OZONE PARK, N.Y. - When the New York Racing Association released its 2004 stakes schedule recently, it included significant and positive changes for New York-breds.
Three New York-bred stakes were added at the Saratoga meet, and purses for 11 New York-bred stakes at Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga were increased.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - John and Michele Treasure sold House of Fortune a week after she was foaled in March 2001. She has seldom ventured far from their sight.
As morning outriders in Southern California, the Treasures have spent most of this year admiring House of Fortune's development into the top 2-year-old California-bred filly.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Juddmonte Farms, one of the world's dominant breeding and racing organizations, added two more accolades to its impressive trophy case this week. England's Thoroughbred Breeders' Association announced that Saudi prince Khalid Abdullah's homebreeding program had received The Queen's Silver Cup as 2003's leading British-based flat breeder and the TBA Silver Rose Bowl as the season's flat breeder of the year.
Ewell Rice, who worked his way up from exercise rider to farm management at Calumet Farm during its heyday in the 1940's and 1950's, died in Lexington, Ky., on Monday. He was 78.
Rice, a World War II Navy veteran, was a popular and respected fixture in the horse industry. The Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club voted him its 1981 Farm Manager of the Year.
Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's December mixed sale ended Monday with a $40,000 sale-topper and declines across the board.
The single-session auction at the company's Newtown Paddocks in Lexington, Ky., sold 147 horses for a total of $605,500, off 36 percent from last year's $946,700 for 140 lots. Average and median also did not fare well this season, with the average price down 39 percent to $4,119 and median down 29 percent to $2,500.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Grade 1 winner Dress to Thrill has been retired, the filly's Irish-based owner, Walter Haefner's Moyglare Stud, announced Tuesday.
The 4-year-old homebred Danehill filly last raced in the Nov. 30 Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood, finishing 12th. She will return to Ireland and will be bred to leading sire Sadler's Wells.
LAS VEGAS - Late season stakes such as the Hollywood Futurity, Remsen, and Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes have in the past showcased late-maturing 2-year-olds who have blossomed into serious racehorses at age 3.
Inaugurated in 1981, the Hollywood Futurity has been the launching pad for many top horses, including Roving Boy, Stephan's Odyssey, Snow Chief, Best Pal, A.P. Indy, Real Quiet, Captain Steve, and Point Given. Siphonic, who died last fall, upset the heavily favored Officer in 2001, and Toccet capped off a brilliant late-season campaign winning last year's running.
Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's final auction of 2003, its one-day mixed sale, got underway at Newtown Paddocks in Lexington, Ky., on Monday with a $40,000 early session-leader. That was the price David Hager II, agent, paid for the Jolie's Halo mare Jolie's Dream, a half-sister to stakes winner and $290,000 earner Gators N Bears.
The Lazy Q Ranch agency offered the 6-year-old Jolie's Dream as a broodmare prospect. Though she is not a stakes performer, Jolie's Dream has earned more than $114,000.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - All is quiet these days at Buckram Oak Farm. As broodmares await their next foaling dates, and weanlings romp in spacious paddocks, farmhands go about their daily routines amid a peacefulness that belies the momentous events that may await the man who makes this massive operation click.
Until a couple of weeks ago, 2003 had been a nearly perfect year for Hugh and Achsah O'Donovan.
Perfectly, a homebred mare owned by the O'Donovans, closed out the year with her weanling daughter by Malibu Moon topping Fasig-Tipton's December mixed sale, which concluded Dec. 8. The price of $150,000 was a sales record for a weanling filly. The purchaser, Castleton Group, operates Castleton Lyons farm in Lexington, Ky., where Malibu Moon resides.
