Eight Rings had a dynamic start to his racing career in the summer and fall of 2019, winning a maiden race in his debut at Del Mar and the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita in his third outing.

As the most prominent new stallion in California in 2023, Eight Rings has a chance for a splashy beginning to his stud career as well.

By Empire Maker, Eight Rings will stand the 2023 breeding season at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez for a fee of $7,500, the highest price among a small number of new stallions in the state.

Flightline is not the only member of the incoming stallion class of 2023 who has merited a lofty six-figure introductory stud fee. Multiple Grade 1 winner Life Is Good, who like Flightline is expected to be an Eclipse Award finalist in the older dirt male category, has taken up residence at WinStar Farm for an advertised fee of $100,000.

Mandaloun already holds a place in racing history after being promoted to victory in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. He will now look to build a legacy for a storied international Thoroughbred operation.

Mandaloun, by leading sire and emerging sire of sires Into Mischief, retires to Juddmonte Farm in Nicholasville, Ky., for the 2023 season. He is the first horse to move into Juddmonte’s Kentucky stallion barn in about six years, since champion Arrogate arrived there in fall 2017.

Horse of the Year Gun Runner came out firing to be a smashing success in the early years of his stud career at Three Chimneys Farm. Now, he takes his next shots at seeing if he can carry his legacy forward into the next generation.

He was a seven-figure yearling, with all the high hopes implied. He was managed carefully, due to minor issues, but lived up to expectations on the racetrack, winning multiple Grade 1 events, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic to conclude his career. He then went on to become a breed-shaping sire, a star in every stage of his career.

Grade 1 winner Epicenter, who sustained a career-ending injury in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last month, will begin a stallion career at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., that operation announced Sunday. Epicenter is a grandson of the late Coolmore leading sire Giant’s Causeway, giving the international operation a chance to build upon that legacy in the United States.

Grade 1 winner Epicenter, who sustained a career-ending injury in the Breeders' Cup Classic last month, will begin a stallion career at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., that operation announced Sunday.

Epicenter, by the Giant's Causeway horse Not This Time, will stand for a fee of $45,000.

“He was a brilliant horse whose best racing days were still in front of him,” owner Ron Winchell said in a Coolmore release. “Bred on the reverse of Gun Runner’s Candy Ride-Giant’s Causeway cross, he’s a hugely exciting stallion prospect.”

The globe-trotting Ouija Board, a champion on two continents who went on to be a classic producer, has died in England at age 21. The Oasis Dream mare had resided at her owner and breeder Lord Darby’s Stanley House Stud in Newmarket.

Ce Ce, the champion female sprinter of 2021, was retired earlier this month after finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 5 at Keeneland.

A 6-year-old, Ce Ce won 11 of 23 starts and earned $2,407,100 for owner and breeder Bo Hirsch and trainer Michael McCarthy. Her career was highlighted by a win in the 2021 BC Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar and consecutive Grade 1 wins in the Beholder Mile at Santa Anita and Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park in the spring of 2020.

Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner and divisional Eclipse Award champion Shamrock Rose will be among the mares in unbeaten Flightline’s first book before departing for her new home in Japan.

Flightline is debuting for an advertised fee of $200,000 at Lane’s End. Farm principal Bill Farish said the stallion’s book will number around 150, and that there has been strong international interest, as well as the expected high-quality domestic mares.