LAS VEGAS - This is the second installment on the 2006 freshman stallions, alphabetically featuring the sires H through L 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; x2, both sides of pedigree).
Cozzene'saffair, a stakes winner in foal to Congaree, brought $65,000 to top the Fasig-Tipton Texas mixed auction at Lone Star Park on Sunday. Jerry Cutrona bought the broodmare from Lane's End Texas, agent for Star Valley Thoroughbreds.
In all, 157 horses sold for a total of $607,400, or an average of $3,869. That average was down 15 percent from $4,585 last year, when 180 horses sold for a total of $825,300. There were 88 horses not sold during this year's auction, as opposed to 59 in 2004.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - This year's likely 3-year-old champion, , will begin his stud career at Graham Beck's Gainesway Farm in Lexington. He will stand for $40,000 in 2006.
The 2005 Preakness and Belmont winner also has a new owner in Stonestreet Stables' Jess Jackson, who recently bought a major interest in the colt. Afleet Alex had been campaigned by Cash Is King Stable, a partnership headed by Chuck Zacney. Zacney would not disclose Jackson's exact share in Afleet Alex and said only that the colt would stand at stud as the property of Jackson, Cash Is King, and Gainesway.
The durable Ground Storm, a graded-stakes winner who won races at Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga, will enter stud for 2006 at Pegasus Farms in Dover Plains, Dutchess County.
A son of classic winner and classic sire Summer Squall, Ground Storm will stand for $3,000, live foal, as the property of Pegasus Farms and Joseph Parisi.
During his career, Ground Storm won or placed in 30 of 40 starts, earning $628,600.
He earned graded status with a victory in the Grade 3 Stymie Handicap at Aqueduct in 2002, winning by two lengths in a time of 1:48.80 on the inner dirt.
Victories by Canadian-breds Indian Vale, Jambalaya, and That's the Problem in the United States helped land Eugene Melnyk, Gus Schickedanz, and Adena Springs the three finalists' positions for the Sovereign Award for top breeder of 2005.
The Sovereign Awards will be handed out at the Wyndham Bristol Place Hotel in Toronto on Dec. 16.
Melnyk, who is also nominated as outstanding owner along with Harlequin Ranches and Stronach Stables, had one of his best years with his homebreds.
The Vinery in Summerfield, Fla., the Florida satellite of the Kentucky operation, is located a dozen miles south of Ocala, where there are only a relatively few farms. A 220-acre stallion and training facility, it was completed earlier this year, and you can see and sense that no expense was spared - not on the fences, barns, training track, or turf course.
When a long-successful breeder disperses his entire broodmare band, he can expect to spark enthusiasm among buyers. It turned out that way for Eugene Ford, who was responsible for two of the three top broodmare prices, including the $140,000 sale-topper, at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed sale held Dec. 4 and 5 at Timonium.
But Ford's situation was slightly unusual, because he had only two mares.
Ken and Sarah Ramsey's homebred Grade 1 winner Nothing to Lose has been retired from racing.
No stud plans have been announced.
, a 5-year-old son of Sky Classic and the Clever Trick stakes-winner Cherlindrea, won the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland in 2004. He also won the Grade 2 Fourstardave Handicap in 2004 and a pair of Grade 3 races, the Tropical Park Derby and Palm Beach Stakes, in 2003. Nothing to Lose last competed on Nov. 27, 2004, when he finished sixth behind Leroidesanimaux in the Grade 1 Citation Handicap at Hollywood.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Dual Grade 1 winner and 2004 Preakness second Rock Hard Ten will stand at Lane's End in Versailles, Ky., in 2006. A 4-year-old Kris S. colt, Rock Hard Ten will have a $50,000 fee for his first year at stud.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The semi-arid Southwest isn't the first place most people think of when considering a warm-weather racing experience. But the times they are a-changing.
The results from handle and attendance at the newly opened Zia Park in New Mexico clearly indicate that good horses are attracted to good purses, and that results in competitive racing.
