Coolmore America

LEXINGTON, KY - The Fasig-Tipton October Yearlings Sale, which produced record-setting renewals in 2021 and 2022, opened Monday with solid, if less spectacular figures, than a year ago. A total of 257 yearlings grossed $11,224,800 Monday. The session average of $43,676 was down 10.5% from last year's opening day and the median of $20,000 was down 25.9%. "It was a solid opening session," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. "I think the results were basically in line with expectations and what we are seeing throughout the marketplace in 2023. There...

Early Voting, who was not on the roster of stud fees when Coolmore America announced their 2024 lineup Tuesday, has been "removed from covering duties at Ashford Stud for the 2024 breeding season due to an inability to breed, according to veterinary experts," Coolmore said Wednesday. The farm said that the stallion, a son of Gun Runner, was subject to an ongoing insurance claim. Early Voting got off to a successful start at stud in 2023, and did get mares in foal, but experienced problems midway through the season. Those...

Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy), currently North America's leading second-crop sire in stakes horses, will stand for a fee of $200,000, live foal, at Ashford Stud in Kentucky in 2024, Coolmore America announced on Tuesday. The 9-year-old's fee represents a jump of $100,000 from the figure of $100,000 that he stood for in 2023. Justify's 2024 fee is the fourth-highest of the stallions announced so far for 2024, placing him behind perennial leading sires Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday) and Curlin (Smart Strike), and third-crop standout Gun Runner (Candy Ride...

The time Corniche, a $1.5-million OBS topper and 'TDN Rising Star', spent on the track might have been brief, but it was bright. Undefeated in three starts at two and a dual Grade I winner, he was simply better than the rest. "Corniche was always a dominating colt on the farm and so good looking as a foal," said Leah O'Meara of Stonehaven Steadings, who co-bred the Juvenile winner. "We always had high hopes for him. He gave us the first round of excitement when he breezed so well and...

If ever there was a horse whose CV matches his pedigree, it is Mendelssohn. He topped the Keeneland September sale on a bid of $3 million from Coolmore in 2016, the year before he captured the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. And that pedigree? When he won the Breeders' Cup, he pushed his dam, the reigning Broodmare of the Year Leslie's Lady, into rare territory: she became what was then one of five mares to produce two Breeders' Cup winners. The year prior, her multiple champion daughter Beholder had captured...

When Indian Charlie died prematurely from cancer at the age of 16 in 2011, the loss was palpable. He had perennially been among the nation's leading sires, while his prowess as a broodmare sire had yet to fully emerge. He had several sons already at stud, but waiting in the wings was his top successor and one who would ultimately put him on the map as a sire of sires. At the time of Indian Charlie's death, Uncle Mo had just closed out his racing career and was preparing for...

1st-BAQ, $90k, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 12:35p.m. ET Whisper Hill Farm has been enjoying a fruitful year on the track and in the sales ring, and SPEED RUNNER (Gun Runner) looks to add his tally to the operation's banner year. A half-brother to the brilliant GISW Brilliant Speed (Dynaformer); SW & GSP Souper Speedy (Indian Charlie); and SP Bank (Bernardini), the Pletcher-trained chestnut comes into the race with a bullet move Sept. 27 over Belmont's training track--a five furlong work in a co-fastest minute flat. His dam Speed Succeeds is a...

"He's one of my all-time favorites," said trainer Wesley Ward. "He was an awesome horse. Extremely talented, super quick, and agile: that was really his biggest attribute. When the first jump opened, he was explosive. He would open up effortlessly. He pulled the heart away from the other horses a little bit. "He was a joy to train, a highly intelligent horse. I really appreciated the time at the barn with him every day, because based on his accomplishments I knew that our time would be limited with him and he'd...

Talk about keeping good company. Kirstenbosch (Midnight Lute), a 4-year-old making her 17th lifetime start for trainer John Sadler, has not raced out of graded-stakes company since her third-place finish in the GI La Brea S. Dec. 26. Perhaps more impressively, she's been on the board in all but three of the eight starts since that post-Christmas trifecta. And though absent of the winner's circle since victory in the GIII La Canada S. Jan. 15, Kirstenbosch has run second or third to GISW Adare Manor (Uncle Mo) and a pair...

Lady Eli had a sensational career that got rolling with a Breeders' Cup win at two and culminated with an Eclipse for champion turf female at five. In between, she fought a life-threatening battle with laminitis and captured the hearts of racing fans. She delivered her third foal, an Into Mischief colt, Mar. 6 at Coolmore America and was bred back to Justify. "The Breeders' Cup is the ultimate race test of champions to define and prove yourself against the ultimate competition," said Hill 'n' Dale's John Sikura, who now...

Canigetaloan (Leofric) had to lay it all down, but gamely managed to fight off a familiar foe in a wild finish to break his maiden, score his first black-type victory in the Aspirant S., and tally the first stakes winner for his freshman sire (by Candy Ride {Arg}) all at once. Debuting in the same Aug. 11 state-bred maiden at Saratoga as Trust Fund (Practical Joke), who would go on to win by 2 1/4 lengths, Canigetaloan came out on the better end of the photo for second and would...

by Bill Finley & Patrycja Szpyra As he often does with his 2-year-olds, trainer Wesley Ward started Sam's Treasure (Munnings) off in a grass race, in this case a five-furlong maiden on May 11 at Belmont. She finished second, 2 3/4 lengths behind the winner--Cynane (Omaha Beach) had the distinction of being her sire's first winner and made an unfruitful trip to Royal Ascot--but there was nothing about the performance to suggest that she could develop into a top horse. Maybe Ward should have been thinking dirt all along. In...