Army Mule

Thursday, Chris McGrath covered the first half of the Kentucky stallions with first yearlings. Click here to read about Justify, City of Light, West Coast, Mendelssohn, Good Magic, Bolt d'Oro, and Always Dreaming. The second part appears below. ACCELERATE (Lookin At Lucky--Issues, by Awesome Again) has also been trimmed to $17,500, at Lane's End, having already been our "gold" value pick of the intake at an opening $20,000. Whatever made him attractive then has scarcely diminished in the meantime, given that he was never going to appeal to those fast-buck...

Able to Smile (Into Mischief) (hip 2509), a 4-year-old broodmare prospect, topped Sunday's seventh session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale when bringing a final bid of $135,000. I'll Need a Little Luck was the name on the ticket for the gray filly, who was consigned by Indian Creek. Out of Grade I placed Teamgeist (Arg) (Mutakddim), Able to Smile is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner House Rules (Distorted Humor), as well as to multiple Grade I placed Win the Space (Pulpit). A $385,000 Keeneland September yearling,...

● Army Mule (Friesan Fire), unbeaten winner of the 2018 GI Carter H., sired his first foal when Burke's Garden (Speightstown) produced a filly Jan. 8 at Hill 'n' Dale Canada. ● The filly is owned by St Elias--which campaigned Army Mule--in partnership with Elevage. She is the first foal out of Burke's Garden, whose second dam is broodmare of the year Oatsee. ● Hill 'n' Dale Canada President R. Glenn Sikura said, "The foal is very well made with a lot of substance. There's certainly much to like about...

Over the coming days and weeks, we will be touched by the customary pictures of first foals tottering onto the gawky limbs that must someday propel them around the racetrack, and so determine the viability of their sires' new careers. That's the idea, at any rate. Sadly, we know that the auctioneer's gavel will expel some of these stallions from Kentucky--and just to reiterate, we will be surveying regional sires at the end of this series--before their stock gets any meaningful opportunity to test the heritability of the talent that...

Vinnie Viola has been elected to the board of stewards of The Jockey Club, filling the expired position of William S. Farish, Jr. Viola and his wife, Teresa, have campaigned the likes of GI Kentucky Derby hero Always Dreaming (Bodemeister), GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile victor Liam's Map (Unbridled's Song), GI Carter H. winner Army Mule (Friesian Fire) and more. He is also the owner of the Florida Panthers of the NHL and a governor on the NHL's board of governors. In addition to Viola, the board of stewards consists...