While rising to the top levels of the sport, trainer Ken McPeek developed a reputation for finding talented runners at bargain prices. One of those was a Smart Strike colt named Curlin whom he purchased for $57,000 at the 2005 Keeneland September yearling sale on behalf of original owner Midnight Cry Stable. With McPeek having taken a sabbatical from training, the colt went to his former assistant Helen Pitts and later moved to Steve Asmussen after a private purchase.

Curlin earned two Horse of the Year titles and more than $10.5 million.

The Jockey Club has released its breeding statistics and resulting foaling statistics for the 2020 season, reporting that 1,447 stallions covered 29,699 mares in North America, leading to a continued contraction of the foal crop.

Multiple Grade 1 winner Lord Nelson, who fought through laminitis to have a stud career, has succumbed to the dreaded hoof disease. Spendthrift Farm announced Thursday that the 9-year-old son of Pulpit has been euthanized.

Munnings, who stands at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, was a consistent graded stakes performer throughout his racing career, and has enjoyed consistent success throughout his stud career. He has 59 stakes winners to his credit, including four Grade 1 winners.

In the midst of an outstanding season – he ranks sixth on the general sires list through Sunday – Munnings recorded his second Grade 1-winning son on Saturday when Jack Christopher won the Champagne Stakes at Belmont.

Jack Christopher could prove to be an important horse for Munnings’s legacy.

With a bevy of stakes races for juveniles around the country over the weekend, three prominent sires each recorded a milestone victory.

Two-time Eclipse Award champion Monomoy Girl will be bred to two-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief in her first season as a broodmare, Spendthrift Farm confirmed Monday.

Appropriately, a deeply rooted Illinois-bred captured what is expected to be the final race in the storied history of Arlington Park on Saturday evening. Sister Ruler, who is stakes-placed at Arlington, captured an allowance turf sprint for fillies and mares to close out the program.

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Richard L. Golden, one of the founders of nationally prominent Northview Stallion Station in Maryland, died of natural causes in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sept. 18. He was 82.

Golden, a native of the Bronx, purchased an undeveloped property in Chesapeake City in 1986 and created Sycamore Hall Farm, which was successful in turning out dozens of Maryland-bred stakes winners. Just two years later, he was part of the team that stepped in to create Northview Stallion Station, located just a mile down the road from Sycamore Hall.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Consignor James M. Herbener Jr., whose operation is active at the Keeneland September yearling sale, died Sunday morning at his home in Georgetown, Ky., from a suspected heart attack. He was 69.

Herbener’s agency sold a pair of horses at Keeneland September’s Sunday session, an $80,000 Arrogate filly and a $70,000 Nyquist filly. His consignment has five horses remaining to offer this week, and Herbener’s daughter, Heather, along with longtime friend John Williams will handle those duties.

Grade 1 winner Basin has been retired and will enter stud at Spendthrift Farm in 2022.