LEXINGTON, Ky. – It’s rare, but not unprecedented, for half or full siblings to contest races at the same Breeders’ Cup. This year, however, it’s an exceptionally unique circumstance, as two sets of half-siblings will share the weekend.
Lost Ark (Juvenile) and American Rockette (Juvenile Fillies) will be in action on the Nov. 4 card. One day later, their respective older half-siblings will take the track in Nest (Distaff) and Frank’s Rockette (Filly and Mare Sprint).
Flightline is campaigned by the partnership of Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, breeder Summer Wind Farm, West Point Thoroughbreds, and the Lane’s End-affiliated Woodford Racing. Bloodstock agent David Ingordo, who advises several of those entities, said the partnership came together quite naturally, as several of those groups already had ties with the others.
“It was very organic,” Ingordo said, “and it ended up being a match made in heaven for horse, trainer, and owners.”
Summer Wind Farm
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jane Lyon bred and raised the unbeaten and unchallenged Flightline. But she can’t say he’s her favorite horse.
“Do people love one of their children more than the others?” Lyon asked rhetorically. “Probably not.”
Gun Runner set the earnings record for a North American freshman sire in 2021, with his first Breeders’ Cup winner that season. He was the busiest stallion in North America in 2022, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred.
Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year, is now loaded for the upcoming Breeders’ Cup.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Major farms are rolling out their stallion rosters for 2023, and they include several Breeders’ Cup candidates.
The stallion class of 2023 will include Grade 1 winners Life Is Good, Olympiad, and Happy Saver, all candidates for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 5. The Breeders’ Cup Classic might be the final ontrack appearance for those three, but Grade 1 races remain on the calendar and several retiring horses in recent years have taken a shot at the Pegasus World Cup, which falls prior to the start of breeding season.
Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint favorite Golden Pal will retire to Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky following that Nov. 5 race at Keeneland, the farm confirmed Wednesday.
Trainer Wesley Ward had already indicated that Turf Sprint was likely to be the colt’s swan song.
Golden Pal is undefeated in North American stakes company, with his eight starts at that level including victories in the 2020 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Keeneland and 2021 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar.
Grade 1 winner Olympiad is the latest Breeders' Cup Classic contender spoken for as a stallion as it was announced that Gainesway Farm will stand him upon his eventual retirement from racing.
Olympiad, who was bred by Emory Hamilton and offered as a Keeneland September yearling by the Gainesway consignment, now races for Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable, and LNJ Foxwoods. He has won six of seven outings this season, including five graded stakes.
The most recent score for the 4-year-old son of Speightstown came in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 3 at Saratoga.
Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston has been retired and will enter stud at Crestwood Farm in Lexington, Ky., in the coming season. He will stand for an introductory fee of $7,500, and breeder incentives will be available.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Champion Avie’s Flatter and Grade 1 winners Collusion Illusion and Tamarkuz are three promising new Ontario sires for the 2023 breeding season.
Avie’s Flatter was recently retired and will stand for a fee of $3,500 at Colebrook Farm near Uxbridge, northeast of Toronto.
