DEL MAR, Calif. – The racing career of Bold Chieftain – which lasted nearly five years, featured 17 wins, 13 stakes wins, and earnings of more than $1.5 million – ended with a last-place finish in the California Dreamin’ Handicap at Del Mar last Sunday.

It was a disappointing result for the 7-year-old, and one that led trainer and co-owner Bill Morey to announce earlier this week that Bold Chieftain was done racing and would be sent to stud in 2011, hopefully in California.

Keeneland’s reformatted September yearling sale catalog will number 4,857 this year, down 6 percent from last year in a climate of shrinking North American foal crops.
The September sale will run Sept. 12-26 at Keeneland’s Lexington sale pavilion. But this year its first two sessions, the auction’s select portion, will be limited to a total of 211 yearlings and will be held at night. Traditionally, the sale’s first two days have been all-day sessions. The 2010 evening sessions on Sunday, Sept. 12, and Monday, Sept. 13, will begin at 7 p.m.

Claiborne Farm wears its 100 years lightly. The entrance is flanked by unpretentious, ivy-laden stone pillars from a time when Kentucky's stud farms were working farms first and showplaces by virtue of hard-earned reputation, not expensive architecture.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland’s reformatted September yearling sale catalog will number 4,857 this year, down 6 percent from last year in a climate of shrinking North American foal crops.

The September sale will run Sept. 12-26 at Keeneland’s Lexington sale pavilion. But this year its first two sessions, the auction’s select portion, will be limited to a total of 211 yearlings and will be held at night. Traditionally, the sale’s first two days have been all-day sessions. The 2010 evening sessions on Sunday, Sept. 12, and Monday, Sept. 13, will begin at 7 p.m.

An attorney for the financially embattled Stonewall Farm said Wednesday that recent Florida bankruptcy filings by three Stonewall-related entities will not affect business at the farm’s new stallion base in Ocala, Fla.

Potential bidders at Fasig-Tipton’s Aug. 2-3 Saratoga select yearling sale will, for the first time, be able to view video clips of most of the cataloged yearlings.

The clips will be available through the Fasig-Tipton TV and interactive catalog sections of Fasig-Tipton’s website at www.fasigtipton.com or on mobile devices via mobile.fasigtipton.com. Video clips show headshots, walking, and profile conformation shots.

Three entities related to Audrey Haisfield’s Stonewall Farm in Kentucky have filed for bankruptcy in a Florida court.

In court filings on July 24 and 25, Haisfield-managed NeverTell Farm Kentucky V, Stone*Wall Farm Stallions IV, and Stone*Wall Farm Stallions XI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Jacksonville, Fla., claiming estimated liabilities of more than $10 million for each. The two Stone*Wall entities estimate assets of between $100,000 and $500,000, while NeverTell lists assets of between $1 million and $10 million.

Graham Beck, a South African winemaker and owner of Gainesway Farm in Kentucky and Highlands Stud in South Africa, died Monday night in London, Bloomberg reported. Beck was 80 and will be buried in Israel.

Al Corrado, one of Ohio’s top breeders and president of the Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners in 1989-1990, died Saturday at the Cleveland Clinic at age 83.

Corrado bred and raced Star Of the Night, Ohio horse of the year in 1992. Another of his top statebreds was two-time champion filly Cut the Cuteness, who won 12 stakes. He also bred and raced graded stakes winner Dynamite Lass, who won the grade 111 The Very One stakes at Gulfstream Park.

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association will host a pedigree and conformation clinic on Aug. 2 and a Thoroughbred ownership seminar on Aug. 5 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The pedigree and conformation clinic, scheduled for 8 a.m. at Fasig-Tipton's sale pavilion, costs $125 for TOBA members and $175 for non-members and includes all materials, breakfast, and lunch. Topics will include nicking, Dosage, outcrossing, inbreeding, and live conformation evaluations.