LEXINGTON, Ky. - Turning into the homestretch of the freshman sires contest this year, the Silver Deputy stallion Posse - with seven stakes winners and nearly $1.5 million in earnings - seemed home free. But a couple of other freshman sires have continued to ramp up the pressure on the front-runner, and one of them, Harlan's Holiday, is making a race of it to the wire on Dec. 31.
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DRF Past Performances
ARCADIA, Calif. - Not long after Bob Black Jack walked off the Santa Anita racetrack after winning Wednesday's $138,375 California Breeders' Champion Stakes, the phone began ringing at Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif.
Callers were inquiring about breeding to Stormy Jack, the sire of Bob Black Jack, who had just zipped seven furlongs in 1:20.37, winning the race for statebreds by 6 1/4 lengths.
"I think we got four or five calls in the hour after the race," farm owner John Harris said.
Ask the Moon's timing couldn't have been better. In her stakes debut, facing a number of contenders for the title of the best Maryland-bred 2-year-old filly of 2007, the Millicent Johnsen-owned Ask the Moon drew off to win the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes by an impressive 4 1/2 lengths on Dec. 22 at Laurel Park.
While a victory in that stakes doesn't guarantee divisional honors, the race will be fresh in the minds of voters. Ask the Moon's main rival for year-end honors, Sales Tax, hasn't started since late October.
Among the nearly 80 New York-breds that won or placed in open stakes races in 2007, six won graded or group events.
Their accomplishments are listed below, ranked according to earnings for the year.
Friendly Island: Bred by Kildare Stud and Adrian Regan, he won the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita and finished second in the Grade 1, $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen at Nad Al Sheba.
The 6-year-old son of Crafty Friend raced for Stuart and Anita Subotnick.
The year 2007, as it relates to Floridas breeding industry, is not going down as a vintage one. Cloverleaf II, Padua Stables, and Sequel Stallions three of the states leading stallion stations and nurseries shut down. Exchange Rate, vying for the states leading sire title, moved up the pike to Kentucky, as did Adena Springs Souths promising freshman stallion Macho Uno.
LAS VEGAS With the new year comes a brand-new group of freshman stallions sires whose first crop of 2-year-olds will race in 2008. This overview is part 1 of a seven-part series on the 2008 freshman sires, to be serialized alphabetically.
Raising the bar when you've been on top for four consecutive years would seem a monumental task. Not for Love, Maryland's leading sire since 2003, has accomplished just that feat.
Not for Love, a 17-year-old son of Mr. Prospector who has made his career at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, is wrapping up his best year ever.
On Saturday, Dec. 16, Presious Passion won the 12-furlong Grade 2 William L. McKnight Handicap at Calder Race Course, lighting up the mutuel board with a $136.20 payoff. But, Joe and Helen Barbizon were not surprised.
They bred the gelded son of Royal Anthem-Princesa's Passion, by Marquetry. According to their interpretation of Presious Passion's pedigree profile, the farther the gelding goes, the better he should like it.
The accomplished international star Utopia has been retired to stud at Joe and Anne McMahon's McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
His stud fee for the 2008 breeding season is $7,500.
A multiple Group 1 winner in his native Japan, Utopia captured the Group 2 Godolphin Mile in Dubai and the Grade 3 Westchester Handicap at Belmont Park among his seven stakes wins.
Utopia concluded his career with a second-place finish to Hunting in the Stuyvesant Handicap on Nov. 17, conceding four pounds to the winner. He earned $4,913,585, with a record of
Fox Tale Stud in Coopersburg, Pa., will host an open house on Jan. 19 from noon until 3 p.m., with RSVP's requested to 610-965-0656 or blumoon@ptd.net. The farm will stand Freefourinternet, Request for Parole, Fastness, Pies Prospect, Sort it Out, My Favorite Grub, Smart Guy, and Rubiyat in 2008.