Grade 1 winner General Quarters was represented by his first foal in early January, a filly born at Red Sunset Farm near Ocala, Fla.
The chestnut filly is out of the Pentilicus mare Hannah's Ink, dam of three winners from seven starters, including stakes winner Rate of Exchange. Hannah's Ink is a half-sister to 12 winners, including Alltheway Bertie and Woman of Substance, both stakes winners and producers.
Evelyn Courtney, who with her husband Robert operated Crestfield Farm in Lexington, Ky., for more than 50 years, died on Jan. 25. She was 88.
The Courtneys established Crestfield Farm in 1954. They bred nine stakes winners in partnership with Robert Congleton, including Fit to Fight, who swept the Handicap Triple Crown in 1984, a series comprised of the Metropolitan, Brooklyn and Suburban Handicaps. Fit to Fight, a son of Chieftain out of the One Count mare Hasty Queen II, won 14 of 26 starts and earned $1,042,075.
Wise Dan knocked it out of the park at the Eclipse Awards, as Morton Fink’s versatile homebred took home three awards, including the coveted Horse of the Year title.
His accomplishments were a home run for his sire, the blue-collar stallion Wiseman’s Ferry, as well as his connections. The 14-year-old Wiseman's Ferry, a son of Hennessy, stands in Lenhartsville, Pa., at Gayle Gerth’s Dana Point Farm, which has been in operation less than five years.
Wise Dan was named 2012's Horse of the Year at the 42nd annual Eclipse Awards on Saturday night at Gulfstream Park after earning titles as champion older male and champion turf male earlier in the evening.
The Wiseman's Ferry gelding, who races for breeder Morton Fink, is the first homebred to be named Horse of the Year since Ghostzapper in 2004.
In-depth pedigree profiles of the 2012 Eclipse Award champions:
Jay Adcock’s Red River Farms near Coushatta, La. has added recently retired multiple graded stakes winners Calibrachoa and Redding Colliery to its stallion roster for 2013.
Both horses will stand for an advertised fee for $2,000 live foal.
The Eclipse Awards ceremony was yet another testimonial on behalf of the strength and dominance of the Northern Dancer male line.
As recounted in the Daily Racing Form year-end review, tail-male descendants of Northern Dancer won more than a third of North American graded races last year, slightly expanding his dominance at the highest levels of American racing over the Mr. Prospector male line. Across the Atlantic, Northern Dancer’s great-grandson Frankel was acclaimed the best horse in the world after completing his 14-race career unbeaten.
Questroyal North will showcase its expanded stallion roster at an open house for breeders Feb. 2 and 3.
The open house at the farm in Stillwater, N.Y.—about 20 minutes from Saratoga Race Course—will be conducted from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern both days.
Prominent South African sire National Emblem died of colic on Wednesday at Klawervlei Stud near Cape Town. He was 21.
By the Danzig stallion National Assembly, a top sire of sprinters in South Africa, and out of the Welsh Harmony mare Title Page, National Emblem won from 1,150 to 2,000 meters (about 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/4 miles) on the track. He was South Africa’s champion older horse in 1996 and won 14 of 26 races in his career, including three Group 1 stakes, and earned $213,793.
The California Cup will not be run in 2013, but will be moved to a date in January or early February at Santa Anita in 2014 as part of a revamped Golden State series for California-breds over the next 12 months.
The California Thoroughbred Breeders Association released its 2013-2014 Golden State series schedule on Thursday, and the revised date for the Cal Cup is the most significant of several changes.
As the outcome of the 2012 Eclipse Awards proved, a champion can come from anywhere in a sales catalog.
While the idea that you should spend millions at public auction to secure a future Eclipse Award winner did pan out in the case of Royal Delta, the list of champions was just as strongly represented by horses who could have been had for a far more modest price.
