Claiborne

LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale continued to produce strong results as the nine-day auction continued into its Book 3 section Friday with double-digit gains over last year's corresponding session. During Friday's session, 244 head grossed $18,195,500 for an average of $74,572 and a median of $60,000. The average increased 20.71% and the median was up 20.00% from last year's Book 3 opener when 243 horses sold for $15,012,500 for an average of $61,780 and a median of $50,000. With 417 head catalogued Friday, 314 went through...

Claiborne Farm has secured the breeding rights to Grade I stakes winner Prince of Monaco (Speightstown--Rainier, by Medaglia d'Oro), who will enter stud at the Paris nursery at the conclusion of his racing career. The 3-year-old, winner of last year's GIII Best Pal Stakes and GI Del Mar Futurity, is expected to start next in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. He is coming off narrowly beaten runner-up efforts in the GI Woody Stephens Stakes and in the GI H Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes. "Running a 103 Beyer [in the Best...

Claiborne Farm and Lane's End Farm have committed to a co-sponsorship of the Former Broodmare division at the 2024 Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium, presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America, the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) announced Tuesday. First run as a pilot program in 2023, the Former Broodmare division is now an official competition avenue at the Thoroughbred Makeover, welcoming recently-retired broodmares to compete alongside the traditional retiring racehorse division in all 10 offered disciplines. Broodmares will be pinned and recognized separately, and compete for a separate pot of $10,000...

The Retirement Assistance and Care for Equines (R.A.C.E) Fund will host its annual fund drive beginning with an online auction, the organization announced Saturday. The auction, which will kick off on eBay beginning May 10 at 8 pm EST, will include items such as halters from last year's Horse of the Year Cody's Wish (Curlin), California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit), Quality Road (Elusive Quality) and Mandaloun (Into Mischief), etc. along with experiences such as a VIP tour of Three Chimneys Farm. "We have some very exciting and amazing auction items again...

He's such a fixture here, he's even on the sandwich menu. Here you go: the Copelan, grilled cheddar and onion on pumpernickel. True, that only makes Dr. Robert Copelan an institution within an institution. Lunch at Lil's Coffee House on Main Street is a ritual cherished by many other horse folk in the neighborhood of Paris, Kentucky. But it's certainly a joy, for all of them, to see the great veterinarian seated alongside veteran radio host Ercel Ellis Jr., at their usual table in the corner, exchanging wit and wisdom...

Stallion manager Joe Peel, who handled some of Claiborne Farm's top sires, lost a 10-year battle with cancer and has passed away, the Paris, Ky. farm announced via X Wednesday. The farm will rename the breeding shed to honor him. In his early 60s, Peel joined Claiborne in 1985 and spent 15 years in the farm's yearling division. He moved to stallions in 2000 and has been responsible for Arch, Blame, Danzig, Flatter, Pulpit, Seeking the Gold, Unbridled, and War Front, among others. "Joe will be remembered for his unwavering...

6th-Kentucky Downs, $255,000, Alw, 8-31, (R), 2yo, 6 1/2fT, 1:16.87, fm, 1/2 length. COIN MINER (c, 2, Cloud Computing--Require, by Blame) finished well down the center of the course on Ellis debut July 30 to miss by a neck in third and was given a 10-1 chance to graduate in this colts' division of the Keeneland Sales allowance, restricted to horses bought or led out unsold at Keeneland September last year. Settled slightly ahead of mid-division as they raced down the hill and onto the turn, Coin Miner was held...

Art Collector (Bernardini), a winner of eight stakes, including the 2023 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational and the 2021 GI Woodward S., was euthanized Thursday in Saratoga after developing laminitis. Horse Racing Nation was first with the story. "This was sudden and a tough experience for me and my wife," said owner-breeder Bruce Lunsford. "I can summarize this pretty easily. He gave me my highest highs in this business and now my lowest low. That's as simple as I can put it. He will be in my brain and my...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 6th-GP, $84k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1mT, 2:37p.m. ET Richard Schermerhorn's $390,000 OBSAPR purchase LADY BETH (Hard Spun) will be unveiled on what looks like a very active Sunday of racing across the country. Drawn toward the middle in this Gulfstream maiden, she is the first registered foal for her dam, the Werthemier et Frere-bred and West Point-campaigned Boreale (Makfi {GB}); four times stakes-placed in her career in America as well as a multiple winner in France. This is the female family of MGSW Interactif (Broken...

Bidding opens for the Jockey and Jeans Stallion Season Sale, benefitting the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, on Tuesday Jan. 10 at 9 am ET and ends Thursday, Jan. 12 at 9 pm ET with a preview beginning Jan. 9. The sale features over 70 stallions from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Texas and Oklahoma and has raised over $500,000 for the PDJF to date. "Big farm or small, we thank them all," said Jockeys and Jeans President Barry Pearl. "There are many other valuable seasons and one for every pocketbook....

The stallions we assess today find themselves at the first major crossroads of their new career. Poor fellows, they're still a long way from having the chance to demonstrate whether they can actually produce runners. But that seems a pretty incidental consideration in the current marketplace, which has created a self-fulfilling cycle. Like it or not, stallions nowadays do indeed have their best chance of producing a good one from their first crop, as these typically emerge from the biggest and best books they will ever get. That, in turn,...

The syndicate that owns MGISW War of Will (War Front), who stands at Claiborne Farm and whose first foals are arriving this year, has entered into a partnership agreement with the University of Kentucky (UK)'s starting quarterback Will Levis. The agreement, which was announced by Sports Management Company Athlete Advantage, is an N.I.L. (Name, Image, and Likeness) deal. "Will Levis loves racing," said Claiborne's Walker Hancock. "He came out to the farm two weeks ago and he met War of Will. We filmed a commercial and that will be airing...