France’s Arqana auction house has issued a 165-horse catalog for its May breeze-up sale at the Saint-Cloud racecourse.
The 2-year-old in training sale will take place May 11-12, starting at 2 p.m. local time each day. Eighty-five of the sale entrants are eligible for French breeders’ premiums, according to Arqana. The catalog is available online at www.arqana.com.
Rachel Alexandra, the 2009 Horse of the Year, is carrying her second foal, according to owner Stonestreet Farms’ Facebook page. Rachel Alexandra was bred to Bernardini this year.
The 6-year-old Medaglia d’Oro mare was the first of two female Horses of the Year to produce their first foals this year. Rachel Alexandra’s first foal, a colt by Stonestreet Stables runner Curlin, was born Jan. 22 at the Lexington, Ky., farm. Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse of the Year, had her first foal, a Bernardini colt, on March 8 at Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky.
LEXINGTON, Ky. − For fans of Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta, 2012 has been a special year. Both mares, voted Horse of the Year in 2009 and 2010, respectively − produced their first foals on central Kentucky farms. The transition from racemare to broodmare usually takes place well out of the spotlight, and many successful female racing stars fade from view once they arrive at the private breeding farms for their new careers.
Louise Ireland Humphrey, who bred Gemologist and other graded winners, died March 18 at her Woodfield Springs Plantation in Miccosukee, Fla., according to the Tallahassee Democrat. She was 93.
Humphrey bred Gemologist in partnership with her son G. Watts Humphrey Jr. WinStar owns the undefeated Tiznow colt, who is pointing for the April 7 Wood Memorial following a seven-length allowance score at Gulfstream on March 16. The son of Crystal Shard, by Mr. Prospector, won last year’s Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Stonestreet Stables’s “Name Rachel’s Foal” contest generated more than 6,500 submissions from around the world, from which the stable expects to choose a winner by this summer.
The six-day contest drew a total of 6,521 name suggestions for the 2009 Horse of the Year’s first foal, a colt by two-time Horse of the Year Curlin that was born Jan. 22 in Lexington. Stonestreet Stables owns both Rachel Alexandra and Curlin.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky’s historic Claiborne Farm has donated a 3,000-acre conservation easement to the Bluegrass Conservancy in a move that will protect the farm from development.
The easement covers the entire farm, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010. The farm has been in the Hancock family since its founding. Its current owners – siblings Seth, Dell, and Clay Hancock – and Seth’s children, Allison and Walker Hancock, donated the easement.
A total of 134 juveniles have been cataloged to the John Franks Memorial 2-year-olds in training sale at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La., on March 25. The sale will begin at 10 a.m. Central. There will be gallop preview show this coming Saturday, March 24.
Last year, 113 lots sold for a cumulative $901,500, or an average of $7,978, according to Charlotte Stemmans Clavier, president of Stemmans Inc., administrator for the sale at Evangeline.
The New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, New York Racing Association, and New York Thoroughbred Breeders have formed a new program, called TAKE2, that aims to create new career opportunities for retired racing Thoroughbreds and build demand for them in the horse show community.
The three associations will jointly sponsor Thoroughbred-only divisions for hunters and jumpers at the 2012 Skidmore College Saratoga Classic and Saratoga Springs horse shows, a series of four shows. The shows will take place at Saratoga Race Course.
