Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro continues to progress in his healing and could have another cast change on his broken right hind leg in the next fortnight, his surgeon said Tuesday.
"Barbaro is wearing the new cast satisfactorily," Dr. Dean Richardson, chief surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center equine hospital. "We continue to monitor him closely, and, depending on how he progresses, we may change it again within the next two weeks."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - With his dominating victory in the Grade 1 King's Bishop Stakes at Saratoga, Henny Hughes has proven himself the speed leader among the 3-year-olds and the top challenger to the older horses for the overall sprint championship this year.
The older racers, such as Silver Train and Commentator, will need all their natural ability and tenacity, because Henny Hughes has them in his sights.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The crash of Comair flight 5191 in Lexington on Aug. 27 has left a deep scar in Lexington's Thoroughbred commu-nity. The crash killed 49 people, and among the dead were two well-known farm owners, Dan Mallory and George Brunacini, and Jeff Williams, a trainer based at the Thoroughbred Center.
Almost a week after the accident, local horsemen were still stunned by the loss, and at farms, feed stores, and sales company offices, the conversation often turned to personal reminiscences of their dead colleagues.
Sondra and Howard Bender's homebred 4-year-old Promenade Girl delivered one of the most impressive performances by a Maryland-bred this season with her close victory over Round Pond in the Grade 2 Molly Pitcher Breeders' Cup Stakes last Sunday at Monmouth.
Round Pond, a Grade 1 winner who won her two earlier starts this season, looked nearly unbeatable in the Molly Pitcher, and she did indeed press Promenade Girl for all she was worth.
With the Grade 1 Personal Ensign and three other graded stakes wins to her credit in 2006, Fleet Indian has become a leading Eclipse Award candidate for older filly and mare honors.
The 5-year-old Fleet Indian, bred by Becky Thomas and Lewis Lakin, made the Aug. 25 Personal Ensign at Saratoga her seventh straight victory and sent her career earnings to $1,344,513.
The Woodbine Polytrack surface is completed, field sizes are already starting to grow, and with Woodbine's rich purse structure intact, the scene is nicely set for the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's annual yearling sale.
The auction begins Tuesday at 3 p.m. with a selected session, and it continues on Saturday with a preferred session. A total of 476 Canadian-bred yearlings have been cataloged.
Records are made to be broken, goes the old saw. And there was no shortage of record-breaking statistics when the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company rang down the curtain on its annual sale of yearlings Aug. 21-25.
The OBS August selected sale of yearlings, conducted Aug. 21, set a sales record for gross of $10.4 million, and also records for average, $59,247, and median, $45,000. These numbers were generated by 176 lots, compared with 182 a year ago. The buy-back rate was a bit more than it was last year at 32.3 percent.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The influence of Pirate's Bounty, a former leading stallion in California who was euthanized at the age of 31 in late August because of old age, will continue for many years.
Pirate's Bounty was retired from stud duty in 1999, at the end of a decade in which he was the state's annual leading stallion three times - 1992, 1994, and 1995. He sired the winners of more than $31.9 million, 63 stakes winners, and two Grade 1 winners - Pirate's Revenge and Private Persuasion.
Pirate's Bounty, a popular and successful California sire, was euthanized on Aug. 21 at River Edge Farm in Buellton, Calif., because of the infirmities of old age. A Hoist the Flag stallion, Pirate's Bounty was 31 and had been pensioned since 2000.
Pirate's Bounty led California's general stallion ranks in 1992, 1994, and 1995. He was also the Golden State's leading juvenile sire in 1992 and 1994.
"He'd gotten to where he didn't maintain," said River Edge's manager, Russell Drake.
Niigon, the 2004 Queen's Plate winner, will enter his first year at stud in 2007 at John Burness's Colebrook Farms Stallion Station in Uxbridge, Ontario.
A 5-year-old son of Unbridled, Niigon has not raced since finishing fifth in the Hal's Hope Stakes on Jan. 6 at Gulfstream Park in Florida. He emerged from that race with a chip in his right front ankle, ultimately leading to his retirement.
Niigon was bred and raced by Robert and Mark Krembil's Chiefswood Stable, who own Niigon's dam, the Nureyev mare Savethelastdance.