Ocala Week has changed dramatically over the years. A generation past, affluent farm owners such as Dan Lasater, John Hartigan, Bob Candow, and others like them held open-house parties with imported caterers and entertainment. New stallions were shown and established stallions had seasons booked. Owners by the many hundreds came to Ocala to look at their weanlings, do business for the coming breeding season, and enjoy the festivities.
Mayakovsky got his first stakes winner - Mother Russia, who won the Lady Finger Stakes at Finger Lakes Race Track.
Mayakovsky, winner of the Grade 3 Gotham during his career, has his second crop of 2-year-olds running in races this year. He stands at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater, N.Y.
Mother Russia was bred by Philip Birsh and is owned by Obviously NY Stable. She won her maiden at Saratoga on Aug. 13 and is unbeaten in two starts with earnings of $121,561.
Only five days into 2008, the legendary Sam-Son Farms was rocked by the passing of its president, Tammy Balaz, daughter of the late founder Ernie Samuel.
Balaz, who was just 47 but battled cancer, had continued on with her father's legacy of breeding world-class racehorses and building up a spectacular broodmare band.
Two months after Balaz's death, her 74-year-old mother, Elizabeth Samuel, also succumbed to cancer.
The Moran family has celebrated many winning races, but none quite like the Halfmoon Stakes last week at Saratoga.
Silver Knockers, a 4-year-old Maryland-bred filly who had previously placed in five stakes, three against graded company, broke through with her first stakes win in the Halfmoon.
Her victory completed unfinished business, in a sense, for Jim Moran, who bred and owned Silver Knockers and had longed for her to win a stakes.
Moran, the proprietor of Elk Manor Farm in North East, Md., died following a brief illness this past April, at the age of 55.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - With the maiden victory for his 2-year-old daughter Stardom Bound coming in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, freshman sire Tapit has stepped into the spotlight in the week leading up to the Keeneland September yearling sale.
Gainesway's Michael Hernon said siring a Grade 1 winner such as this "is a pivotal accomplishment for a young stallion going forward in his stud career" because it shows the sire is getting quality in his winners.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The United States and European economies might be in the doldrums, but other racing nations have economies that are solid or thriving, and that could mean some good news for consignors at Keeneland's September yearling sale, which runs Sept. 8-23 in Lexington.
Eastern Europe and South America in particular could provide active buyers this year, especially for the Keeneland sale's non-select second week, says Chauncey Morris, a Keeneland sales marketing associate with extensive experience dealing with overseas markets.
The future of the Northern California yearling sale will be discussed by promoters and consignors later this year after a disappointing sale on Tuesday in Santa Rosa, Calif.
The one-day sale saw 104 horses sell for a gross of $471,700, an average of $4,536 and a median of $2,500. The gross fell 47 percent, and the average fell 22 percent from the 2007 sale, which was held in late September in Pleasanton.
The sale-topper was a Salt Lake filly who sold for $37,000. Last year, the sale-topper was a Siberian Summer colt purchased for $40,000.
Sometimes, success comes at a price.
The New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund Corp. has made a slight reduction in the incentive awards it administers, removing the awards on fourth-place purses, starting Monday.
The decision follows earnings gains made by New York-breds in the last few years, while revenue to the fund has not kept pace.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - With her victory in the Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga, Intangaroo has now won three Grade 1 stakes at sprint distances this year and has established herself as a favorite in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Oct. 24.
Already having won Grade 1 stakes at Santa Anita (Santa Maria) and Churchill (Humana Distaff) at seven furlongs - the distance of the Ballerina and the BC Filly and Mare Sprint - Intangaroo appears to have found her proper distance and seems indifferent to the surfaces she races on.
Juveniles had the chance to compete for a total of $250,000 on the evening of Aug. 23 in three new races added to Charles Town's stakes schedule. And Maryland-breds came away with the bulk of the loot.
Sweeping to a 5 1/2-length score in the $100,000 Miss Shenandoah Stakes was the filly Onearmedbandit, the first stakes winner for her sire, No Armistice.
A race later, Essenceofthemoon won the $100,000 Charles Town Juvenile Stakes by 2 1/2 lengths.