LEXINGTON, Ky. - Stonerside Stable's homebred Grade 1 winner Congaree has retired from racing and will enter stud in 2005, Stonerside announced Thursday. A 6-year-old Arazi horse, Congaree will ship to Stonerside in Paris, Ky., but owners Robert and Janice McNair have not yet decided where to stand him.
Chic Shirine, Grade 1 winner and dam of Grade 2 winner Tara Roma, died May 3 from complications of colic surgery. A Mr. Prospector mare, she was 20 and had been boarded at Helen Alexander's Middlebrook Farm in Lexington, Ky.
Chic Shirine was a daughter of the foundation mare Too Chic, who died at age 24 last August, and continued the influence of one of the great King Ranch families.
As a homebred racing for Emory Hamilton, Chic Shirine won the 1987 Ashland Stakes and Hail Hilarious Stakes and placed in the Mother Goose and Acorn Stakes. She earned $237,944.
Go for Gin, the 1994 Kentucky Derby winner and sire of Grade 1 winner Albert the Great, will relocate from Claiborne Farm after the 2004 breeding season.
Joe Cornacchia, who raced Go for Gin in partnership, exercised his right of first refusal by equaling an overseas bid for Go for Gin, 13, and buying out partners William Condren and Claiborne.
"We haven't made any decisions yet," Cornacchia said of the stallion's destination for the 2005 breeding season.
LAS VEGAS - Winner of the 1990 Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic, Unbridled was a champion at age 3, and went on to a very successful career as a stallion. He had a profound impact on the breed as a rare influence of stamina on dirt. His untimely death at age 14 in 2001, along with the passing of 24-year-old Pleasant Colony in 2002, left a serious void in the stallion ranks for breeders who wished to breed for stamina and not speed.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The promising Cheiron, who won the $250,000 Snow Chief Stakes for California-breds at Hollywood Park on April 24, was very nearly a Saudi Arabian-bred.
In February 2001, Fortunee, Cheiron's dam, was being loaded onto a plane at Los Angeles International Airport bound for Saudi Arabia. Shortly before departure, she foaled Cheiron.
Instead of flying, Fortunee and her newborn colt were taken off the plane, put back onto a van, and sent to nearby Bradbury, where The Thoroughbred Corp., which owned the dam, kept its horses.
Some of the world's most prolific producers of stakes winners will be in the spotlight when the Maryland Horse Breeders Association conducts its annual awards dinner May 10 at the Center Club in Baltimore.
Sondra and Howard Bender, Maryland's breeder of the year for the third time in a row, have few equals when it comes to stakes winners. In 2003, seven horses bred by the Benders won stakes, six of them campaigning as homebreds for the Benders and their trainer, Larry Murray.
Florida's 2004 legislative session ended Friday evening and, barring last-minute surprises, there will be no Thoroughbred industry legislation added to the state statutes. Florida politics ordinarily dictates that if one wants to get parimutuel legislation through the Legislature and signed by the governor, it has to be legislation that is non-controversial and has the support of all elements in the industry.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Funny Cide became the darling of New York's breeding and racing program with his wins in the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
Last Monday, the New York Thoroughbred Breeders paid tribute to Funny Cide by honoring him as horse of the year and champion 3-year-old male for his achievements in 2003. Those awards, as well as 13 others, were revealed at a dinner co-hosted by the NYTB and New York's Breeding and Racing Program. The equine winners were selected by a panel of New York turf writers.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - One of the tenets of successful handicapping and betting is: "Don't expect a horse to do something until he's done it." That could also be applied to breeding racehorses.
Only in this case, the adage might be: "Don't expect a stallion's offspring to win at a level or distance at which the stallion or his offspring have not already succeeded."
Looking at the fillies classic the Kentucky Oaks, there are only two sires with contenders in the race who already have gotten classic winners.
LAS VEGAS - This year's Kentucky Derby is a handicapper's dream, with quality speed, off-the-pace runners and true closers. But what makes the Kentucky Derby unique has always been its distance.
Most in the Derby are trying 1 1/4 miles for the first time, and this classic distance separates the men from the boys. One exception was Canonero II, who had won two races at 1 1/4 miles before his shocking victory in the 1971 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.