Harmony Lodge, a Grade 1-winning sprinter, has retired from racing and will be bred to A.P. Indy in 2005, owners Eugene and Laura Melnyk announced Thursday. A 6-year-old Hennessy mare, Harmony Lodge will join the Melnyks' broodmare band at their Winding Oaks Farm in Ocala, Fla.
The Melnyks decided to retire her when she developed inflammation in her right front ankle, trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Grade 1 winner Dimitrova will be offered at auction this fall at Keeneland's November breeding stock sale, owner Joseph Higgins has announced.
The winner of the 2003 Flower Bowl Invitational Handicap and American Oaks, both Grade 1 races, Dimitrova will sell as part of Indian Creek's consignment. The sale runs from Nov. 8-19 in Lexington, Ky.
Dimitrova is a 4-year-old Swain filly out of the champion Caerleon mare The Caretaker, making her a half-sister to multiple Group 1 winner Mutafaweq.
The inaugural New York Breeders Sales Company sale concluded on Wednesday with a total of 208 horses selling for gross receipts of $1,234,600.
The two-day sale included weanlings, yearlings, horses of racing age, and broodmares. The average was $5,936 and the median was $2,500. The buy-back rate was 42 percent for 190 horses who failed to meet their reserve.
A colt by Royal Cat was the sale-topper for $47,000 at Tuesday's Northern California yearling sale in Pleasanton, Calif., an event that failed to live up to expectations.
Overall, 130 yearlings sold for a gross of $893,600, an average of $6,874 and a median of $4,350. There were 41 horses listed as not sold. The sale was organized by the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, which had hoped for an average of $7,500.
Pleasantly Perfect, who is pointing toward a defense of his 2003 Breeders' Cup Classic title, will stand at the Farish family's Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Ky., beginning in 2005.
The farm announced the stud deal Wednesday.
A 6-year-old Pleasant Colony horse and the nation's top older runner, Pleasantly Perfect will stand as the property of a syndicate. His fee will be announced at a later date.
In addition to winning the 2003 Classic, Pleasantly Perfect also won the 2004 Dubai World Cup and Pacific Classic. He has purse earnings of $7,349,880.
The $8 million Storm Cat-Welcome Surprise colt who set a sale record for Keeneland's 2004 September yearling sale will be broken at Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Hancock III's Stone Farm near Paris, Ky.
The colt shipped to Stone Farm after Japanese trainer Hideyuki Mori, agent, purchased him from Lane's End, agent, on Sept. 14. Mori would not name the buyer he was representing. Hancock said Tuesday that he has been told to send all bills related to the colt to Mori.
Hancock said the colt will likely start the breaking process in a few days.
LAS VEGAS - Every year there are a handful of young freshman stallions who were brilliantly quick as racehorses but who did not achieve stardom, usually due to an injury-shortened career. The first-crop sires making headlines this year include Successful Appeal, Fusaichi Pegasus, Dixie Union, Yes It's True, More Than Ready, and Giant's Causeway, but some lesser-known stallions who had blazing sprinter-miler speed are also transmitting brilliance to their offspring, and their 2-year-olds are returning fat payoffs.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Three days before its Sept. 27 end date, the 2004 Keeneland September yearling sale became the top-grossing Thoroughbred auction in history when Friday's 11th session pushed total income to $318,245,700 for 2,819 yearlings.
The previous record for gross income was held by the 1999 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, which sold 3,461 horses for $317,666,000.