McKinzie, one of the top older horses of his age group his entire career, has been retired and will begin stallion duties early next year at Gainesway Farm.
As a result, McKinzie, 5, will miss this year’s Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 7 at Keeneland. He finished second last year in the Classic at Santa Anita and was a potential runner this year in the Dirt Mile.
McKinzie finished fourth in the Alysheba Stakes on Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs in what turned out to be his final career start.
Laoban won his maiden in auspicious fashion, winning the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes in the summer 2016. His son Keepmeinmind nearly pulled off a similar feat Saturday, finishing second as a maiden in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. But the blow of that miss was softened, as Laoban had already recorded a Grade 1 winner on opening weekend at the Lexington track, rocketing up the freshman sire chart thanks to Simply Ravishing’s 6 1/4-length score in the Alcibiades Stakes on Friday.
Kitten’s Joy, North America’s leading living turf sire every year since 2013, is currently in a pitched battle as he chases this year’s title, with the top five stallions on the earnings list separated by less than $677,000 through Saturday. Kitten’s Joy clawed his way to a tenuous lead over English Channel with an outstanding Saturday, as he was represented by a pair of new stakes winners – plus a pair of stakes winners as a broodmare sire.
Preakness Stakes heroine Swiss Skydiver is a daughter of Daredevil, who was exported to stand in Turkey. The filly has some international flair on the bottom side of her pedigree as well, as her dam Expo Gold, who will be offered at Keeneland November, is by Johannesburg, a champion on two continents who now stands in Japan. Johannesburg now has the distinction of having both a son and a daughter who have produced classic winners.
Eclipse Award champion juvenile Game Winner, who last raced in July 2019, has officially been retired from racing and will enter stud next year at Lane’s End Farm. The Farish family’s operation, which had previously acquired his rights, also stands his sire, Candy Ride, and was the home of his late broodmare sire, the legendary A.P. Indy.
Darley had two reasons to be proud after Gretzky the Great’s Grade 1 victory in the Summer Stakes. Darley stands Gretzky the Great’s sire, Nyquist, and the sire of the colt’s dam, Bernardini, a steadily emerging broodmare sire.
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Nyquist carried the banner in the record-setting first crop of Uncle Mo, emulating his sire on the racetrack with an unbeaten juvenile campaign capped by a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile victory to earn the divisional Eclipse Award. Having taken things a step further by going on to win the 2016 Kentucky Derby, Nyquist is now following in his father’s footsteps as a stallion as well. He leads his freshman class with a pair of Grade 1-winning juveniles in his first crop.
LEXINGTON, KY. – The young broodmare Catch the Moon has already become a star, officially recording her third graded stakes winner as Pirate’s Punch won the Grade 3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth on Sunday.
Pirate’s Punch, by Shanghai Bobby, had also crossed the line first in the Grade 3 Philip H. Islein last month, but was disqualified to second for interference. His Salvator Mile win punched his ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
Eight years ago, I’ll Have Another gave Paul and Zillah Reddam their first of two Kentucky Derby wins in 2010s. I’ll Have Another was later sold as a stallion and stood in Japan before being moved to Ballena Vista Farm in California prior to the 2019 breeding season.
Earlier this summer, I’ll Have Another was on the move again. The Reddams reacquired the 11-year-old I’ll Have Another in a private purchase and will stand him at their Ocean Breeze Ranch in Bonsall, Calif., in 2021, Paul Reddam said on Thursday.
