River Oaks Farm in Sulphur, Okla., welcomed multiple Grade 2 winner Read the Footnotes to its stallion roster for 2012, after the 12-year-old Smoke Glacken horse had established himself as a productive sire in New York. He finished 2012 atop the state’s juvenile sire list with $371,110, although virtually all of those earnings came from runners based in the Empire State.
Ms. Cornstalk, dam of two Canadian champions, is among the first mares pronounced in foal to Grade 1 winner Creative Cause, who is standing his initial season at Brereton and Elizabeth Jones' Airdrie Stud in Midway, Ky.
Ms. Cornstalk, a 9-year-old Indian Charlie mare, is the dam of two Sovereign Award winners from her first two foals to race.
Led by a precocious state-bred, Rocket Included shot to the top of New Mexico’s freshman sire list for earnings in 2012.
The freshman season for the 8-year-old son of Include featured three winners from five starters and progeny earnings of $185,183. He was well clear of second-place Real Dandy, who finished the year with progeny earnings of $88,337.
A successful 2012 season by Fred and Linda Alexander’s A&A Horse Ranch stallions included sires in the juvenile rankings, with the farm standing New Mexico’s top two stallions.
The leading juvenile sire in 2012 was Attila’s Storm, an 11-year-old son of Forest Wildcat who topped the state-bred list with total progeny earnings of $696,528 from 17 starters and 13 winners. His crop of 2-year-olds featured four stakes winners who tallied six stakes wins on New Mexico’s state-bred circuit. Attila’s Storm stands at A&A Horse Ranch in Anthony, N.M., for a $2,500 fee.
Over the past decade, Desert God has been linked in one way or another to the best New Mexico’s breeding program has to offer.
Salute the Sarge got off to a fast start last year when his Kentucky-sired first crop produced 13 winners and a $490,733 progeny bankroll, enough to put him on top of Louisiana’s freshman sire ranks.
Songandaprayer relocated from Kentucky’s Walmac Farm to Louisiana’s Copper Crowne this year and arrived as the state’s leading general sire with 2012 progeny earnings of $6,180,000, and as their leading juvenile sire with earnings of $1,197,868. He also led North American sires by winners with 179, and he led in Louisiana by stakes winners with 11, and by stakes wins with 17.
There has been a distinct power shift in the Southwest breeding market since the advent of gaming at tracks in the region. Louisiana has risen to the forefront with slot machines helping the state build an incentive program that paid out more than $25 million in 2012. Texas, meanwhile, has no gaming and has seen its foal crop disintegrate over the past decade, from a region-high 2,013 back in 2001, to 679 in the most recent report by The Jockey Club.
Every year, thousands of fans descend upon central Kentucky to admire their favorite Kentucky Derby winners as they enjoy their post-racetrack lives on the farm.
As it turns out, quite a few visit Roswell, N.M., to do the exact same thing.
As travelers enter the southeast New Mexico town, they are greeted by a sign welcoming them to the home of 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, who resides at co-owner Mark Allen’s Double Eagle Ranch.
Nearly one month following abdominal surgery for foaling complications, 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra continues a steady recovery at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., despite a bump in her progress last week.
