Champion sprinter Benny the Bull will stand the 2013 breeding season at Eugene Melnyk’s Winding Oaks Farm in Ocala for an advertised fee of $2,500 live foal.
The 9-year-old Lucky Lionel horse moves from Vinery Florida in Summerfield, where he stood for $2,000 in 2012. His first foals will be 2-year-olds of 2013. Benny the Bull will arrive at Winding Oaks before the end of December after returning from Brazil, where he stood the Southern Hemisphere season at Haras Santa Teresa.
An upcoming provision on whether a race gets black type in catalogs will put more than half of North America’s stakes races under review and might cost the first three finishers in some stakes black type. This new measure also could dramatically alter the landscape for regional breeding programs.
Sheikh Ahmed al Maktoum and Darley Stable’s 4-year-old Selkirk filly Nahrain, winner of the Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes this year, has been retired and will join Darley Stable’s broodmare band.
Trained in England by Roger Varian, Nahrain did not start at 2, and at 3 won her first four starts, capped by a nose victory over Announce in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp. In her next start, she finished a game second to Perfect Shirl in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs.
Pulpit, a multiple Grade 2 winner and prominent sire, died in his paddock at Claiborne Farm on Thursday at age 18. The stallion had shown no signs of ill health in the weeks prior to his death.
“We are all shocked and very sad,” said Bradley Purcell, farm manager for Claiborne. “Pulpit has meant so much to Claiborne Farm, first as a racehorse and later as a stallion. Thankfully, we know his legacy will continue on through his sons and daughters.”
Grade 2 winner Overdriven will stand the 2013 breeding season at Ocala Stud in Ocala, Fla., for an introductory fee of $3,000 when the foal stands and nurses.
The 3-year-old Tale of the Cat colt was retired late last month with a shoulder injury.
Overdriven won two of three career starts, earning $129,750. The colt won his career debut in July 2011 at Belmont Park, running five furlongs in 56.42 seconds to miss the track record by .67 of a second.
Bullet Train, a Group 3 winner and a three-quarter-brother to two-time European Horse of the Year Frankel, will stand his first season at stud at Wintergreen Stallion Station in Midway, Ky., for a fee of $7,500, payable when the foal stands and nurses.
A 5-year-old Sadler’s Wells horse, Bullet Train was bred and raced by Juddmonte Farm, and he will be managed at stud by Bob Feld, who helped broker the deal to stand the horse in Kentucky.
Tersa, the dam of multiple Grade 1 winner and millionaire Rock Hard Ten, died Nov. 27 at Diamond A Farms in Versailles, Ky.
According to published reports, the 26-year-old Mr. Prospector mare was euthanized due to complications of old age.
Tersa was named France’s champion 2-year-old filly of 1988 on the strength of victories in the Group 1 Prix Morny and Group 3 Prix du Bois. She also finished third in the Group 3 Prix Quincey in 1989. Overall, she won three of 14 career starts for earnings of $151,850.
Sequel Stallions in Hudson, N.Y., has unveiled its 2013 stallion roster and fees, and leading sire Freud’s fee will remain unchanged from 2012 at $10,000.
Freud, a 13-year-old Storm Cat horse who is a full brother to Giant’s Causeway, is New York’s leading sire of graded stakes winners, the state’s leading turf sire, and leading New York sire by Average Earnings Index. From eight crops of racing age, Freud’s progeny have earned more than $23 million, highlighted by Grade 1 winners Giant Ryan and Franny Freud.
Banimpire, a five-time group stakes winner, brought about $2.5 million Tuesday as the day’s most expensive horse at the Tattersalls December breeding stock sale in Newmarket, England.
Reiley McDonald of Eaton Sales agency made the winning bid of 1.5 million guineas for the 4-year-old Holy Roman Emperor filly but did not disclose his client’s identity. Her sale was the highlight on a day that saw mixed results overall.
Henny Hughes, currently ranked second on the North American juvenile sire list, will return to the United States for the 2013 Northern Hemisphere breeding season. John T.L. Jones III, managing director of Walmac Stud Management, announced Tuesday that Walmac has leased the 9-year-old son of Hennessy from his owners at Rangeview Stud in western Australia. He will stand at Walmac Farm in Lexington, Ky., for a fee of $7,500 when the foal stands and nurses.
