Milanova, a full sister to Coolmore runner Holy Roman Emperor and in foal to Coolmore's Encosta de Lago, set a record Australian auction price Sunday when Coolmore Australia purchased her for $4.8 million ($5 million Australian) at the William Inglis Australian breeding stock sale in Sydney.
The price topped the previous Australian auction record of $3.4 million Australian set last year when Darley purchased Virage de Fortune at the Inglis Australian broodmare sale.
Hat Trick, a Japanese champion miler who entered stud this year at Walmac Farm in Lexington, Ky., will shuttle to Australias Independent Stallions Victoria in Nagambie for the 2008 Southern Hemisphere season. Hat Trick, a son of Sunday Silence, stood for $15,000 in Kentucky and will command a fee of about $15,840.
Smart and Fancy, the 5-year-old Maryland-bred mare who rallied to a four-length victory in the Buckland Stakes at Colonial Downs last weekend, has a way of making the racing business look easy.
She's "like every parent's dream child," says her trainer, Tony Dutrow. "She's always where she's supposed to be, doing what she's supposed to do."
Southern Equine Stables principal Mike Moreno has purchased the Roach family's famed Parrish Hill Farm in Midway, Ky., and plans to establish a private nursery there.
The 300-acre farm produced the 1999 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner and Horse of the Year, Charismatic; 1984 champion mare Princess Rooney; and such Grade 1 winners as Cormorant, Storm Tower, and Millennium Wind, a half-brother to Charismatic.
Pepper Oaks Farm in Santa Ynez, Calif., which has stood leading California sire Swiss Yodeler since he went to stud in 1999, is closing on Tuesday, farm owner Patricia Youngman announced Thursday.
In her announcement, Youngman said she was disgruntled over the direction of the sport in general and scolded the sport for failing to have "vision and unity."
In a brief interview on Friday, Youngman deferred to her statement. She said the farm will not be developed.
"This is going to be my home," she said. "I have horses, and they will live at my place."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Queen's Plate winner Not Bourbon and Wood Memorial winner Tale of Ekati are the current headliners for the breeding operation of diamond king Charles Fipke.
But significant as Fipke's success has been with Tale of Ekati, the California-based breeding guru Jack Werk said that Fipke "literally created the Queen's Plate winner with his program."
Werk has been a consultant with Fipke since 1994 and said "you can't get him to do anything he doesn't believe in, but he's never wavered when he believes in something."
Tin Cup Chalice remained unbeaten in five career starts with his victory in the Mike Lee Stakes at Belmont Park last weekend.
The seven-furlong Mike Lee opens the Big Apple Triple series, which also consists of the 1 1/16-mile New York Derby at Finger Lakes on July 12 and the 1 1/8-mile Albany Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 20.
A winner of all three receives a bonus of $250,000, a payout that has not been made since the series was inaugurated in 1999.
Last year, Chief's Lake won the Mike Lee and New York Derby, but finished third behind Stunt Man in the Albany.
The state of Florida has a fiscal calendar. State business and other functions are reckoned from July 1 through June 30. The Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association publishes its farm directory each June. The Florida Department of Agriculture, through its commissioner of agriculture, Charles Bronson, in conjunction with the breeders and owners association, issues its state-of-the-industry report in the farm directory.
Better Than Honour, the Broodmare of the Year and the only mare to produce consecutive Belmont Stakes winners, will have no foal of 2008 and will be bred next in 2009.
John Sikura, who owns the mare in a partnership that also includes Southern Equine Stables principal Mike Moreno, said Tuesday that they have decided to give the 12-year-old Deputy Minister mare this year off. Distorted Humor covered Better Than Honour in May, but the mare did not conceive.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Horse Greeley, a Grade 2-winning son of Mr. Greeley, is the latest addition to Claiborne Farm's stallion roster, the farm announced Wednesday.
The 4-year-old will enter stud in 2009 at the Paris, Ky., nursery. The farm will announce his fee at a later date.