LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Jockey Club in England will launch an investigation into Juddmonte Farms' registration of Group 2 winner Endless Summer, the Racing Post reported Thursday.
The investigation centers around Endless Summer's correct age. Juddmonte registered the Zafonic colt as having been foaled on Jan. 2, 1998, but Juddmonte's English manager, Philip Mitchell, has since acknowledged that Endless Summer was in fact born prematurely on Dec. 26 or 27, 1997.
Congaree, a Grade 1 winner who has earned more than $3 million, will stand at Frank Stronach's Adena Springs Farm in Versailles, Ky.
Janice and Robert McNair, whose Stonerside Stable owns Congaree, announced the stud deal on Thursday. Congaree will begin his stud career in 2005 with a $15,000 fee.
Congaree, 6, is by 1991 champion 2-year-old and Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Arazi. He is out of the Grade 1-placed Mari's Book mare Mari's Sheba.
Lovely Journey, a 2-year-old filly by Helmsman, was the sale-topper at Tuesday's inaugural Barretts summer sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age in Pomona, Calif.
Overall, 93 horses sold for $1,254,800, an average of $13,492 and a median price of $8,000. The 2-year-olds led the sale, with 53 juveniles selling for an average of $16,006. The 40 horses of racing age grossed $406,500, an average of $10,163.
The Farish family's Lane's End operation will bypass the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling auction this year, Bill Farish confirmed Tuesday.
The Lane's End consignment will point for the Keeneland September yearling auction instead of the August sale.
"For years we've been selling our yearlings in September," Farish said. "We look at it every year on a year-to-year basis, and when we looked at our crop this year, we thought we had a better lineup for September rather than dividing the consignment up."
The Barretts June sale of 2-year-olds and horses of racing age got under way Tuesday, with a $70,000 Western Fame gelding the session's early leader. The one-day sale was to auction 212 lots.
Just an hour into the session at Fairplex in Pomona, Calif., 3-year-old Rockin the Ship got a final bid of $70,000 from Ted West. West was acting as agent on behalf of G. Chris Coleman.
That was the high price as of 5 p.m. Eastern, when 29 horses had gone through the ring.
LAS VEGAS - Among the many big races over the July 4 weekend is the American Oaks on Saturday at Hollywood Park, a race that could be renamed the International Oaks because of the presence of six foreign-based fillies.
Misty Heights and Steel Princess are from Ireland; Boulevardofdreams and French Lady are from New Zealand; Dance in the Mood is from Japan; and Kalatuna is from France.
Machiavellian, a prominent European stallion and sire of Grade 1 or Group 1 winners Street Cry and Almutawakel, was euthanized late last week because of laminitis. He was 17.
Machiavellian's laminitis had prompted Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum's Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket, England, to withdraw the horse from the breeding shed in the spring.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - B. Wayne Hughes, who bought Lexington's historic Spendthrift Farm for an undisclosed price Friday, says he doesn't plan to stand stallions there himself.
"I'm not really interested in being in the stallion business," said Hughes, who earlier signed contracts to stand Malibu Moon and Action This Day at nearby Castleton Lyons. "This is a place I can bring my grandkids, and they can stay there and play. It's big enough that they can do what they want there, and I can have mares and babies there in one place."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Smarty Jones, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, will stand at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., upon his retirement from racing in a deal that bloodstock insiders said will put his total value at about $48 million.
That would make Smarty Jones the second most expensive stallion prospect to be syndicated behind Fusaichi Pegasus, the 2000 Kentucky Derby winner whose total value was put between $60 and $70 million in a deal engineered by Coolmore Stud.
