Antony Beck

With Tapit again leading its roster, Gainesway released its 2021 stud fees Wednesday. The gray super-sire, North America's leading stallion by lifetime graded stakes winners (84), Grade I winners (27), and progeny earnings ($159,714,395) will stand for $185,000 next year. He stood the 2020 season at $200,000. Four-time Grade I winner McKinzie (Street Sense) will begin his stud career next season at a fee of $30,000. (Click to view McKinzie's digital Flipbook). "I am excited about beginning this new chapter in the Gainesway stallions with McKinzie," said Gainesway CEO Antony...

Sean Tugel, who served WinStar Farm as its director of bloodstock services and assistant racing manager for the last decade, and Lakota Gibson, who spent the last five years working alongside David Ingordo in the bloodstock department at Lane's End Farm, have joined the team at Gainesway. A native of Rochester, New York, and a Lexington resident since 2004, Tugel has been named the director of stallion sales and recruitment. He has also served in management roles at Hill 'n' Dale Farm and Paul's Mill. "We're excited about adding Sean...

Saturday's second and final session of the Bloodstock South Africa National Yearling sale saw seven additional seven-figure (Rand) lots added to the top of the price list. Maine Chance Farms's champion sire Silvano (Ger) had been the star of day one, responsible for the top four lots including the sale-leading R7-million colt (£313,406/€348,135), and he once again provided the top two on Saturday. The leading light was Maine Chance's colt (lot 329) bought by Anthony Beck for R2.3-million (£102,976/€114,387). He is the second foal out of the G1 SA Oaks...

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gainesway Stable's Sharing (Speightstown), winner of last fall's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita, remains on course for Royal Ascot's G1 Coronation S. June 21. Sharing, winner of the May 23 Tepin S. at Churchill Downs, is trained by Maryland-based Graham Motion. "She is doing really well since she last ran," said Motion. "The weather here has been beautiful and I think that has really helped. Everything has been going pretty smoothly so far." Victorious in three of four starts last season, including...

Mahmoud is interred in the same soil. So, too, are Broomstick and his son Whisk Broom II--both born in the first years of the last century; Tom Fool, Vaguely Noble, Blushing Groom; the great matriarch La Troienne. Stop The Music, the horse who owed his Champagne S. success to the disqualification of Secretariat, lasted to 35 before he had to be euthanized in 2005. And let's not forget The Axe, gray son of gray Mahmoud: the sire of Foggy Note, fourth of nine gray dams behind the farm's modern colossus...

Empire Maker (Unbridled--Toussaud, by El Gran Senor), who gave Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms its lone American Classic winner in the 2003 GI Belmont S. before going on to be a sire of sires and grandsire of two Kentucky Derby winners--including a Triple Crown winner--passed away Saturday, Jan. 18 at Gainesway Farm in Lexington. He was 20 years old and succumbed to a rare disease that compromised his immune system. "The passing of Empire Maker will leave a tremendous void not only in the breeding industry as we know it, but...

Gainesway Farm will be open to visitors this week for inspections of its 2020 roster of stallions. Open House hours will be held from Monday, Jan. 13 through Friday, Jan. 17 from 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Visit www.gainesway.com for more information.

Alex Solis II has been named the Director of Bloodstock at Gainesway Farm, the farm announced this morning via press release. According to the press release, over the past 10 years, his partnership with Jason Litt at Solis/Litt Bloodstock has advised the purchase of 11 Grade I winners, and 46 Graded stakes horses. In 2019, Solis/Litt's success included the 2019 Kentucky Derby winner Country House and Breeders' Cup-winning sprinter Covfefe. Past selections include champion Shared Belief and dual Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Mizdirection. "It is an honor to be offered...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: ANTONY BECK Over the past few days, I have read with interest the letters from Allison Bishop and Dermot Ryan about the important role that Visit Horse Country plays in introducing new people to our sport. I would like to add my voice to the conversation. Each day, as the sun rises over the Bluegrass, we direct our full attention to nurturing our horses. We make this investment in hope that the horses we care for will sire or foal the next big winner or that...