Grade 3 winner Stratford Hill was officially retired on Thursday and will begin his stud career in 2013 at Winding Oaks Farm in Ocala, Fla. He will stand for an introductory fee of $3,500 live foal.
The 5-year-old A.P. Indy horse won four of six starts in two seasons of racing for owner-breeder Eugene Melnyk, culminating with a win in the Grade 3 Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland in April 2011. He was undefeated after switching from dirt to turf sprints and earned $160,400.
Keeneland has cataloged 1,893 horses for its January horses of all ages sale, to be held Jan. 7-11. The sale consists of 832 broodmares and broodmare prospects, 731 yearlings, 327 horses of racing age, two stallions, and one share in Corinthian.
At this year’s five-day January sale, 1,021 horses sold for a total of $25,250,350, a 5.7 percent increase when compared with 2011. The average price was $24,731, and the median was $7,500.
Lentenor, a full brother to 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, has been retired and will enter stud in 2013 at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Ky.
A stud fee and terms for the 5-year-old Dynaformer horse are pending.
Campaigned as a homebred by Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stables, Lentenor won 4 of 17 career starts for earnings of $184,406. He captured the Kitten’s Joy Stakes in July at Colonial Downs and also established a course record at Tampa Bay Downs last year, running 1 1/16 miles on turf in 1:40.95.
President of Three Chimneys, a prominent Kentucky stud farm and auction consignor that recently joined Brazilian-based breeder and owner Goncalo Torrealba to purchase broodmare Pure Clan, in foal to Bernardini, for $4.5 million. The price topped the 11-day Keeneland November sale. Soon after, Clay − son of the farm’s founders, Robert and Blythe Clay − confirmed that the Midway, Ky., nursery had formed a partnership with Torrealba’s newest venture, Borges Torrealba.
Millionaire and multiple graded stakes winner Rule has been retired from racing and will stand the 2013 season at Vinery New York in Poughquag.
The 5-year-old Roman Ruler horse and WinStar Farm homebred will join productive young sire Bluegrass Cat as a Vinery/WinStar venture standing in New York. His introductory fee will be $6,500 when the foal stands and nurses and he will also participate in the “Dream Big” breeders’ program.
Young stallion Talent Search will stand the 2013 breeding season at Ramsey Farm in Nicholasville, Ky.
The 9-year-old Catienus horse, who will be represented by his first crop of 2-year-olds on the track next year, stood the 2012 season at Diamond B Farm in Mohrsville, Pa. for a fee of $2,500 when the foal stands and nurses. He will stand for the same fee at Ramsey Farm.
Talent Search raced as a homebred for Ken and Sarah Ramsey, winning 6 of 15 career starts in four seasons and earning $603,360.
Millionaire and multiple graded stakes winner Smart Bid has been retired and will enter stud in 2013 at Highcliff at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater, N.Y.
The 6-year-old Smart Strike horse, who raced as a homebred for George Strawbridge, Jr., will stand for a fee of $4,500 when the foal stands and nurses.
Team Valor has retired Grade 1-winning filly Summer Soiree, who finished third Sunday in the Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park.
The 4-year-old daughter of War Front will be bred to Medaglia d’Oro in 2013, and Team Valor plans to offer her for auction in foal at next year’s November sales.
Summer Soiree won last year’s Del Mar Oaks and finished second to Star Billing in the 2011 Matriarch, both Grade 1 events. She also won the Grade 3 Boiling Springs Stakes and Bourbonette Oaks last season.
Nathan Tinkler, the 36-year-old Australian mining tycoon whose Patinack Farm was a prominent select auction spender in recent years, has been sued by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Kildangan Stud.
The Irish Times reported Sunday that the suit, filed earlier this month in New South Wales, concerns alleged nonpayment of stud fees, and Kildangan issued a statement stating only that the case “is a commercial matter . . . relating to Thoroughbred stallion nominations.”
