This year’s survey of the Midwest stallion market and the corresponding broodmare population reflects the pragmatic attitude regional breeders have adopted since the nation’s economic downturn that preceded the 2009 breeding season. While returns at the major Thoroughbred sales this year are registering increases compared with the last several years, stallion and mare populations in the Midwest have remained constant, even in states where purses are supplemented by added gaming revenue.

As a Grade 1 winner with brilliant speed and more than $1 million in earnings, Euroears could have retired to stud in Kentucky, the Thoroughbred breeding capital of the world. But with his owners, Jim and Marilyn Helzer, in the stallion business, too, Euroears will launch his breeding career in Oklahoma at their JEH Stallion Station in Wynnewood.

An 8-year-old son of Langfuhr, he is the highest-profile newcomer to the state, and he will be available to both Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse mares in a practice often seen in the Southwest.

The news that Carrol Castille, a major Louisiana Thoroughbred player, had acquired Closing Argument to stand the 2012 breeding season at Whispering Oaks Farm was meaningful in and of itself. The flow of higher-level stallions into Louisiana has slowed to a trickle, and Closing Argument is one of the more promising studs to enter the state in several years.

Last August, after years of legal battle, more than $140 million in impact fees collected from four northern Illinois casinos was distributed to the Illinois racing industry. Purses went up at the end of the Arlington season and during Hawthorne’s fall-winter meet, and they will stay at elevated levels for a couple of more years. But what does the future hold for Illinois racing?

The Arkansas breeding industry picked up two significant sources of speed for 2012 in J Be K and The Daddy. The stallions are standing at Trophy Club Training Center in Royal, the former Kilkerry Farm which was owned by the late Bob Holthus.

“We want to kind of follow like Bob did,” said Richard Hessee, who bought the property from Holthus. “He always had some nice stallions here in Arkansas. We want to keep improving the Arkansas-bred quality.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. − Nearly four years after the bloodstock market’s 2008 crash, there is some evidence the Thoroughbred breeding market has turned a corner. Last year’s rising auction prices could be the longed-for green shoots of economic recovery. But breeders and stallion managers say the 2008 recession has left deep marks on Kentucky’s breeding business, from a decline in mare population to the terms of breeding contracts.

Acclamation, honored last month as the nation’s outstanding older male of 2011, took home another prize for that campaign on Monday – California-bred Horse of the Year.

The announcement was made at the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association’s annual dinner in Pasadena.
Owned by a partnership led by Bud Johnston, Acclamation was also named champion California-bred older male and turf horse, titles that were announced last month.

Mignon Comer Smith, the Washington, D.C., horsewoman who owned Mede Cahaba Stable and was a prominent steeplechase owner, died Feb. 10 in Washington of a heart attack. She was 81.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Racing fans will have the chance to name Rachel Alexandra’s first foal, the Curlin colt born Jan. 22, in a contest her owners announced on Feb. 14.

Fasig-Tipton has cataloged 167 horses to its Florida sale, a select 2-year-old auction that will take place on March 26 at the Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Fla.