Los Angeles philanthropist Sophie Stenbeck has donated $74,000 to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, designating the gift "to cover costs for preventive veterinary care, medical treatment for illness and injuries, as well as emergency care, for all horses in TRF's programs for whom vet care is not already sponsored by other donors," according to a retirement foundation release Monday.

"I know the cost of keeping a herd of 1,000 horses healthy," Stenbeck said in the release. "I am happy to provide the TRF these funds so that good care is not an issue."

Ol' Memorial Stable and Clinton Glasscock's Grade 3 winner Soaring Empire has retired, and stud plans are pending, the owners announced Monday.

A 5-year-old Empire Maker horse, Soaring Empire won last year's Grade 3 Hal's Hope Stakes at Gulfstream and two other stakes during a career that now ends with five wins, three seconds, and a pair of thirds. He placed in five other stakes, all graded, including a second in two Grade 2s. He earned $386,393.

D'wildcat, the sire of Grade 2 winner D' Funnybone and multiple stakes winner Authenticat, will relocate from Vinery Florida to Louisiana Stallion Station for the 2013 season.

A 14-year-old Forest Wildcat horse, D'wildcat stood in Florida this year for $6,500. Louisiana Stallion Station, located near Lafayette, La., hasn't set his 2013 fee yet.

Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, the homebreeding operation that produced and campaigns Frankel, has picked up three leading breeder awards from Britain’s Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association.

Four juveniles posted the fastest one-furlong time of 10 seconds Sunday for the fastest eighth-mile time at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s final under-tack show session before its June 2-year-old  and racing-age sale begins Tuesday.

The four were Hip No. 522, a Freud-Coming Home Queen colt; Hip No. 599, a Pulpit-Exogenetic colt; Hip No. 649, a Notional-Greer Lynn colt; and Hip No. 701, a Holy Bull-My Oh My colt.

Three juveniles breezed an eighth-mile in 10 seconds Friday as the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s June 2-year-old auction’s three-day preview got underway in Ocala, Fla.

The 10-second works were the fastest at the distance. The speedy trio was Hip No. 56, an Unbridled’s Song-Kauai Calls colt; Hip No. 1105, an Exclusive Quality-Mad About Julie filly; and Hip No. 134, a Bernstein-Miss Mambo colt. 

Exclusive Quality also had the day’s quickest three-eighths worker, a daughter of Runaway Silver cataloged as Hip No. 233. She went in 33.8 seconds.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Union Rags’s Belmont Stakes victory last weekend was a long time coming for Phyllis Wyeth. It took her two human and three equine generations to put Union Rags and his owner-breeder into the Belmont Stakes winner’s circle. The trip wasn’t without complications, but the colt’s connections believe the classic result was written in both the genes and the stars.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Best Present Ever is not the most robust filly in trainer Eric Kruljac’s stable.

“She’s probably 700 pounds, dripping wet,” he said.

So be it. She also is rapidly on the improve, winning her first stakes in the $100,000 Campanile for California-bred 3-year-old fillies at Golden Gate Fields on June 9. The victory has Kruljac and owner-breeders Dennis and Norine Grenier of Peoria, Ariz., planning a more ambitious start next month – the $250,000 American Oaks at Betfair Hollywood Park on July 14.

Jockey Club chairman and Thoroughbred owner-breeder Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps will receive the Earle Mack Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation Champion Award for his efforts in the areas of Thoroughbred racehorse welfare, safety, and retirement, the TRF announced Tuesday.

Phipps, a Jockey Club member since 1965 and its chairman since 1977, will receive the award at the TRF’s annual gala event in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Aug. 5.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s foundation mare Darara, dam of four Group 1 winners, died earlier this month at age 29, the Racing Post reported.

Darara had resided at the couple’s Watership Down Stud in England. Bred by the Aga Khan, the Top Ville mare was a Group 1 winner herself, having taken the Prix Vermeille for the Aga Khan in 1986. Her siblings included Group 1-winning half-brother Darshaan, who became a leading sire and broodmare sire.