Airdrie Stud

This tier of the market, between $20,000 and $29,999, offers particular value through its more established names: horses that have walked the walk sufficiently to clear the basement level, while somehow failing to achieve due commercial prestige. Indeed, our podium is dominated by the two eldest of the eligible stallions, while the only candidates considered for the third step were all in the process of consolidating strong starts. That said, the case for the three young sires at the other end of the spectrum--whose first foals are about to slither...

Having dealt with the rookies separately, we now start our quest for value among those stallions already at stud. We'll be going through the pyramid by price band, and today kick off at the level most accessible to breeders on a budget. But do not be deceived that we must be scraping the barrel here. If anything, candidly, there are more horses standing at four figures that one could trust--above all, for a breed-to-race program--than among far more expensive newcomers featured in the first instalment. Whether one could also recommend...

The Indiana Thoroughbred Alliance (ITA) is celebrating its Fifth Annual Stallions & Services Auction--beginning Dec. 18--by partnering with platform BidXSell, the organization said in a press release on Friday. The auction focuses on uniting the Midwest horse racing community through the funding of scholarships, educational programs and the promotion of the industry. Featuring over 50 stallion seasons from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, the event goes live on BidXSell's site at 8:00 a.m. (all times eastern) Dec. 18 and concludes at 4:00 p.m. Dec. 20. The catalogue review is set to...

All of us involved in this game tend to be exposed to its ups and downs on a scale proportionate to our means. That being so, there have unsurprisingly been some pretty wild extremes--for better and worse--in the story of the most lavishly funded program in its history. Just think back, for instance, to the last days of April 2001. Sheikh Mohammed had sent Street Cry (Ire) back to the United States, where he had been skillfully developed as a juvenile by Eoin Harty, with the mission of winning the...

If it stays like this, a single maiden winner might settle it. Because all that separates McKinzie ($2,294,679) from current leader Tiz the Law ($2,339,575) in the freshman table is $44,896. But wait, there's more. McKinzie isn't even second. Between the pair lurks Vekoma ($2,306,457), ensuring a desperate three-way contest for the prized laurels of champion first-season sire. It's even closer than this time last year, when four stallions were divided by barely $200,000. In the end, Mitole actually extended his lead down the stretch. But the fact that the...

"Boy Trapped in Refrigerator Eats Own Foot." Well, that got your attention, didn't it? Devotees of a certain spoof disaster movie may recall the spinning front-page story--but few will be aware that it may yet, in a roundabout way, lead to genuine headlines at the Breeders' Cup. Bret Jones of Airdrie Stud was at a dinner a few years ago when someone passing behind his seat overheard him saying how much he enjoyed Airplane! "I was in that movie," said Billy Koch. On the face of it, it seemed unlikely....

Airdrie Stud's 2025 stallion roster will be headlined by four young stallions all being offered for a fee of $25,000, according to a press release from Airdrie Friday. The quartet includes breakout freshman sire Complexity. Currently ranked fourth in earnings according to TDN's Sire List, Complexity has three stakes winners--including two graded winners--and five stakes horses from his first crop of 2-year-olds. The 8-year-old stallion joins GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic), as well as Girvin (Tale of Ekati) and Upstart (Flatter), who all come in at the price...

Iron Man Cal, the 6-5 favorite, came up a hair short in a three-way photo finish to the GIII Zuma Beach Stakes, but was awarded the victory by the stewards after first-place finisher Artislas was disqualified and placed third. The result gave owners Little Red Feather Racing and Madaket Stable--as well as sire Collected and breeder Brereton Jones--a sweep of the Sunday graded races at Santa Anita after Thought Process (Collected) captured the GIII Surfer Girl Stakes earlier on the card. Iron Man Cal sat just off pacesetting longshot Ivan...

It almost feels like he's on the other end of some celestial phoneline, listening in and smiling. Because somehow Marty Wygod seems to have arranged things so that family and friends, since mourning his loss in April, could be consoled by an afterglow of the same vitality that had sustained his 84 years. First a colt gifted to his daughter Emily Bushnell and longtime racing adviser Ric Waldman took them to the GI Kentucky Derby; and now another graduate of his program has assisted its transition with a $2.4 million...

There can't be many tracks that that deviate further from the standard American model than Goodwood. Even in Britain nobody today would dream of laying out a racecourse along a twisting ridge of downland, and we remain duly indebted to the militia officers who first eked out a little sport here 223 years ago. Not that the horses themselves share our appreciation for a gorgeous panorama of cornfields and woodland, focused as they are on keeping their balance over the swaying terrain and round sharp right-hand bends. Yet last week...

A share in Airdrie Stud's hugely successful first-crop sire Complexity (Maclean's Music) was the first lot on offer during Tuesday's second session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale, and was hammered down to David Lanigan, bidding on behalf of Scott Heider, for $510,000. Representing a 2.5% interest, the share is not subject to syndicate clearance, according to a pre-sale announcement from Fasig-Tipton's Grant Williamson before the bidding began. "We bought a Nyquist filly off Airdrie last year, so there is a connection to the family and the farm," Lanigan...

Eleanora Kennedy's Black Forza (Complexity--Harlee Honey, by Harlan's Holiday), a £220,000 Goffs UK Breeze-Up graduate, shed maiden status at Fairyhouse last month and stepped forward to notch a landmark win for his Airdrie Stud-based freshman sire (by Maclean's Music) in Thursday's G2 Markel Richmond Stakes at Goodwood. A share in the stallion will be auctioned at Fasig-Tipton's August Sale next week. The Michael O'Callaghan trainee was steadied after the break and settled several lengths off the tempo in seventh through the early fractions of this six-furlong dash. Coming under pressure...