Keeneland has cataloged a record 2,508 horses to its January sale of horses of all ages, which begins Monday and runs seven consecutive days through Jan. 15. Sale sessions start at 10 a.m. Eastern daily.
More than half the horses in the sale are broodmares or broodmare prospects, numbering 1,290 in the catalog, including Island Fashion, the winner of three Grade 1 races lifetime. Island Fashion, 6, is being sold as a racing or broodmare prospect.
New York-bred 3-year-old J'ray strengthened her status as a leading turf filly by winning the Tropical Park Oaks at Calder Race Course on New Year's Day.
With her customary late surge, J'ray won her third straight open stakes race, adding the Tropical Park Oaks to earlier scores in the Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland and the Selima Stakes at Laurel Park.
Owned by her breeder, Lawrence Goichman, J'ray is unbeaten in four turf starts since being put on the surface by trainer Todd Pletcher after her debut last summer at Belmont Park.
Maryland-bred 2-year-olds had a tough act to follow in 2005, trying to fill the shoes of Eclipse Award winner Declan's Moon. While that lofty perch wasn't reached, there is no denying that last year's crop was a diverse and ambitious group.
Ten Maryland-bred 2-year-olds were stakes winners in 2005. Voters selecting the state-bred champions will have many things to consider when contemplating the leaders of the 2-year-old divisions.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The story of Danzig is more than the riveting tale of an unbeaten colt who doesn't win a stakes but nonetheless ascends into the pantheon of the great sires in history.
It is also the story of a great trainer, a great farm, of good owners and breeders who believed in a young man and backed his decisions, and the growth of a great sport into a business of international proportions. But the story started with a yearling sale at the Saratoga in 1977.
The year 2005 was a vintage one for Charlotte Weber and Live Oak Plantation. Her racing stable, usually numbering 35 or so, produced eight stakes winners: In the Gold, Revved Up, My Typhoon, Seeking Slew, Lemon Maid, Hide and Chic, Elle Runaway, and the Florida Derby 1 winner, High Fly, who has entered stud at Live Oak Stud in Ocala, Fla., for the 2006 breeding season. The overall success of the stable placed Live Oak third on the 2005 North American money-winning roster with $4.9 million.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Danzig, the highly influential American sire who was pensioned after the 2004 breeding season, was euthanized on Tuesday morning at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., due to the infirmities of old age, according to officials at Claiborne, Danzig's home since entering stud in 1981. Danzig turned 29 on Jan. 1.
Danzig is the sire of 21 champions worldwide from 22 crops.
LAS VEGAS - This is the fourth installment on the 2006 freshman stallions, alphabetically featuring the sires R through S with particular emphasis on how to bet their offspring. The sires' names are followed by their pedigree, where they stand, and their designation (SP means speed; ST stamina; T turf; HT hidden turf).
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher signed an emergency regulation Thursday that put into effect an incentive fund for the Kentucky horse breeders, according to published reports. The fund will award an estimated $12 million to Thoroughbred breeders in subsidies in 2006.
Good experiences with New York racing and breeding have prompted Ted Taylor to move his stallion Peruvian to the Empire State.
Peruvian, a 14-year-old son of Conquistador Cielo, will stand the 2006 season at Joe and Anne McMahon's McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds for $2,000, live foal.
Providing restricted stakes races for 2-year-olds is always a challenge for the Virginia Breeders Fund.
"It has taken a bit of creativity on our part," said the fund's field director, Mark Deane. "Because the Colonial Downs meet" -Virginia's only parimutuel racing - "takes place early in the summer, when most of our 2-year-olds are not ready for that kind of competition."
