Among the estimated 330 stallions that will stand in Florida for the 2003 breeding season are seven particularly intriguing newcomers. Here is a look at them.
Honor Glide, a 9-year-old by Honor Grades-Becky Branch, by Run the Gantlet, will stand at Cloverleaf Farms II for $4,000, payable when the foal stands and nurses. Honor Glide will stand on the property of Bonnie Heath Farm, which raced him.
Coquettish and Foufa's Warrior, two promising juveniles, put the finishing touches on a memorable year for their breeders by winning their first stakes races on the final day of 2002.
The two won the year's richest stakes for Maryland-bred juveniles, the Maryland Juvenile Championship and its filly equivalent, at Laurel Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Helped by a strong core of statebreds and a nationally prominent 2-year-old, In Excess finished 2002 as the leading stallion standing in California.
The 16-year-old In Excess had progeny earnings of $3,310,610 and sired eight stakes winners, including two graded stakes winners. He finished the year $563,716 in front of Valid Wager in the state's stallion rankings. High Brite finished third with $2,709,177, followed by Bertrando ($2,672,485), and Flying Continental ($2,636,873).
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Old Trieste, whose first foals averaged more than $100,000 at yearling auctions in 2002, was euthanized Jan. 2 after foundering, according to Jimmy Bell of Darley Stud's Jonabell Farm in Lexington.
"He developed an acute case of founder that then deteriorated, as those things can do," Bell said Thursday. "We decided that we had to do the humane thing for the horse."
An 8-year-old A.P. Indy stallion, Old Trieste stood at Jonabell throughout his brief stud career. He was to stand for $25,000 this year.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Champion and prominent sire Pleasant Colony, winner of the 1981 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, died in his sleep in his paddock in Upperville, Va., on Dec. 31, Blue Ridge Farm officials confirmed Thursday. Pleasant Colony, the sire of champions Pleasant Tap and Pleasant Stage, was 24.
Pleasant Colony, a His Majesty stallion, was pensioned from stud duty in the spring of 2000, when Lane's End Farm sent him to the Kentucky Horse Park. He moved in May, 2000, to Blue Ridge, near his birthplace, the late Thomas Mellon Evans's Buckland Farm.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Runto the Mountain is one of the thousands of horses who never gets a headline. He is, however, a racehorse with a capital R. Runto the Mountain is such a hard-trying horse that he has won 20 races and nearly $150,000. The amazing thing about his story is that veterinarians and other experts didn't believe he would be able to race, much less compete successfully. But Runto the Mountain's good attitude and competitive spirit have made believers of everyone who has handled him.
New Jersey's Thoroughbred industry lost a key player when longtime breeder-owner William A. Purdey died in September at age 65. But if Purdey's widow, Frances, has her way, the grand old family farm, Greenfields in Colts Neck, N.J., established by Purdey's grandfather in 1937, will not disappear from the landscape any time soon.
"There's a lot of pressure from developers for the land," said Frances Purdey. "But I see this as a stronghold. We have established clients who like to breed and race in New Jersey.
Two auctions selling about 300 stallion seasons, mostly for Florida stallions, will be conducted in the Southeast in the next couple of weeks. One will be conducted by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association and the other by the Georgia Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.
The Georgia auction will be held at the Atlanta National Golf Club next Saturday. The Florida sale will be held in the sales auditorium of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. Jan. 13 following the first session of the OBS winter mixed sale.
The New York Racing Association has added two races for 3-year-olds, worth $250,000 apiece, to the New York Stallion Stakes series in 2003.
The new races, which are restricted to the progeny of New York-based stallions, will be run on June 8 at Belmont Park, the day after the Belmont Stakes, and are named the Statue of Liberty for fillies and the Cab Calloway for colts and geldings.