Medaglia d'Oro, the sire of Rachel Alexandra and currently second among North America third-crop sires, will shuttle to Australia for the first time this year.
Darley Stud bought a majority interest in the popular 11-year-old stallion last summer and announced Saturday that it will stand him at Darley's Australian branch during the 2010 Southern Hemisphere season.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - If anyone doubted that new 2-year-old consignors Stacy Yagoda and Jill Julian could pull it off, they're not doubting anymore.
Last week, the exercise rider and former trainer brought their first horse to Fasig-Tipton's Calder select juvenile sale, a Distorted Humor colt they acknowledged was "like a fat third-grader" when they paid $200,000 for him last fall as a yearling. But when the March 2 auction ended, Yagoda and Julian had earned the sale's biggest paycheck: $2.3 million from buyer Jess Jackson.
Desert Code, the winner of the 2008 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita, will stand at stud this year at Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif., the farm and trainer David Hofmans said on Friday
Desert Code made his final start in the BC Turf Sprint at Santa Anita last November, finishing 13th. A 6-year-old by E Dubai, Desert Code ended his career with 7 wins in 24 starts and earnings of $1,088,939. Owned by Tarabilla Farms, Desert Code won five stakes, including the Grade 3 Affirmed Handicap on the main track at Hollywood Park in 2007.
ARCADIA, Calif. - For California's stallion farms, 50 is the new 100 - at least in terms of the number of mares a stallion can attract.
A little marketing and salesmanship from the state's stallion farm operators have been necessary to lure a dwindling number of mare owners. While some stallions, such as Unusual Heat, who led the state's stallions in progeny earnings in 2008 and 2009, can attract full books, many will have book sizes ranging from 40 to 70, depending on bloodlines and race records and how their progeny have fared.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland's September yearling auction, the largest Thoroughbred sale in the world, will begin this year with two nighttime select sessions as part of a new format the auction house revealed Friday.
The auction, slated to begin Sept. 12, will open Sunday instead of the traditional Monday start. The first two sessions, the select portion of the sale, will offer a total of about 200 horses, roughly half what the opening two days of the September auction has cataloged in recent years.
Fasig-Tipton's Calder select 2-year-old sale ended Tuesday with a $2.3 million sale-topper and sizeable gains in average and median. Those results have increased sale executives' and sellers' optimism that the Thoroughbred market is turning a corner.
Hermen Greenberg, breeder of Colonial Affair, died Sunday in Washington, D.C., according to an obituary in the Washington Post. He was 89.
Greenberg owned Rutledge Farm in Middleburg, Va.
Colonial Affair won the Belmont Stakes in 1993 and the Whitney Handicap and Jockey Club Gold Cup the following year. Greenberg also campaigned graded winner Researcher and bred Sur La Tete, winner of the prestigious Iroquois Steeplechase in both 2005 and 2006.
Frank Stronach s Adena Springs South in Williston, Fla., will host its ninth annual spring 2-year-old sale on April 18.
Adena Springs, which led all North American breeders by purse earnings for the seventh consecutive year in 2009, has cataloged 46 horses to the sale.
The Ocala Breeders Sales Company will conduct the auction at the Adena Springs South farm at 6 p.m. on April 18. The under-tack show also will take place at Adena Springs South on 8 a.m. on the morning of the sale.
Sellers and auction executives are hoping for stabilization on Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton's select 2-year-old sale at Calder Race Course. But even if the juvenile marketplace is starting to recover from the Thoroughbred industry's economic crisis, sale officials say it's still likely to remain highly selective in the near term.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Four fillies posted the fastest eighth-mile time of 10.20 seconds Saturday at Fasig-Tipton's under-tack show for its March 2 Calder select 2-year-old sale in Miami.
The four were Hip No. 90, a Dixie Union-Icy Demeanor filly consigned by W.D. North Thoroughbreds, agent; Hip No. 179, a Sharp Humor-Secret Hills filly consigned by Scanlon Training Center, agent; Hip No. 197, an Awesome Again-Stop the Lights filly that Harris Training Center, agent, consigns; and Hip No. 227, a Yes It's True-Val Marie filly also from the Scanlon Training Center.
