Our Emblem, sire of 2002 classic winner and champion War Emblem, will remain in Brazil after being sold to TNT Stud, according to Taylor Made Farm.
Taylor Made had stood Our Emblem since 2003 and had shuttled him to TNT Stud for the last two Southern Hemisphere breeding seasons.
LAS VEGAS - Speed is beguiling and racing fans love a fast horse. Dr. Fager and Ruffian were forces of nature and achieved superstar status because of their incredible speed. The great breeders of yesteryear, such as James Keene, E.R. Bradley, William Woodward,
E.P. Taylor, Lord Derby, H.H. Aga Khan, Marcel Boussac, and Federico Tesio all planned matings that incorporated speed and stamina for the classics.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Lava Man, the winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup last July, has been named the 2005 California-bred horse of the year in voting conducted among the members of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association.
The announcement was made at the CTBA's annual awards dinner last Tuesday.
Lava Man, 5, won 3 of 9 starts and $774,103 in 2005, a campaign highlighted by wins in the Gold Cup and Grade 2 Californian Stakes and a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic. He earned more prize money than any other California-bred last year.
"It's a different ball game," said Mike O'Farrell, president and general manager of Ocala Stud.
O'Farrell was referring to the fact that he, along with other Florida breeders, have to be highly selective when it comes to patronizing the selected 2-year-old sales - especially, he points out, the auctions at Calder.
Ocala Stud had five 2-year-olds cataloged in last Tuesday's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's sale at Calder Race Course; it's the smallest number consigned by Ocala Stud since O'Farrell's father co-founded this sale back in the early 1960's.
Carlo De Thomasi wasn't looking for a racehorse when he claimed Close Up, an allowance-winning son of Capote, for $22,500 at The Meadowlands in October 2000.
"I saw his pedigree and figured he'd be a terrific sire for New Jersey," said De Thomasi.
A grandson of multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire mare Videogenic, Close Up was still 100 percent sound and "full of fire," according to De Thomasi.
But rather than risk the future of his then 4-year-old stud prospect, De Thomasi shipped him directly to his C & R Horse Farm in Milmay, N.J.
Freud's second crop of 2-year-olds is attracting as much interest as his first, which is saying a lot.
Topped by a $400,000 colt at the annual Ocala Breeders' Sales Company selected 2-year-olds in training sale on Feb. 7, three New York-bred juveniles by the state-based sire Freud grossed $595,000, for an average of $198,333.
Freud, an 8-year-old full brother to top international sire Giant's Causeway, stands at Lakland North in Hudson for a fee of $10,000.
Two of his juveniles at the corresponding 2005 sale brought $220,000 and $150,000.
Mahmoud Fustok, the owner of Buckram Oak Farm and such runners as 2005 Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Silver Train, died Wednesday in Florida after being struck by a vehicle in Pompano Beach. He was 70.
Fustok's racing manager, former trainer Mohammed Moubarak, confirmed the death Thursday and said that the family was suspending all Buckram Oak operations.
If the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's select 2-year-old sale at Calder on Tuesday is a bellwether for the rest of the juvenile auction season, sellers will have a fair chance to make a profit. Most buyers, though, will be hesitant to overspend.
The Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s select juvenile sale launched the select 2-year-old auction season Tuesday at Calder Race Course in Miami with prices that suggest the market for young racehorses could maintain its strength this year.
The single-session auction drew bids from major international buyers such as Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum's agent John Ferguson, who purchased the sale-topping $650,000 Forest Camp colt, and Coolmore interests represented by Demi O'Byrne.
