Charles Town's 2-year-old sensation Russell Road delivered as hoped for in the West Virginia Futurity last Saturday night, drawing off to an 8 1/2-length victory in an impressive seven-furlong time of 1:26.02.
It was the fifth win in six starts for the colt, who is being hailed as possibly the best 2-year-old ever to compete at the West Virginia track.
As a half-brother to four other Charles Town stakes performers, Russell Road figured to have a fair amount of horsepower.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - With an impressive front-running victory in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs last Saturday, the Medaglia d'Oro filly Rachel Alexandra has moved to the top of the class among her sire's first-crop runners. Furthermore, Rachel Alexandra now ranks within hailing distance of this year's leading 2-year-old filly, Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Stardom Bound.
Strength in numbers is the theme of the finalists for the 2008 Sovereign Awards for outstanding breeder and broodmare in Canada. The winners will be announced Friday at a ceremony in downtown Toronto.
Adena Springs, owned by Frank Stronach, seems poised to garner its fourth consecutive top breeder award and eighth overall since the awards were initiated in 1975.
Burlington, Vt., is not usually associated with horse country, but for Amy Tarrant, the owner of Hard Acres Farm in Ocala, Fla., Burlington is where her lifelong romance with horses began.
"Our neighbors had horses, and my sister and I just loved being around them," Tarrant said. "We pleaded with our father to buy us a pony. He did. And I have been involved with horses ever since."
With three weeks left in the year, Read the Footnotes is on course to be the Empire State's leading first-crop sire for 2008.
A 7-year-old son of champion Smoke Glacken, Read the Footnotes has consistently ranked in the top 20 nationally and has current earnings of $540,000, with 11 winners from 20 runners, including four stakes horses. His top earner is Forty Thieves at $146,893.
Winner of the Monmouth Park NATC Futurity, he is out of Caitlin's Mystery, by Meadowlake.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Azeri, three-time champion mare and 2002's Horse of the Year, will sell at Keeneland's January all-ages auction, which will take place in Lexington from Jan. 12-17.
Hill 'n' Dale Farm will consign the 10-year-old Azeri in foal to 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper. Hill 'n' Dale will represent the Allen E. Paulson Living Trust at the auction.
Grade 3 winner Indygo Shiner, who sired this year's Argentine Derby, Oaks, and 2000 Guineas winners, will stand at Hill 'n' Dale Farm in Lexington, Ky., in 2009.
A 10-year-old A. P. Indy horse, Indygo Shiner stands in Argentina at Haras de la Quebrada during the Southern Hemisphere breeding season and is Argentina's leading sire with two crops to race.
He will stand for $7,500.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Two more prominent Lexington stallion operations have issued new, lower fees for their sires in 2009, following a trend to cut back stallion fees in light of the plummeting bloodstock market.
Gainesway Farm announced Monday it will slash fashionable sire Mr. Greeley's fee from his previously advertised $100,000 to $75,000.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Joanne Jubilation, a $34,000 mare in foal to Bold Executive, topped the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's winter mixed sale at the Woodbine Sales Pavilion on Saturday.
Zayat Stable purchased Joanne Jubilation, an unraced 5-year-old, from Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency, as agent.
Two weanlings brought $20,000 each, a colt by Holy Bull and a filly by Hook and Ladder.
The top-priced yearling was a $20,000 colt by Perigee Moon.
The sale posted significant decreases in both gross and average compared to the 2007 sale.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Following up on a general trend to reduce stud fees that began with Claiborne Farm after the decline in yearling prices at the September sales, a number of farms have instigated a second wave of reductions for some or all of their stallions, including the most elite sires, such as A.P. Indy and Distorted Humor.
The rationale for continuing reductions includes the depressing effect of the general economy on overall sales figures and the anxiety over expenditures for long-term investments like stud fees.
