Breeding

The Jockey Club (TJC) announced Wednesday that breedings in 2021 have resulted in 18,609 live foals of 2022. At this same time last year, The Jockey Club reported that the breedings had resulted in 19,021 live foals, which marks a year-over-year decline of 2.2%. The foal crop has declined every year since 2015 and was at 35,274 as recently as 2008. The Jockey Club estimated that the number of live foals reported so far is 85-90% complete. In total, 1,303 stallions covered 29,065 mares, according to statistics compiled through Oct....

Donegal Racing and Repole Stable's Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo--Callingmissbrown, by Pulpit), last seen validating favoritism with a three-length victory in the GI Belmont S. presented by NYRA Bets June 11, has been retired from racing and will enter stud for the 2023 breeding season at Spendthrift Farm. He will command a fee of $20,000, stands and nurses terms. Bred in Kentucky by the Lyster family's Ashview Stud in partnership with Richard Santulli's Colts Neck Stables--also the breeders of Belmont S. runner-up and leading 3-year-old filly Nest (Curlin)--Mo Donegal was purchased...

The race is not always to the swift. Pretty old news, by this stage: it's right there in Ecclesiastes and, nearly as long ago now, you could see as much when More Than Ready cut the last corner in the Kentucky Derby. He transparently didn't get home, flattening into fourth behind Fusaichi Pegasus. But the brilliance of that move was instead sustained through his second career, where he just kept on going--whether measured by years, or air miles--and proved a far more potent force than the rest of that Derby...

   Andrew Black is renowned in the gambling industry, being co-founder of Betfair, one of the biggest exchanges in the world.     However, there is much more to the 59-year-old than being the man who revolutionised betting; he is also hugely passionate about breeding and playing cards.    Black got to the semi-finals of the world Bridge Championships last week and his breeding endeavors at Chasemore Farm continue to go from strength to strength.     He will bid for Group 1 glory at Haydock on Saturday when homebred Brad The...

Imagining (Giant's Causeway--Daydreaming, by A.P. Indy) was euthanized Aug. 23 due to complications from colic, according to a release from Anchor & Hope Farm. The 14-year-old, who won the GI Man O' War S. in 2014 for Phipps Stable and Shug McGaughey, was under the care of veterinarians at New Bolton Center, where surgery was attempted, but the damage was deemed too severe. "Imagining has been with us since the start in 2015. We want to thank Shug McGaughey and the Phipps family for trusting us to bring a Grade...

Celebrity chef Bobby Flay is excited to swap his apron for a top hat and tails at Royal Ascot and described his bold bid for G1 Coronation S. glory with Breeders' Cup-winning homebred Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) as "an experience of a lifetime." The Coronation S. has been the main aim for Pizza Bianca ever since she stormed to victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar last November and Flay has said that next week's royal meeting is the pinnacle. "I feel like I...

Wayne Lyster always knew it to be miracle enough, for a farm this size, simply to get both into the starting gate. The Derby-Oaks double hadn't been accomplished since the heyday of Calumet, 70 years previously, and at Ashview, they foal out no more than a couple of dozen mares every spring. As such, Lyster can justly take pride in the fact that both Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) and Nest (Curlin) finished their races so well, for fifth and second, respectively, that they are now converging instead on the GI...

Pam Sly has brought the curtain down on the career of Eileendover (GB) (Canford Cliffs {Ire}), who she described as being an "unlikely superstar," with the mare set to be covered by Juddmonte's Bated Breath (GB) after picking up an injury in training.  A granddaughter of Speciosa (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), who stormed to 1000 Guineas glory for Sly in 2006, Eileendover made the transition from being a classy bumper mare to competing in listed races on the Flat. She won four times, including a listed bumper at Market Rasen,...

Jean-Claude Rouget is not prone to hyperbole so, when the decorated French handler compared the unexposed Al Hakeem (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) to his only G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) earlier this week, some people did a double take. Not Benoit Jeffroy, who manages Haras de Bouquetot on behalf of the Al Shaqab operation. Jeffroy has long been aware of the standing in which the multiple Classic-winning trainer has held Al Hakeem and, when the colt won the Listed Prix de Suresnes at Chantilly on...

Eugene Melnyk, the owner of the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League and a prominent horse owner and breeder who was a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, has passed away at age 62. His death was announced Monday by the Senators, which posted a statement from Melnyk's family on its website, which noted that he died "after an illness he faced with determination and courage." The team did not disclose the exact cause of death. He underwent a liver transplant in 2015. A native of...

Former Calumet Farm stallion Snapy Halo (Arg) (Southern Halo--Ensaola {Arg}, by Ringaro) will stand the 2022 breeding season at Covilar LLC Farm, the former Owl Hollow Morgan Farm. The nursery, located on 120 acres in Floyd, Virginia, was recently purchased by Josep Bassaganya-Riera, a entrepreneur and biotech pioneer. "I am pleased to announce that Covilar LLC initiated operations in the second half of 2021," Bassaganya-Riera said in a release. "We are proud to build on the legacy of success of the Owl Hollow Farm. The breeding barns are fully functional...

The first mare bred to Grade I winner Mo Forza (Uncle Mo), Alice Bamford's two-time winner Californiasunshine (Lucky Pulpit), has checked in foal on a single cover. Mo Forza, who entered stud this year at Rancho San Miguel in the Golden State, won no fewer than seven graded races in the course of his career, including the 2019 GI Hollywood Derby at Del Mar. "Mo Forza has handled the transition to his breeding career with class and vigor, just like he sailed through his racing career," said Rancho San Miguel...