New Jersey became the latest state to have a special race day to celebrate its homegrown product, the inaugural New Jersey Thoroughbred Festival, which took place Sept. 20 at Monmouth Park.
"The whole thing went even better than we hoped," said Mike Campbell, executive director of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey. "The turnout was great [a crowd of 9,100 ontrack]. And the support for each of the races was excellent."
The phone at Jack and Barb Hatch's ranch home in Galt, Calif., rings more frequently these days, a month after the mom-and-pop operation consigned the sale topper to the Del Mar yearling sale.
From a five-horse offering, the Hatches topped the sale with a Smokester colt who sold for $160,000.
"Everyone has called and congratulated us," Barb Hatch said earlier this week. "They've been happy for us. Even people from Kentucky we knew from the sales. It's been quite exciting."
LAS VEGAS - Washington State is proving to be fertile ground for some well-bred stallions, and they were center stage last Sunday, when beautiful Emerald Downs, with majestic Mt. Rainier as a backdrop, hosted the inaugural running of Washington Cup Day - eight stakes on a 10-race program.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - According to the Breeders' Cup future bet, the heaviest favorite among the Breeders' Cup contenders is the juvenile filly Halfbridled. She is a daughter of Breeders' Cup Classic winner Unbridled and Half Queen, by Deputy Minister, who sired a pair of Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winners.
Halfbridled, a big bay filly, is undefeated in two starts, and her most recent effort in winning the Del Mar Debutante by five lengths over Hollywood Story has made Halfbridled the premier player in this year's run-up to the Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.
Margaret Grimm's Grade 1 winner Ms. Eloise, dam of Grade 3 winner Bibury Court and five other stakes performers, died of natural causes at Loch Ness Farm in Paris, Ky., on Sept. 12. The Nasty and Bold mare was 20.
Ms. Eloise had an illustrious career at the races, winning the Grade 1 Top Flight and Shuvee handicaps among six other stakes, and earning more than $870,000. She won or placed in Grade 1 company five times in a career that spanned four racing seasons.
Owner and breeder William Schettine has decided not to sell 58 mares and weanlings he had entered in Keeneland's upcoming November auction.
The dispersal was to include Felicita, who is the dam of Grade 1 winner Take Charge Lady and who is in foal to A.P. Indy on a February cover. The horses were to be offered through the Paramount Sales agency.
The Goffs Orby sale in Ireland rang up a top price of $1,377,600 for a Dubai Millennium colt, one of just four colts publicly offered from the late sire's only crop.
Dubai Millennium's owner, Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum, purchased the Goffs sale-topper from Pat Kelly's Kilcarn Stud consignment at the two-day auction's opening session Tuesday night.
The colt is out of the Sadler's Wells mare Spirit of Tara, a Group 2-placed full sister to European champion Salsabil.
Jockey Club Gold Cup favorite Mineshaft, who will stand his initial season in 2004 at Lane's End, will have a stud fee of $100,000. That is the most expensive fee announced for a new stallion in 2004, outstripping previous leader Vindication's $50,000 fee.
Ubetshedid, dam of the popular millionaire gelding Best Pal, was euthanized at Golden Eagle Farms on Sept. 12 at the age of 23, the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association has announced. The King Pellinore mare was euthanized due to declining health.
Ubetshedid's most successful foal was Best Pal, the California-bred Habitony gelding who attained hero status in his home state. Best Pal won 17 stakes, including six Grade 1 races, and earned more than $5.6 million from 1990-96.