Live racing on the New York Racing Association circuit was last conducted March 15 at Aqueduct before being suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the spring meeting at Belmont Park has been postponed to a date yet to be announced. However, a lack of racing in their state of residence has not slowed young New York sire Central Banker and the state’s perennial leading sire Freud.
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While race meets around the country have been curtailed, postponed, or canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gulfstream Park is among those that have continued on steadily. And young Florida sire Khozan has continued on to national attention as well.
European champion and internationally successful sire Shamardal has been euthanized at age 18 as a result of unspecified health issues, Darley's Kildangan Stud said on Thursday.
Shamardal, who was standing for a private fee, was one of the most successful sons at stud of the late Giant's Causeway. He was produced in the European Horse of the Year’s first crop while standing in Kentucky.
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Mr. Big News
Giant’s Causeway – Unappeased, by Galileo
Bred in Kentucky by Don Alberto Corp. ($95,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling purchase by Allied Racing Stable)
For all of his accomplishments, European Horse of the Year and internationally successful stallion Giant’s Causeway has never sired the winner of an American classic race. But the stallion, who died in 2018, may get another chance this season with Mr. Big News, a newcomer to this week’s Derby Watch as the long road to the Kentucky Derby marches on.
Prominent owner and breeder Charles Fipke will waive stud fees for the 2020 season on all his stallions as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Fipke stands seven stallions publicly around North America, all homebreds from his program. He said that this move is intended to provide some relief to small breeders who could be particularly hard-hit by the economic implications of the pandemic.
Hard Spun and The Factor, both versatile stallions from the sire line of the great Danzig, are in lockstep early on the year in Daily Racing Form’s exclusive Beyer Sire Performance Standings. Each has three individuals who have triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures this year.
Through the first quarter of a racing season unlike any other, the sire standings are a list unlike any other. The global COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the $12 million Dubai World Cup, but the $20 million Saudi Cup got in its inaugural running before the pandemic began to upend the racing calendar.
The newest half-sister to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah arrived over the weekend at Summer Wind Farm in Georgetown, Ky.
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Tom’s d’Etat scored the fifth stakes victory of his career in Saturday’s Oaklawn Mile, the first start of his 7-year-old campaign. The late-blooming Tom’s d’Etat gives the late leading sire Smart Strike the opportunity for one more prominent son at stud when he eventually retires.
