Fri, 02/22/2013 - 16:49

Freud's Honour, stakes winner at Monmouth, to stud in New Jersey

Stakes winner Freud's Honour will enter stud this season at Judith Jannuzzelli's Birch Creek Farm in Cream Ridge, N.J.

The 5-year-old Freud horse will stand for an initial fee of $2,000.

Freud's Honour retires with three wins from 15 career starts and earnings of $226,580. He won or placed in four stakes, including a victory in the 2011 Choice Stakes on turf at Monmouth Park.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 13:53

Ontario breeding industry hit hard by loss of slots revenue

It was not long ago that Glenn Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms in Aurora, Ontario was bursting at the seams with mares and foals in the midst of a hectic breeding season.

That scenario is pretty much gone this spring as Ontario’s Thoroughbred breeding industry struggles to stay alive because of a radical decision announced a year ago by the Ontario government, under now-retired Premier Dalton McGuinty, and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 12:45

Ontario: Silent Name leads juvenile sires for 2012

Patrick Lang Photography
The only son of the late Sunday Silence at stud in Canada, Silent Name led the Ontario juvenile sire list for 2012, siring 10 winners from 22 starters for progeny earnings of $650,541.

Silent Name, who returns to Adena Springs North in Ontario for 2013, is, quite literally, one of a kind.

The only son of the late Sunday Silence at stud in Canada, the multiple graded stakes winner led the Ontario juvenile sire list for 2012, siring 10 winners from 22 starters for progeny earnings of $650,541.

The 11-year-old Silent Name outpaced fellow Adena stallion Milwaukee Brew, who sired 12 winners and had 2012 progeny earnings of $569,106. Adena dominated the list, as the farm’s Sligo Bay checked in fifth and freshman sire Showing Up was 10th.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 12:19

Freshman sires reflect more signs of a power shift

Edward Whitaker/Racing Post
No horse has finished within a length of Sea the Stars in five of Europe's most important races in 2009.

In the heyday of the American breeding industry – from about 1960 to 2000 – it was essentially a given that the highest-priced freshman sire each year would reside in Kentucky. How the mighty have fallen.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 12:17

Ontario: Marcavelly latest triumph for Johannesburg sire line

Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO
Ontario's leading freshman sire of 2012, Marcavelly won the Continental Mile at Monmouth (above) in 2006 and two Grade 3 stakes in 2007.

In a short time, international champion Johannesburg has established himself as a potential leading sire of sires. The latest feather in his cap is Marcavelly, Ontario’s leading freshman sire of 2012.

The 9-year-old Johannesburg horse who stands for $2,500 at Colebrook Farms Stallion Station in Uxbridge, Ontario, was represented by four winners from 21 starters in 2012 and had progeny earnings of $207,027. That figure easily outdistanced Showing Up, who finished with progeny earnings of $108,017, with four winners from 11 starters.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 12:08

Ontario: Old Forester leads 2012 general sires

Old Forester was the epitome of a hard-knocking performer during his four-year career on the racetrack, and he has transferred that trait to his offspring since retiring to stand at John Carey’s T.C. Westmeath Stud in Ontario in 2007.

The 12-year-old son of Forestry was the leading Ontario general sire in 2012 with $2,957,285 in earnings from 53 winners, some $167,000 ahead of runner-up Niigon, who died in October. He also finished tied with Milwaukee Brew for most stakes wins, with six, among Ontario sires for the year.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 11:55

Frost Giant to shuttle to Australia

Frost Giant, New York’s leading freshman and juvenile sire in 2012, will shuttle to Yarradale Stud in Western Australia for the Southern Hemisphere breeding season, which begins in August.

The 10-year-old son of Giant’s Causeway currently stands at Keane Stud Operations in Amenia, N.Y. for an advertised fee of $7,500. His Australian fee is to be announced.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 10:59

Anticipation and anxiety high as new crop of freshman sires set to debut

Barbara D. Livingston
Zensational, whose first crop reaches the races this year, stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms in Lexington, Ky.

It started four years ago.

As the 2009 racing season wore on, the top racehorses became stallion prospects and were retired to the next stage of their lives.

From there, the farms took over, marketing the new additions to their breeding sheds and booking and breeding mares. A foal crop’s worth of gestation periods later, the first foals filled stalls and Facebook pages, were weaned, many led through sales rings as weanlings or yearlings, and then put under tack.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 06:45

True Sense, full brother to Street Sense, to stud in Canada

True Sense, an unraced full brother to Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, will begin his stud career in 2013 at Cam and Sherisse Ziprick's Ziprick Thoroughbreds near Russell, Man., in Canada. 

Joining True Sense on the stallion roster will be multiple stakes-placed Heavenly Chorus, himself a half-brother to three stakes horses.

Thu, 02/21/2013 - 14:18

War Power, from family of Union Rags, to stand in Washington

War Power, a stallion from the immediate family of classic winner Union Rags, will relocate to stand at Gibson Thoroughbred Farm in Thorp, Wash.

The 7-year-old Pupit horse, who entered stud in 2011 at Move & Shake Farm in Texas, was purchased for stud duty by Gibson. He will stand for $1,000.

War Power won three of seven career starts while racing in France, earning $73,510.