Frank Stronach's Adena Springs led all breeders by earnings in 2009, the seventh consecutive year it has achieved that distinction.
Adena-bred runners won 568 races from 3,903 starts and earned $12,853,329, according to data released Wednesday by the Jockey Club Information Systems. Adena Springs also headed the breeders' rankings on a list that included breeding partnerships, with the winners of 568 races from 3,908 starts for earnings of $12,856,254.
Adena Springs in Paris, Ky., has revised 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper's stud fee, cutting it to $30,000 for the upcoming breeding season. The farm originally announced that the Awesome Again horse would stand for $50,000.
Stud fees have faced downward pressure in the last 12 months as the bloodstock market and breeding activity have declined. Ghostzapper is entering his fourth year at stud.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A trainer cannot be any more responsible for a stakes winner than Bruce Headley is for M One Rifle, the California-bred who won the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
Headley not only bred M One Rifle in partnership but bought both the gelding's sire (One Man Army) and dam (Leanessa) as yearlings.
"It's the first time I've ever done that," Headley said.
From that mating, Headley and partners Ed Bernstein, Brian Greenspun, and Irwin Molasky have a 4-year-old Califrornia-bred with two stakes wins and plenty of options for the future.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Breeding season traditionally starts Feb. 15, and for the second year in a row, breeding sheds will open with generally lower stud fees. But will mare owners be lined up outside? That's the question on most stallion managers' minds right now, and they have good reason to wonder.
Last year, after devastating declines at the 2008 auctions, North America's mare owners sent 14 percent fewer mares to the breeding shed. They also delayed mating the broodmares they kept in production. Waiting paid off, as stud farms cut fees and offered breeding incentives.
The 14 stallions who will stand their first seasons at stud in California in 2010 represent a wide variety of prospects for mare owners. There is a Santa Anita Handicap winner, a California-bred millionaire, and multiple stakes winners on turf among the stallions, who are starting their careers or relocating from other states in the new year.
Promoting a new stallion such as Dixie Chatter to mare owners will present some challenges for the team at River Edge Farm in Buellton, Calif., in coming months. The same goes for the way that Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez will market the multiple stakes winner Whatsthescript.
The horses were successful on the track, but both specialized in an aspect of racing that has not typically been sought by California breeders. They were best on turf.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Caracortado has succeeded at every level tried this fall, winning a cheap maiden claimer at Fairplex Park, and a starter allowance and an allowance race at the Hollywood Park fall meeting.
Next is a race that will define his career for the next several months - the $100,000 California Breeders' Champion Stakes on Saturday's opening-day program at Santa Anita. The California Breeders' Champion Stakes is run over 1 1/16 miles, making it the longest race of the 2-year-old California-bred gelding's career.
Benny the Bull, the 6-year-old champion sprinter of 2008, will stand at Vinery in Summerfield, Fla., in 2010 for a fee of $4,000, the owners of the farm announced on Wednesday.
By Lucky Lionel out of the Birdonthewire dam Comet Cat, Benny the Bull was voted champion sprinter of 2008 after winning all four of his starts that year, including the Group 1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai. Briefly retired after the championship campaign because of an ankle injury, Benny the Bull returned to racing this year and finished second in two Grade 2 stakes, the True North and Smile Sprint handicaps.
Parading, the winner of this year's Grade 2 Dixie Stakes, has been retired to Claiborne Stud and will stand for $3,500 in 2010, the farm announced on Tuesday.
Owned and bred by the Phipps Stable and trained by Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey, Parading is by Pulpit out of the Storm Cat mare On Parade, who is a full sister to Storm Flag Flying, another Phipps homebred who was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2002. Storm Flag Flying's dam, My Flag, also a Phipps homebred, was a multiple Grade 1 winner, and her dam was Personal Ensign, the undefeated 1988 champion older female horse.
