division, has been named the 2012 Florida-bred Horse of the Year by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association. The award was announced along with other honors at the FTBOA Florida Champions Awards Gala, held at the Circle Square Cultural Center in Ocala, Fla., on March 11.
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DRF Past Performances
Toccet arrived in Oklahoma for the 2012 breeding season carrying a portfolio with a coast-to-coast reach, having sired stakes winners from Tampa to Vancouver during his first seven seasons at stud. Standing at Dr. Warren Center’s Mighty Acres in Pryor, Okla., Toccet finished last year as the state’s leading general sire with $2,069,883 in earnings, more than $200,000 ahead of Latent Heat.
Event of the Year, a multiple Grade 2 winner and sire, died from complications related to colic in January 2012 in Venezuela at age 17, the Blood-Horse reports.
Homebred by John and Betty Mabee’s Golden Eagle Farm and trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, the son of Seattle Slew established himself as one of the favorites on the 1998 Kentucky Derby trail on the strength of his five-length victory in the Grade 2 Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park. However, he was withdrawn from Derby contention before the race after suffering a fractured right knee during training.
One of the most influential sires in shaping the modern racing Quarter Horse breed was, in fact, a Thoroughbred.
Born in 1940 and named after the winning combination of symbols on a slot machine, Three Bars showed a lightning-quick burst of speed over short distances on the racetrack, but his career was repeatedly interrupted by injury and also by the onset of World War II.
The law of the land in Thoroughbred breeding is simple: Cross a Thoroughbred with a Thoroughbred on a live cover, or find another registry.
The rules in Quarter Horse racing allow for more creativity by breeders, which has drawn some of the Thoroughbred breed’s most recognizable names into the bloodlines of Quarter Horses.
Richard and Frances Hessee have big plans for their Trophy Club Training Center, a 160-acre operation in Royal, Ark.—a dot on the map a few miles due west of Oaklawn Park. Since acquiring the property in 2009 from the late Arkansas Hall of Fame trainer Bob Holthus, they have strived to make it a go-to place for Southwest breeders looking for quality.
Brahms has become a kingpin in the Southwest since the former Kentucky-to-Australia shuttle stallion moved to Louisiana in 2008. He led the 2009 general sire standings in the Pelican State and in 2012 topped the same list in Arkansas, where Brahms currently holds court at Richard and Frances Hessee’s Trophy Club Training Center in Royal.
Gaff recorded a runaway victory to lead the Texas freshman sire standings for 2012.
The 11-year-old son of the late Maria’s Mon, who stands at the Seguin Horse Center in Seguin, Texas, was represented by four winners from 11 starters in 2012 for seasonal earnings of $119,796, easily outpacing the other handful of freshman sires in Texas.
A number of quality runners helped propel Too Much Bling atop the juvenile sire list in Texas for the second year in a row.
The 10-year-old Rubiano horse, who stands at Lane’s End Texas in Hempstead, led the state with six stakes winners, including four juveniles, for 10 total stakes victories in 2012. His quality runners helped push him to the top of the juvenile earnings list with $648,729 on the season, easily outpacing Intimidator, who stands at the Asmussen Horse Center, with $381,677.
Eureka Thoroughbred Farm manager Bill Tracy describes Oratory as an “eye-catching” stallion who passes his good looks on to his offspring.
“I always joke [to people who own his foals], ‘If you don’t want to run them, you can always take pictures of them,'" Tracy said. “And they look really good in a win photo.”