Rulership, a Group 1 winner in Hong Kong this year, has been retired and will enter stud in 2013 at Shadai Stallion Station on the island of Hokkaido, Japan.
The 5-year-old King Kamehameha horse won eight of 20 career starts, earning $7,828,712.
He enjoyed his best season of racing in 2012, winning the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup in Hong Kong and the Group 2 American Jockey Club Cup in Japan, as well as recording four other Group 1 placings. Rulership won two Group 2 events in 2011.
Reigning Horse of the Year Havre de Grace will be sent to Tapit for her initial mating in 2013, while 2011 Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty will be bred to Distorted Humor.
Xaar, a European champion whose progeny have earned over $27 million, has been pensioned from stud duty by Darley Japan.
The 17-year-old Zafonic horse stood at Darley’s property on the island of Hokkaido for 500,000 yen (about $6,000) in 2012. According to published reports, he is likely to return to Europe for his retirement.
Xaar won the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes and Prix de Salamandre in 1997, earning the Cartier Award as Europe’s champion 2-year-old male. Overall, he tallied five wins from 11 starts—with four stakes wins—and earned $591,359 in three seasons of racing.
Acclamation is starting his stud career in 2013 at the top.
The soon-to-be 7-year-old is the first Eclipse Award winner to retire to stand his first year at stud in California since Bertrando, the champion older male of 1993. When Acclamation, the champion older male of 2011, is bred to his first mares at Old English Rancho in Sanger, Calif., in mid-February, he will command a stud fee of $20,000, which equals the highest in the state.
Empire Way, a full brother to champion Royal Delta, and California-based stallion Swiss Yodeler will stand at Terry Lovingier’s Lovacres Ranch near Warner Springs, Calif., for the 2013 breeding season.
Empire Way will stand his first season at stud for $5,000 while Swiss Yodeler, who entered stud in 1999, will stand for $3,000. The 18-year-old Eastern Echo horse stood for $4,000 at Harris Farms in 2012.
In November, Havre de Grace grabbed one more headline before heading off to her breeding career when she became the highest-priced broodmare prospect ever sold at public auction, going to Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm for $10 million at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale.
A month later, the 2011 Horse of the Year has settled into the next stage of her life, as a coming broodmare, at Wayne and Cathy Sweezey’s Timber Town Stable in Lexington, Ky.
International performer Scalo, a Group 1 winner in Germany, has been retired following a sesamoid injury.
Owner Michael Ostermann of Gestut Ittlingen, who campaigned Scalo as a homebred, said the 5-year-old Lando horse will begin his stud career at Haras du Logis Saint Germain in France, with a stud fee to be announced.
Indian Days, a multiple Group 2 winner in Turkey, has been retired and will begin his stud career in that country in 2013.
The 7-year-old Daylami horse will stand for the Turkish Jockey Club and will be managed by Cem Ozyigit.
Indian Days won consecutive editions of the Group 2 International Bosphorous Cup in Turkey, taking the event in both 2010 and 2011. He also won the Group 3 Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes in England, and earned three other stakes placings in that country.
He concludes his career with seven wins from 41 starts for earnings of $904,846.
Spendthrift farm is enrolling New York stallion Dublin in its Breed Secure program, which was launched two years ago to relieve commercial breeders of the risk of paying stud fees on some of its young Kentucky-based stallions.
The Breed Secure program guarantees a profit to breeders who sell the resulting in-foal mare, weanling or yearling at public auction before a stud fee is owed.
