LEXINGTON, Ky. - The death of Dr. R. Smiser West on Wednesday ended one of Thoroughbred breeding's longest partnerships and friendships. West, who was 97, was a close friend of Hall of Fame trainer Mack Miller for six decades.
West and Miller, together with their wives Kathryn and Martha, bred champions De La Rose and Chilukki, as well as Grade 1 winners Lite Light and Tweedside, among other outstanding runners.
The numbers are staggering.
In 2007, owner Benjamin Warren will have 115 2-year-olds on the track in Southern California. He will have 115 yearlings, 63 3-year-olds, 130 broodmares.
Warren breeds his mares to the 25 stallions who stand at his farm in Hemet, Calif. He owns 19 of those stallions. The rest are held by outside clients.
Warren does not have a racing stable - he has an empire.
What started out as a few claiming horses earlier this decade has grown astonishingly fast.
When the statistics are tallied at the end of next week, the numbers will show that Florida's first-crop sires had a solid year. Three Wonders, standing at Hidden Point Farm, will earn the leading money-winning title with nearly $700,000 in progeny earnings. Graeme Hall, at Winding Oaks Farm, and Snow Ridge, at Padua Stable, are competing for most winners.
From star turf milers to a Travers winner to a horse who was a crack 2-year-old, California breeders will have a wide range of new stallions to choose from in 2007.
The turf milers Good Journey and Silic are two of the most familiar names, but the group also includes the Travers winner Deputy Commander as well the ultra-quick Flame Thrower, a multiple stakes winner at 2.
Dr. Michael Harrison, a Baltimore County veterinarian who owns and operates 280-acre Willowdale Farm in Butler, Md., has been a breeder on a small scale since establishing his veterinary practice at Willowdale in 1982. His biggest thrill in racing with one of his own horses came on Dec. 16 at Laurel Park.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Legendary horseman and Hall of Fame trainer John Nerud will turn 94 on Feb. 9, 2007, but he doesn't plan to slow down. The former trainer and founding member of the Breeders' Cup continues to participate fully in the Thoroughbred business as a breeder, and buyer, and as chief advisor to Howard Kaskel, owner of Sugar Maple Farm in Poughquag, N.Y.
It's a job Nerud does for free.
"I don't need the money," Nerud said. "I'm not rich, but I've got enough money. I like the interest.'
Travers Stakes winner Ten Most Wanted, whose first foals arrived this year, will stand the 2007 breeding season at Sequel Stallions New York.
The son of a Travers winner, Deputy Commander, he will stand for $7,500 live foal at Sequel Stallions, located in Hudson, N.Y.
A winner of 5 of 13 starts, with earnings of $1,718,460, Ten Most Wanted was one of the leading members of his crop. He defeated Grade 1 winners Peace Rules and Sky Mesa in the Travers, and finished second to Empire Maker in the Belmont Stakes.
Which ones to sell, and which to keep and race? It's an age-old dilemma for many breeders.
The consequences are rarely as dramatic as Marylander Joseph Keelty and his adviser, Don Litz, have experienced with the offspring of Keelty's mare Dreams of Glory (by Seattle Slew).
A Silver Deputy colt out of Dreams of Glory set a record as the highest-priced horse ever to sell at auction at Timonium when Keelty's Dumbarton Farm sold him for $500,000 at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern fall yearling sale.
Cat Dreams, whose oldest foals will be yearlings in 2007, has been transferred to Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez, Calif., for the upcoming breeding season.
Cat Dreams, 5, previously stood at Pepper Oaks Farm, which has reduced its stallion holdings for 2007 to one sire, state leader Swiss Yodeler. Cat Dreams, who is owned by B. Wayne Hughes and Bongo Racing Stable, will stand for $4,000, the same fee that he stood for in 2006.
Bill Murphy, the owner of Elangeni Farm, is a wheeler-dealer - but, not in any negative sense. Anything that has to do with animals and commerce gets his attention. He syndicates stallions, breeds for the market, and occasionally races.
"I like to go to the U.K. or Ireland from time to time and see what's available," said Murphy. "You know, stallion prospects that might be overlooked by some of the bigger outfits."