Cot Campbell's Dogwood Stable syndicate and Aron Wellman and Lee Midkiff's California-based Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners have formed a joint venture. Under the arrangement, South Carolina-based Dogwood will be able to offer its members shares in Eclipse runners and establish a California presence, while Eclipse will gain access to Dogwood's training grounds in Aiken, S.C. The venture also will streamline both groups' financial operations under a single chief financial officer, current Dogwood treasurer William Victor.

Giant Ryan took home three awards, including 2011 New York-bred Horse of the year, Monday night when the New York Thoroughbred Breeders announced its statebred champions.

Juveniles by Into Mischief, Latent Heat, and City Place were the fastest over a furlong Monday at Fasig-Tipton’s under-tack show for its Texas 2-year-old auction in Grand Prairie, Tex.

The auction takes place April 5 at Lone Star Park in a one-day session starting at 11 a.m.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A barn fire Sunday at James “Luke” and Jocelyn McKathan’s Reddick, Fla., farm and training center has killed nine Thoroughbreds, according to a report in the Ocala Star-Banner. 

Three other horses also suffered burn injuries but were rescued from the single-barn fire, which also injured one farm employee, who reportedly declined hospital treatment. J.B. McKathan, a bloodstock agent and pinhooker who is a son of the farm owners, told the Star-Banner that it was not yet clear whether those horses would survive.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ashford Stud stallion Grand Slam died Saturday afternoon of heart failure, Ashford’s owner Coolmore Stud announced Sunday.

The Gone West horse was 17. It was the second major stallion loss recently for the Irish-based Coolmore, whose very successful stallion Montjeu died last week of septicemia.

Borgia, the German and French champion mare who finished a close second in the 1997 Breeders’ Cup Turf, has been euthanized after a severe case of colic, Racing Post reported Friday.

The 18-year-old Acatenango mare died at Gestut Ammerland outside Munich. Borgia’s owner and breeder, Dietrich von Boetticher, owns the farm.

Rousing Sermon, the champion 2-year-old California-bred male of 2011, needs a strong result in Sunday’s $1 million Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds to justify a start in the Kentucky Derby on May 5.

That’s the approach owners Larry and Marianne Williams are taking, according to their racing manager, Dan Kiser.

Going into the weekend, Rousing Sermon has $170,000 in graded stakes earnings, a sum that ranked him among the top 20 3-year-olds in the nation. The top 20 3-year-olds, ranked by graded stakes earnings, gain berths for the Kentucky Derby.

Shackleford, winner of the 2011 Preakness, will enter stud at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Ky., at the end of this year's racing season.

Montjeu, one of Coolmore Stud’s best sires and the highest-rated runner by their great Sadler’s Wells, died Thursday “after a short illness which was due to complications from an overwhelming septicemia” – an infection known as blood poisoning – the Irish-based farm announced. Montjeu was 16.

last year, Montjeu sired 15 group or graded winners in the Northern Hemisphere, including Epsom Derby winner Pour Moi. That was his third Epsom Derby winner, following Motivator in 2005 and Authorized in 2007. He also sired runners-up Walk in the Park (2005) and Fame and Glory (2009).

Fasig-Tipton’s Florida select 2-year-old sale became the first of the season to sell a $1 million horse, and it happened three times Monday at the Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Fla.