Ashford Stud

Grade I winner Epicenter (Not This Time), who suffered a displaced condylar fracture to his right front leg during the running of the Nov. 5 GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland, on Friday was sent to Coolmore's Ashford Stud near Versailles, KY, where he will stand his first season at stud this year, Winchell Thorougbreds racing manager David Fiske tweeted. The winner of last year's GI Runhappy Travers. S. and GII Jim Dandy S. had been recuperating from the injury and subsequent surgery, conducted by Dr. Larry Bramlage at Rood...

Among Ashford Stud's new stallions for 2023, two members of the Coolmore quintet boast standout sire-making families. GI Preakness S. hero Early Voting (Gun Runner - Amour d'Ete, by Tiznow) is out of a half-sister to perennial top sire Speightstown while Jack Christopher (Munnings - Rushin No Blushin, by Half Ours), a 'TDN Rising Star' who raced to three Grade I victories, is out of a half-sister to Darley's Street Boss. Jack Christopher is also the first son of Munnings to join his sire at Ashford Stud. After carrying the...

By a total margin of more than $275,000, pending any late foreign money, Spendthrift Farm's Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) handily captured the title of 2022's leading first-year sire over an impressive list of promising freshman stallions that included 2017 juvenile champion Good Magic (Curlin), who stands at Hill 'n' Dale Farm, and Coolmore's Triple Crown winner and 2018 Horse of the Year Justify (Scat Daddy). The top three battled neck and neck down to the wire with Bolt d'Oro pulling away from Good Magic in the last few days of...

Thanks to Winter Storm Elliott and numerous cancellations of racing cards in the East late last week, the tight battle between Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), Good Magic (Curlin) and Justify (Scat Daddy) to claim the title of 2022's leading first-crop sire went from a boil to a chill over the Christmas holiday weekend. However, with three days remaining on the calendar this year, both the temperatures and the competition are heating back up, none of the top three willing to claim victory or concede defeat just yet. Bolt d'Oro kicked...

by Margaret Ransom A quiet week for the top-three stallions battling it out to earn the crown as 2022 leading first-crop sire--Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), Good Magic (Curlin) and Justify (Scat Daddy)--has led to a busy pre-Christmas week with Justify and Good Magic each picking up a winner and all three having multiple runners both here in the U.S. and abroad over the next two days heading into the quiet holiday weekend. Justify scored first on Wednesday with his daughter Diamondsareforever breaking her maiden at first asking at Dundalk in...

by Margaret Ransom A one-two finish from Communication Memo and Two Rocket in Friday's 6th race at Oaklawn Park and their combined earnings of $72,000 helped Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) extend his lead over Good Magic (Curlin) and Justify (Scat Daddy) in the first-year stallion earnings race heading into the weekend. Not willing to wave the white flag just yet, Good Magic's Almurtajiz, a $290,635 ARQMAY purchase earlier this year, finished second in the G3 Ministry of National Guard Cup at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on Friday and picked up...

by Margaret Ransom It's been a quiet week so far for the top stallions brawling it out to claim the title of 2022's leading first-crop sire, but the numbers for all three are likely to move with each having a number of runners over the next few days before the quiet of the Christmas holiday week sets in. On Thursday, Bolt d'Oro's (Medaglia d'Oro) daughter Bullock captured a $25,000 maiden claiming event at Gulfstream Park by a length and picked up a check for $28,400. In doing so, the filly...

Welcome to our annual assessment of Bluegrass sire prospects for the approaching covering season. As last year, we're going to confine our focus largely to a "Value Podium" for each intake--rather than attempt, as in the past, an exhaustive (not to say exhausting) assessment of every stallion in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Believe me, it wasn't always easy to find something adequately civil to say about every last one! But the fact is that this is only ever one person's opinion and, as such, a hopelessly subjective exercise. By restricting...

by Margaret Ransom It was a busy weekend for one of the top three stallions battling it out for the crown as the best first-crop sire of 2022 as Justify was represented by a pair of winners and another two to hit the board, leaving Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) and Good Magic (Curlin) winless from just a single runner each. Justify's two winners on American soil both came on Sunday and started with Don Alberto Stable's homebred Alpha Bella, who graduated with a hard-fought victory by a head at Gulfstream...

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Epicenter (Not This Time--Silent Candy, by Candy Ride {Arg}), a leading candidate for champion 3-year-old honors, will enter stud in 2023 at Ashford Stud. He will stand for $45,000. Bred at Mike, Brent and Kevin Harrises' Westwind Farms in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Epicenter was hammered down to the Winchell team for $260,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale and was ultimately turned over to the operation's Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. A maiden winner at second asking going the one-turn mile at Churchill Downs, the bay romped...

There has been no shortage of traffic flooding through the lofty gates of Ashford Stud as breeders are eager to set their eyes on the stud farm's four newcomers for 2023. Among the quartet, two of the new additions hold Breeders' Cup titles, and breeders have fervently responded to that prized piece of resume. While turf sprinting superstar Golden Pal (Uncle Mo - Lady Shipman, by Midshipman) boasts the rare distinction of taking home two Breeders' Cup trophies, his new studmate Corniche (Quality Road - Wasted Tears, by Najran) justified...

'TDN Rising Star' and three-time Grade I winner Jack Christopher (Munnings--Rushin No Blushin, by Half Ours) has been retired from racing and will stand in 2023 alongside his sire at Coolmore's Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky. His introductory fee will be $45,000. "We are delighted to have Jack Christopher now here at Ashford standing alongside his sire Munnings," said Coolmore's Dermot Ryan. "He's a striking horse with great presence and a lovely temperament. Horses like him are what makes racing exciting to watch." Owned by the partnership of Jim Bakke,...