LEXINGTON, Ky. – Diana and Bert Firestone have retired their homebred Grade 1 winner Winchester, the Blood-Horse has reported.
There are no stud plans yet, and Winchester, a 7-year-old Theatrical horse, is available for inspection at Miacomet Farm in Georgetown, Ky.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – In a move that would bring a stallion operation to Calumet Farm for the first time in at least seven years, the historic Lexington farm will stand Cactus Ridge in 2012.
A 11-year-old Hennessy horse, Cactus Ridge has relocated to Calumet from Vinery and will stand for $5,000 in 2012.
Never Retreat, a Grade 1 winner, has been retired and will be bred this winter to War Front, trainer Chris Block said Monday.
Team Block, the 7-year-old mare’s owner, originally intended to retire Never Retreat following the Matriarch Stakes on Nov. 25 at Santa Anita, but after the mare finished third at 4-5 in that race, a final start in the Jan. 7 Marshua’s River had been considered. Never Retreat was shipped to Florida and worked twice at Gulfstream in December, but she came out of her most recent drill with a minor foot problem.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Ben Warren, one of California’s most prolific owner-breeders in recent years, has stopped breeding and will wind down his racing operation in coming years, he said on Thursday.
Warren does not plan to breed any horses in 2012, but said he will continue to race the approximately 150 horses of racing age and 2-year-olds he owns. In addition, Warren has a crop of horses that will be yearlings in 2012.
“The breeding is done,” he said at Santa Anita.
In recent months, visitors have arrived unannounced at Magali Farms on Casey Avenue in Santa Ynez, Calif., with one objective – a chance to meet 2005 Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo.
“It’s amazing the amount of following he has from the general public,” said Magali Farms manager Tom Hudson.
“He’s great with people. We show him in the walking ring and he stands and poses. People get their picture taken with him. Everybody wants to pet a Kentucky Derby winner.”
The list of stallions joining the ranks of California’s breeding farms for 2012 has created a buzz.
It is not often that new bloodlines at the state’s breeding farms include a Kentucky Derby winner – 2005 winner Giacomo, bound for Magali Farms – or a Grade 1 winner – Heatseeker, on his way to Harris Farms. Both horses stood at farms in Kentucky in 2011 and are part of a group of 16 stallions beginning their stud careers or standing in the state for the first time in 2012.
Gretchen and Roy Jackson, who race under the name Lael Stables, have donated $150,000 to the Belmont Child Care Association, which runs the Anna House day-care center at Belmont Park in New York. One-hundred thousand dollars of the donation will go to the Lael Stable Fund, a program administered by the child-care association to provide early childhood education to the children of backstretch workers at New York tracks, and the remaining $50,000 had been earmarked for the association's general fund. . . .
