If a poll were taken asking participants to describe last year’s crop of 3-year-olds in one word, a popular response might be “snakebit.”
From the beginning of the Triple Crown season through the Breeders’ Cup, the division’s top males seemed to fast disappear from the racing scene, first canceling scheduled starts because of injury or illness, followed by many being shuffled off to the breeding shed for 2013.
The Illinois Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Foundation will conduct its annual stallion season auction online from Saturday, Feb. 2 through Sunday, Feb. 10.
Proceeds from past auctions have assisted the ITBOF with several projects, including seeking new legislation to represent breeders.
The auction will feature bidding on seasons to 64 different stallions standing in Illinois, Kentucky, New York, Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Oklahoma, Iowa and Missouri.
Group 2 winner Midas Touch has been retired from racing and will enter stud at War Horse Place in Lexington, Ky. for the 2013 breeding season.
The 6-year-old Galileo horse will stand for a fee of $10,000 live foal.
Multiple Grade 1 winner Life At Ten has produced her first foal, a colt by Medaglia d'Oro, at Adena Springs in Paris, Ky.
Life At Ten, an 8-year-old Malibu Moon mare, won her first four starts of 2010, including the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Handicap and Grade 2 Delaware Handicap, to establish herself among the top older females in the country. After finishing third behind Persistently and reigning Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Invitational Stakes, she rebounded with a victory in the Grade 1 Beldame Stakes.
WinStar Farm has launched its Fantasy Derby contest for 2013. The contest, part of the Versailles, Ky., farm’s WinStar StableMates community, allows fans to create a Fantasy Stable, selecting Triple Crown contenders in different categories whose earnings will be tallied throughout prep season.
California-bred Variety Road, winner of the 1987 San Fernando Stakes and a top-level runner on the California circuit during the late 1980s whose career was interrupted by stud duty several times, was euthanized on Jan. 14 at age 30 due to the infirmities of old age, according to the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association.
Crossbow, a multiple stakes-placed winner, has been retired from racing and will stand at Clarence Scharbauer, Jr.’s Valor Farm near Pilot Point, Texas.
The 5-year-old Bernardini horse will stand for $1,500 live foal payable on Oct. 1 of the year bred.
Campaigned by Darley and trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, Crossbow won four of 11 starts in three seasons of racing. He finished second in the 2011 Hunch Stakes at Aqueduct and third in the Grade 3 James Marvin Stakes in 2012 at Saratoga Race Course.
Multiple Group 1 winner and young stallion Excellent Art has been sold by Coolmore to continue his stud career at Poonawalla Stud in India. His profile in India was enhanced in November when his daughter Art of Enchantment finished second in the Bangalore 1,000 Guineas.
Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Ia., and Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., will card restricted races in 2013 for both Iowa- and Minnesota-breds when one of the two tracks is not hosting a live Thoroughbred meet.
The program will begin with the opening day of the 67-day Prairie Meadows meet on April 19, where restricted races mixing the state-breds will be held each week during the time before Canterbury starts its meet. Three or four conditions of races are being considered that will be open to both Iowa and Minnesota-breds.
Rockamundo, upset winner of the 1993 Arkansas Derby, died on Jan. 18 at age 23 due to complications from colic. The son of Key to the Mint stood at Jim Plemmons’ Old Frankfort Stud near Frankfort, Ky.
Campaigned by Gary and Mary West, Rockamundo placed in three stakes as a juvenile but was winless in his first three starts of early 1993 before scoring at 108-to-1 odds under Calvin Borel in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.
He subsequently was unplaced in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and retired in 1994 with two wins from 17 starts and earnings of $383,625.
