The 20th anniversary of the Maryland Million, the innovative program that shifts racing's focus onto Maryland's stallions and farms, was emotional, thrilling, and, at times, nearly unbelievable.
Delayed one week when torrential rain forced Laurel Park to cancel racing on its scheduled date, this year's Maryland Million, which offered $1.48 million in purses, was conducted on Oct. 15. The weather was perfect, and the event attracted 102 runners for its 12-race card.
The trend toward larger books of mares is continuing, statistics released Thursday by The Jockey Club indicate.
The organization said that based on the current returns of its Reports of Mares Bred, a total of 58,739 mares went to 3,097 stallions during the 2005 North American breeding season. The Jockey Club said the statistics cover approximately 90 percent of the mares bred this year, and, based on past experience, it expects another 800 to 1,000 mare reports from 2005 to be returned.
Island Sand, winner of the 2004 Acorn and runner-up to Ashado in last year's Kentucky Oaks, has been retired from the track and will be bred to A.P. Indy in 2006, trainer Larry Jones said Wednesday.
A 4-year-old Tabasco Cat filly, last ran in the Beldame, finishing seventh behind Ashado. Jones and Island Sand's owner, Jim Osborne of B.A. Man Stable, had been pointing the filly toward the Oct. 29 Breeders' Cup Distaff. But Jones said a recurring breathing problem prompted them to retire her instead.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Fall is stud-fee season, a time when stallion operations set their prices for the coming breeding season and breeders eagerly await word of which horses are moving up or down in cost. Among the farms putting out their rosters this week were Overbrook Farm and Walmac Farm in Lexington and Northview Stallion in Maryland.
The longtime manager of Airdrie Stud, Tim Thornton, has been named Kentucky Farm Manager of the Year for 2005.
The Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club's selection committee, headed by Ted Bates of Bates Farm, bestowed the award, which it grants annually to a manager who has shown "hard work and dedication" in a career. The club will honor Thornton at its annual dinner-dance on Dec. 2 in Lexington.
LAS VEGAS - If Ashado was the same filly who won last year's Breeders' Cup Distaff, then the other fillies and mares would be running for second this year. Ashado has looked like her old brilliant self on occasion this season, but there have been some real clunkers as well, giving hope to some other horses in what appears to be a wide-open Distaff.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Frank Stronach's Adena Springs Farms, which earlier this year announced it would stand 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper for $200,000, has announced its other stallions' 2006 fees.
First-year stallion Ghostzapper has the Adena organization's highest stud fee, followed by Awesome Again, Ghostzapper's sire, and El Prado,
Robert Scanlon, one of the most prominent and successful juvenile consignors, died of cancer on Thursday at age 57.
The Scanlon Training Center in Williston, Fla., prepared such standouts as Afleet Alex, winner of the 2005 Preakness and Belmont; Unbridled's Song, winner of the 1995 Breeders' Cup Juvenile; Artax, winner of the Breeders' Cup Sprint and champion sprinter in 1999; and Grade 1 winners Songandaprayer and Lion Heart.
The Brunetti family has been a presence in the Ocala, Fla., Thoroughbred market since 1969, when Joe Brunetti, father of John, bought and developed 200 acres abutting Ocala Stud. Few farms around there remain from that era. Nowadays, only a down-sized Ocala Stud and John Brunetti's Red Oak Farm remain.
John J. Brunetti, known to many as Brunetti, is, as most are aware, the owner of Hialeah Park. Brunetti is also a major league commercial and residential developer and one might have expected him to develop Ocala's Red Oak Farm, sitting as it does in an evolving urban zone.
Northview Stallion Station, Maryland's largest Thoroughbred breeding operation and home to the outstanding sire Not for Love, has never been the kind of place to rest on its laurels.
Evidence of that fact came during this past week, with the announcement that two new stallions - Dance With Ravens and Deputy Storm, both proven runners from outstanding families - have been added to the Northview roster for 2006.
