Ashford Stud

Freshman sire Practical Joke got off the mark with his first winner Saturday at Lone Star Park. Under a ride and outsprinted in fifth through an opening quarter in :22.59, Tom Durant homebred Catchusifyoucan (Practical Joke), off at odds of 5-1, rode the rail into the stretch and snuck up the fence in the late stages to secure a half-length decision over Free Like a Girl (El Deal). The winner's stakes-winning dam Legal Mind (Bellamy Road) is also represented by a Sky Kingdom colt of 2020. She was bred to...

No matter how ugly racing can get over here on our dirt tracks, most recently highlighted by the Gl Kentucky Derby betamethasone positive of the Bob Baffert-trained Medina Spirit (Protonico), North American pedigrees have to be reckoned with wherever racing is conducted at the highest levels, and that includes on turf in Japan (Sunday Silence) and Australasia (Danehill) in addition to Europe (Sadler's Wells). No one knows this better than the Coolmore partners, headed by maestro John Magnier, who learned this lesson decades ago on American buying sprees as the...

Tiz the Law (Constitution--Tizfiz, by Tiznow), a four-time Grade I winner who is finishing up his first year of covering duties at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Versailles, Kentucky, will shuttle to Haras Paso Nevado in Chile for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season, Turf Diario reported Thursday. A $110,000 graduate of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-Bred Sale in 2018, Tiz the Law raced in the maroon-and-gray colors of Sackatoga Stable and was trained by Barclay Tagg to a four-length victory in the GI Champagne S. in just his second career...

Alleging that a lawsuit by three Kentucky stud farms over the 140-mare stallion cap is "based on groundless and contradictory fortune telling," The Jockey Club (TJC) filed a motion in federal court Mar. 29 asking the judge to dismiss the complaint, which seeks to have the breeding limit repealed and to award an unspecified amount of damages that the plaintiffs want paid in triplicate. According to Monday's filing in United States District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky (Central Division), Spendthrift Farm, Ashford Stud and Three Chimneys Farm are suing TJC...

By the time a stallion's fourth book opens, the team behind him is usually pulling out all their stops to fill those pages. But perhaps no marketing technique in their repertoire can have quite the same effect as just one big price tag when the stallion's first crop of juveniles go to market. At last week's OBS March Sale, three first-crop juvenile sires were represented by youngsters that surpassed the $500,000 mark in the sales ring, and representatives from each of their respective farms said the phone has been ringing...

With the 2-year-old sales right around the corner, the TDN reached out to consignors with juveniles heading to the sales rings at the Mar. 16 and 17 Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and the Mar. 31 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale to discuss which of their offerings by first-crop sires have impressed them. This is the second installment of the series (click here to view the first section which was published in Tuesday's TDN). CIARAN DUNNE (Wavertree Stables) Among the 26 juveniles Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables has...

Spendthrift Farm, Ashford Stud and Three Chimneys Farm are suing The Jockey Club in federal court over the "stallion cap" rule that went into effect in 2020, alleging that the 140-mare breeding limit now being phased in amounts to a "blatant abuse of power" that acts as an "anti-competitive restraint" and threatens to disrupt the free-market nature of the bloodstock business. The plaintiffs contend that the stallion cap "serves no legitimate purpose and has no scientific basis" while alleging that the nine stewards of The Jockey Club who voted to...

As the calendar inches inexorably towards March and a spring-long series of 2-year-olds in training sales, consignors are putting the finishing touches on juveniles heading to auction, paying particular attention to youngsters representing their stallions first crop to hit the track. The TDN is reaching out to consignors with 2-year-olds heading to the sales rings at OBS and Gulfstream Park next month to find out which freshman sires have impressed them. EDDIE WOODS Prolific consignor Eddie Woods has 24 juveniles catalogued for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 2-Year-Olds in...

There were just 56 days between Tiz the Law's (Constitution) dazzling sophomore debut in the GIII Holy Bull S. on the first day of February to his next start in the GI Florida Derby. How much could change in that time? As it turned out, just about everything. So maybe that's why, during a dark time, this bay colt with the bright, white-blazed face was so easy to cheer for. During uncertain circumstances, the Sackatoga silks with the familiar connections brought a piece of near normalcy to the starting gate....

Sackatoga Stable's Tiz the Law (Constitution--Tizfiz, by Tiznow), winner of the GI Belmont S. and GI Runhappy Travers S. this summer, has been retired from racing. It was announced shortly after the Belmont that the sophomore colt would stand at Coolmore America's Ashford Stud upon retirement. "The entire Tiz The Law team is deeply disappointed that Tiz The Law will be unable to race as a 4-year-old as planned," stated Jack Knowlton, Operating Manager of Sackatoga Stable. "He has provided the 35 owners a unique opportunity to compete and succeed...

While most American breeders are just now getting their first look at multiple Group 1 winner Caravaggio, who stood his first three years at Coolmore's headquarters in Ireland and now takes on the U.S. market for 2021, the son of Scat Daddy is not new to Ashford Stud. The speedy grey was born and raised at Ashford, having been bred by the farm's Director of Sales Charlie O'Connor and his in-laws' Windmill Manor Farms. "Caravaggio is a horse that's obviously very close to our hearts," Coolmore's Adrian Wallace said. "He...

Competitive Edge (Super Saver--Magdalena's Chase, by Cape Town), winner of the 2014 GI Hopeful S. at Saratoga and a nationally ranked first- and second-crop sire over the past two years, was purchased by Douglas Scharbauer to stand at Valor Farm in Texas. He previously stood at Ashford Stud in Kentucky. His 2021 fee will be $5,000. Competitive Edge, who also covered mares in the Southern Hemisphere while with Ashford, was North America's sixth ranked first-crop sire with more than $1.3 million in progeny earnings in 2019. He is currently ranked...