Six stakes, highlighted by a pair of $100,000 races, one for 3-year-old males and one for 3-year-old fillies, will be run on March 20 during the first day of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's sales and racing festival in Ocala, Fla.
The $100,000 OBS Championship Stakes for 3-year-old males and the $100,000 OBS Championship Stakes for 3-year-old fillies will be contested at 1 1/16 miles. Both are restricted to horses that went through an OBS sale.
Legendary Maryland trainer King Leatherbury has also been quite successful in the breeding business - reaching a high mark in the 1980's and 90's with the Maryland-bred champions Thirty Eight Go Go and Notches Trace, daughters of his foundation mare Dronette.
Proving that his homebreds, as well as his training skills, are still a force to be reckoned with, the 72-year-old Leatherbury sent out the gelding Ah Day to a longshot victory in Laurel Park's Horatius Stakes on March 4.
Topped by Grade 1 winners Commentator and Acey Deucey, 61 horses have been nominated for New York-bred titles in eight divisions for 2005.
Voting for the champions is being conducted by New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., and the winners will be honored at the annual banquet on April 24 at the Desmond Hotel in Albany, N.Y.
Commentator, bred by Michael Martinez, stands atop the older male division by virtue of his win in the Whitney Handicap over the eventual Horse of the Year, Saint Liam.
Coronado's Quest, who was sold in 2003 to the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders Association's Shizunai Stallion Station, has died there, apparently of a heart attack.
A spokesman at the Shizunai Stallion Station confirmed that Coronado's Quest, an 11-year-old Forty Niner horse, died Wednesday.
Coronado's Quest had stood at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky since leaving the racetrack in 1998. Claiborne later sold him to the Japanese concern.
LAS VEGAS - The good news is that Corinthian is the real deal. The bad news is that it may not be enough to win the Kentucky Derby because of his mental problems. Of course, such problems did not prevent Fusaichi Pegasus from winning the Derby, but it surely is a concern.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - After Fasig-Tipton Calder's world-record-breaking performance, buyers and sellers of juveniles now turn their attention to the March 14 Barretts sale in Pomona, Calif.
The Barretts juveniles took to the track for their first public under-tack preview on Sunday, and they made it clear that the Barretts catalog has some fast horses in it.
Reflecting the surge of interest in horse ownership in slots-rich Louisiana, a total of 174 lots will be offered at the John Franks Memorial 2-year-olds in training and paddock sale at Evangeline Downs on March 13. The figure is an increase of almost 90 percent from last year's sale.
The sale will offer 139 2-year-olds and 35 older horses. A preview gallop show is scheduled for March 12.
MIAMI - On Wednesday morning, the day after he and partner Randy Hartley had sold their world-record $16 million Forestry-Magical Masquerade colt to Coolmore Stud at Fasig-Tipton's Calder auction, Dean De Renzo insisted that it wasn't so much about the money.
"The great thing for us is that they had that much confidence in us and our judgment," De Renzo said. "It's like they gave us a trophy that says, 'We believe in you.' That they trusted our opinion, that feels better than anything in the world."
A total of 315 juveniles have been cataloged to the Fasig-Tipton Texas 2-year-olds in training sale at Lone Star Park on April 4. An under-tack show is set for April 2.
The sale and the workout show are both scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Central.
There are a host of stallions represented in the sale, among them Broken Vow, Dayjur, Deputy Commander, Free House, Grand Slam, Hadif, Johannesburg, Maria's Mon, Mutakddim, Silver Charm, Smoke Glacken, Touch Tone, and Valid Expectations.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The last time consignor Don Graham was at Calder for a 2-year-old sale, he endured a tragedy no horseman ever wants to face. The star of his consignment for the Feb. 7 sale was a Forest Camp filly out of Daggett who had breezed an eighth-mile in 10 seconds at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s under-tack preview. The filly was tipped to be one of the auction's highest-priced lots. But on the way to the paddock for the sale, she reared and flipped over backward, striking her head on the ground. The filly had to be put down, to the horror of Graham and his staff.
