Fantastic Find, a Grade 1 winner and the dam of dual Grade 1 winner Finder's Fee, has died at age 20. The death was confirmed by Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky.
The mare ruptured a uterine artery and died March 8 at Claiborne after foaling a healthy Dixie Union filly, according to manager Gus Koch. The filly has been placed on a nurse mare.
The Kentucky Senate has passed a measure calling for increased disclosure by agents in horse sales. The owner of Stonestreet Stables, Jess Jackson, had lobbied personally for the passage of the bill, which passed the Senate in a 36-0 vote Wednesday.
The House passed a different version of the bill in late February. The Senate-approved legislation now returns to the full House for a concurrence vote. If the House concurs with the Senate version, the measure will head to Gov. Ernie Fletcher for signing into law.
POMONA, Calif. - Lance Robinson was not satisfied with the bidding on a Distorted Humor yearling colt that he was selling last September at Keeneland, so he and his partners in Gulf Coast Farm opted to buy the colt back. That decision now looks like a million bucks.
On Tuesday night at the Barretts sale of select 2-year-olds in training, the colt - currently saddled with the name Cowtown Cat - was purchased by WinStar Farm for $1.5 million, more than 10 times the $135,000 high bid he attracted just six months ago.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Jess Jackson has added three more defendants to a lawsuit he filed in Southern California alleging that his early bloodstock advisers defrauded him in a number of transactions for horses and land in Kentucky.
Jackson's motion for an amended complaint, filed in San Diego on March 9 and first reported by The Blood-Horse, adds bloodstock agents Frederic Sauque and Fernando Diaz-Valdez and the Buckram Oak Holdings company to the list of defendants.
A colt by Richter Scale who was purchased for $825,000 was the highest-priced horse sold during the first hour on Tuesday at the Barretts March sale of 2-year-olds in training in Pomona, Calif.
John Sadler, a Southern California-based trainer, said he purchased the colt for "undisclosed clients," but it was believed that Sadler was acting on behalf of a partnership that included the Searing family's CRK Stables.
LAS VEGAS - The Kentucky Derby picture really heats up this weekend with four major stakes from coast to coast: the Gotham (at Aqueduct), Rebel (Oaklawn), San Felipe (Santa Anita), and Tampa Bay Derby (Tampa Bay Downs).
Gotham
Achilles of Troy, Keyed Entry, and Sweetnorthernsaint are the headliners, but watch out for Hesanoldsalt, who may be the beneficiary of what should be a hot pace.
Two colts and a filly had the fastest eighth-mile times, breezing in 10 seconds, at Saturday's under-tack show for Hip Nos. 269-535 in the upcoming Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's juvenile sale in Florida.
The Saturday preview followed a Friday preview for Hip Nos. 1-268. Both were held at the sales company's facility in Ocala, Fla.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - A pair of fillies by Cherokee Run and Songandaprayer proved fastest at the first under-tack preview for the March 21-22 select juvenile sale at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. in Ocala, Fla.
Hip No. 28, a daughter of Songandaprayer and the Grade 3-placed Froze, and Hip No. 37, a Cherokee Run filly out of Glory Way, each worked an eighth-mile in 10 seconds to top the workout tab.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Last weekend's racing produced the kind of major-league results that have made Pulpit one of the most sought-after young stallions in America. Claiborne's bay son of A.P. Indy sired the winners of two important stakes, as well as the colt who came home first in the Fountain of Youth.
Wend won the Grade 3 Honey Fox Handicap at Gulfstream, Laity won the Battaglia Memorial at Turfway, and Corinthian finished first in the Fountain of Youth but was disqualified to third for interference in the stretch.
A month after a juvenile sale in Florida sold a horse for an astonishing $16 million, the officials behind the Barretts March sale of 2-year-olds in training do not expect to duplicate that feat on Tuesday, when the sale is held on the grounds of the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona.
Demi O'Byrne, who represents the Coolmore partnership of Ireland which bought the $16 million 2-year-old, and John Ferguson, who represents Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, the underbidder on the record-setting colt, are expected to be present at the Barretts sale.
