Claiborne Farm

Since the start of sales season last fall, comments have circulated on how Mastery could be the dark horse in his class of first-crop yearling sires. There are many unknowns about the son of Candy Ride (Arg), as he may have never reached his full potential on the track when an injury forced him to retire prematurely. But his four-for-four career start had garnered talk of Kentucky Derby favoritism after dominating performances in the GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity and the GII San Felipe S. Now in the stud...

Claiborne Farm has purchased an interest in Classic winner War of Will (War Front--Visions of Clarity {Ire}, by Sadlers Wells), who will stand at the Paris, Kentucky farm upon the conclusion of his racing career. The winner of a trio of a trio of graded events at three, including the GI Preakness S., the Gary Barber-campaigned colt most recently scored in the GI Maker's Mark Mile over the Keeneland turf July 10. War of Will's 2021 stud fee will be announced following the Breeders' Cup. "War of Will has an...

The Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale, which has steadily built momentum through its first seven years, comes smack up against the swirling uncertainty of a global pandemic when it returns for its eighth renewal at the company's Newtown Paddocks Monday afternoon. The catalogue for the one-session auction, bolstered by the late addition of recent stakes winners, includes 182 offerings. Bidding begins at 4 p.m. Consignors seemed eager to get back to business ahead of the auction, but were cautious about expectations. "This sale is getting more popular every...

As a yearling, Exploding Star (Exploit) showed all the early potential to become a successful racehorse. Her dam Star Minister (Deputy Minister) won the 1992 GII Cotillion H. at Philadelphia Park and claimed six additional stakes races over her three-year career. Her half-brother, Concerned Minister (Concern), also won several black-type races. Exploding Star was purchased as a yearling at the 2002 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Sale by the late F. Eugene Dixon Jr. for $450,000. After three career starts where she ran in the money twice, Exploding Star retired under the...

Fifth on debut over six furlongs at Naas June 8, Battleground (War Front) took a step forward to win the Listed Chesham S. as the 11-4 favourite for a 73rd Royal winner for Aidan O'Brien. Always travelling strongly tracking the pace under Ryan Moore, the first foal out of the brilliant Arc heroine Found (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) took over from March Law (Ire) (Lawman {Fr}) with 1 1/2 furlongs remaining and stayed on strongly to beat that rival by 2 1/2 lengths, with the sole filly Seattle Rock (GB) (Fastnet...

Forty Niner (Mr. Prospector--File, by Tom Rolfe), a four-time Grade I winner and champion of his generation in 1987 before becoming a sire of considerable importance, passed away Monday, May 18, in Japan due to the infirmities of old age. He had just celebrated his 35th birthday May 11. Owned and bred by Claiborne Farm and trained by Woody Stephens, Forty Niner won the 1987 GI Futurity S. and GI Champagne S. to clinch a divisional championship. A leading sophomore of 1988, Forty Niner missed by a neck to Winning...

The Thoroughbred Charities of America will host an online auction of halters worn by Triple Crown and Kentucky Derby winners during the upcoming virtual "Kentucky Derby: Triple Crown Showdown." The halter auction is set to open Friday at 9 a.m. and will conclude Saturday at 9 p.m. EST. All proceeds will benefit TCA. "As the 13 Triple Crown winners face off in the virtual running of the Derby, we are excited to offer halters worn by the only two living Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify, as well as...

About the time 'spring was about to sprung,' we all got hit...and hit very hard. As a way to adapt and hopefully share, about 8:30 each morning I posted short videos on Twitter. The grass was just starting to green and the birds were starting to sing and yes, we were welcoming our first crop of Oscar Performance babies here at Mill Ridge Farm. It made for a very uplifting setting and the response to these videos is heartwarming. At the same time, Horse Country was actively working with their...

After being forced to postpone all farm tours at the historic Claiborne Farm, the top Bluegrass attraction and Thoroughbred fan destination announced that they would be conducting a live virtual stallion tour through Instagram beginning Tuesday, Mar. 17. The idea was a huge success, with over 200 fans tuning in live on Instagram and thousands more watching the recording later on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. The recording has already received 12,000 views and 300 shares on Facebook. (Watch the video of the tour below). [tdn_video service="youtube" videoid= "HHhSx031dKg"] "It's normally...

Claiborne Farm's broodmare Preach (Mr. Prospector--Narrate, by Honest Pleasure), the dam of Pulpit (A.P. Indy), has passed away, according to a tweet from the farm. The 31-year-old mare won the 1991 GI Frizette S. and was third in the 1991 GI Spinaway S. and 1992 GI Test S. Preach's first foal was Pulpit, who won the 1997 GII Toyota Blue Grass S. and GII Fountain of Youth S. Pulpit retired to Claiborne for the 1998 breeding season and his first crop included G2 U.A.E. Derby and GII Super Derby winner...

TDN is proud to partner with the Keeneland Library and the Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries in a very special collaboration: the Keeneland 'Life's Work' Oral History Project, a series of filmed interviews by TDN columnist Chris McGrath with significant figures in the Thoroughbred industry. The current installment, with Gus Koch of Claiborne Farm, appears here. Legends, to you and me. Immortals, paragons. But to Gus Koch, they were the flesh-and-blood companions of his daily toil: some were cherished friends; others, just a pain...

In our ongoing series, New Stallions, the TDN is visiting first-year sires around the country and giving readers a chance to take a look at them on video. Today, we're at Claiborne Farm visiting Catholic Boy (More Than Ready-Song of Bernadette, by Bernardini), one of only three North American 3-year-old colts to win Grade I races on both turf and dirt. In accomplishing that feat, he joined Secretariat and California Chrome. Kelsey Riley spoke to Bernie Sams about the 5-year-old new stallion. TDN: Catholic Boy is pretty unique in that...