Candy Ride, a perennial leading sire represented by multiple Eclipse Award champions, has accomplished much in his stud career. One of the few things he has yet to check off is siring an American classic winner, and he will get another chance this Saturday, as Rock Your World, a troubled 17th in the Kentucky Derby, returns for the Belmont Stakes.
John Hall, the longtime yearling manager for Taylor Made Farm who worked with a young American Pharoah, died May 22 at his home in Delaware after a battle with cancer. He was 79.
"John Hall meant a tremendous amount to Taylor Made and many in the industry," the Taylor family's Taylor Made operation said in a statement posted on its official social media channels. "Our thoughts are with his family and all those privileged to meet this one of a kind man."
Munnings is quietly crafting a stellar season, both on the racetrack and in the commercial arena. The sire of nine stakes winners in 2021 – including Grade 1 winner Kimari – he is posting a career-best average during this 2-year-old sales season.
Argentinian leading sire Pure Prize, who produced top-level performers in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, died last weekend at Haras La Providencia in his adopted country, according to Turf Diario. The son of Storm Cat and Hall of Fame racemare Heavenly Prize was 23.
Classic sire Malibu Moon, a foundation sire for B. Wayne Hughes's program at Spendthrift Farm, died Tuesday in his paddock of an apparent heart attack, the farm reported that evening. The son of A.P. Indy was 24 and was owned by Spendthrift, fellow Kentucky farm Castleton Lyons, and Country Life Farm, all of which played a role in building his career.
“He started Spendthrift for us,” Hughes, who also bred and raced Malibu Moon, said in a press release. “Without Malibu Moon, we are not where we are today. It takes a special horse, and he was just that. This is a sad day.”
The 15 stakes races at Pimlico between Friday and Saturday were won by runners representing 15 different sires and 15 different broodmare sires. Only one stallion was represented on both lists, as Congrats sired Grade 3 Pimlico Special winner Last Judgement and is the broodmare sire of The Very One winner Caravel.
Congrats, a 21-year-old son of A.P. Indy, stands at WinStar Farm. His standouts are Grade 1 winners Emma’s Encore, Haveyougoneaway, Turbulent Descent, and Wickedly Perfect.
The Thoroughbred foal crop of 1992 in New Jersey numbered 517 foals, according to statistics from The Jockey Club. One of those was Ultrafleet, who went winless in four starts, all for John and Diane Fradkin, who purchased her for $10,500 at the Keeneland September yearling sale.
“We decided to retire her and make her a broodmare,” John Fradkin said. “Pretty much everybody said that was stupid, but we did it anyway, and it turned out pretty well.”
With his victory in the Preakness Stakes, Rombauer is now a winner on dirt, turf, and synthetic racing surfaces. He has followed in the footsteps of sire, Twirling Candy, a graded stakes winner on all three surfaces and a similarly versatile sire who can now also be called a classic sire.
Twirling Candy stands at the Farish family’s Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky., alongside his own sire, Candy Ride, and freshman sire Unified, another son of Candy Ride. Gift Box, by Twirling Candy, joined the roster this year as Lane’s End continues to invest in this sireline.
The global coronavirus pandemic turned life, including the Thoroughbred racing and sales calendar, upside down in 2020. But the shuffling of the sales calendar actually played out in favor of the small breeding program of John and Diane Fradkin.
The Fradkins had planned to offer for sale their homebred Rombauer, but the auction he was intended for was postponed. As a result, they campaigned Rombauer, and on Saturday he won the Preakness Stakes.
