Country House

5th-Churchill Downs, $123,375, Msw, 11-1, 2yo, 6f, 1:10.25, ft, 2 1/4 lengths. SPEED KING (c, 2, Volatile--Athenian Beauty, by Corinthian) defied the betting public's 22-1 odds here with a frontrunning score in this unveiling beneath the Twin Spires. Bumped leaving the gate, but able to recover quickly enough to step forward to set the pace, the grey put space between himself and the field via :22.25 and :45.78 opening fractions. Entering the lane with a 2 1/2-length margin, he greenly but gamely hung on to win despite lingering on his...

Darby Dan Farm has set their 2025 stud fees for its roster of 13 stallions that will stand the upcoming breeding season, led by Flameaway and Dialed In, who will both stand for $15,000 LFSN, according to a press release from the farm on Thursday morning. The roster also features a trio of newcomers in Blazing Sevens, who will stand for $12,500 LFSN, as well as Gufo and Shirl's Speight who will both stand their first seasons at stud for $5,000 LFSN. Flameaway, a multiple graded stakes-winning son of Scat...

6th-Gulfstream, $43,100, Msw, 7-28, 2yo, 5fT, :55.46, fm, 3 1/2 lengths. BRIDLE A BUTTERFLY (g, 2, Country House--Sly Storm {MSW, $235,922}, by Storm Cat), the longest shot on the board at 21-1, became the first winner for his freshman sire (by Lookin At Lucky) Sunday at Gulfstream. After briefly delaying the start at the gate, he took back to mid pack in fourth up the backstretch before making a top-of-the-stretch charge to hit the front and pull clear to the 3 1/2-length win over Itza Boss (Valiant Minister). Sly Storm,...

Having dealt with the new sires as a case apart, today we start our journey through the price bands of Kentucky stallions by seeing what we can do with a four-figure budget. Even at this end of the market, the perennial dilemma remains that value means different things to different people. A breeder operating at this level tends to appreciate every cent of a commercial return, however marginal. If your belt is already at the last notch, then the understandable inclination is to leave any selfless consideration of the breed's...

The catalogue for Wanamaker's 2023 April Sale is now available for viewing online. Bidding will open Thursday, Apr. 27 at 8:00 a.m. ET, with the first listing set to close at 5:00 p.m. Subsequent listings will close in three-minute increments. Detailed information on the buying process can be found at wanamakers.com/buy. The catalogue features newly in-foal broodmares, mares with their foals, broodmare prospects, racing prospects, yearlings, and stallion seasons. For more information on those being offered in the Wanamaker's April Sale, see wanamakers.com. Prospective buyers may browse the website to...

While no singular superstar emerged from this class numbering just 60, the top-to-bottom quality separates this class from its counterparts. MGISW Guarana (Ghostzapper) was the only 'TDN Rising Star' to win multiple Grade I events in 2019. She posted three consecutive victories that year, going straight from her maiden-breaking score at Keeneland to the GI Acorn S., where she defeated GI Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress (Alternation) and future Eclipse champion Ce Ce (Elusive Quality), and then to Saratoga's GI Coaching Club American Oaks. Second only to GISW Street Band...

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 Week in Review by T.D. Thornton Epicenter (Not This Time) is the first horse on this year's GI Kentucky Derby trail to arrive back in the proverbial clubhouse. His afternoon work is finished for the next six weeks, and he's earned his berth in America's most important horse race in a thoroughly professional manner that checks many of the boxes on the Derby desirability list. Epicenter's never-in-doubt dismantling of the GII Louisiana Derby field serves as a microcosm of his overall body of work: He's an adept breaker from...

Darby Dan Farm's Country House (Lookin At Lucky), winner of the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby, was represented by his first foal when a colt out of the City Zip mare American Values was born Tuesday, Jan. 25 at Scarteen Stud. He was bred by Mrs. J.V. Shields, one of the owners of Country House, who was bred by her late husband. A 'TDN Rising Star', Country House was a good second in the 2019 GII Risen Star S. and crossed the line second behind champion Maximum Security (New Year's Day)...

Even last year, when doing so much to fortify breeders through the uncertainties of the pandemic, stallion farms appeared to price their rookies to squeeze the usual juice from the commercial market's greatest addiction. That was fair enough. Nowadays farm accountants can bank only on the most fleeting of vogues in drawing up a business plan for stallion acquisitions. And nor can we sensibly expect any slack now, pending the arrival of first foals and then a debut at the weanling sales next fall. A stallion has to be in...

Darby Dan Farm's Country House (Lookin At Lucky), winner of the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby,has had his first mare confirmed in foal, the farm announced today. He was bred to the Ghostzapper mare More Everything Feb. 10, and the half-sister to stakes winner and Grade III-placed Bishop's Pond (Curlin) and stakes-placed Black Oak (Forestry) has been scanned in foal for owner Watershed Bloodstock, LLC. Country House broke his maiden with a 'TDN Rising Star' performance at Gulfstream Park, finished a fast-closing second to eventual Classic winner War of Will (War...

For the first half of this story, please visit yesterday's instalment. Precocity may not be the first thing you'd have in mind from Tom's d'Etat (Smart Strike--Julia Tuttle, by Giant's Causeway), who enters service at WinStar at $17,500 after only really seizing our attention at the age of seven. Nonetheless, he represents one of the most promising prospects of the intake. For a start, he's by a sire of sires out of a graded stakes-placed Giant's Causeway mare whose own dam was a full-sister to Candy Ride (Arg). And nine...