Gainesway

With 'TDN Rising Stars' Sierre Leone (Gun Runner) and Fierceness (City of Light) extending their rivalry into 2025, and the GI Kentucky Derby winner also persevering to a third campaign, there's no denying that the new intake of Bluegrass sires has a fairly bunched look. A cluster of second-tier names can duly compete for mares that might otherwise have favored one of the sophomore leaders, with eight of the 23 newcomers targeting broadly similar budgets between $40,000 and $30,000. Whether that qualifies any of them as "value" can only be...

With four new stallions standing at the farm in 2025, perhaps no farm had a better recruiting year than Gainesway. Their general manager, Brian Graves, appeared on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast to discuss those new recruits-Muth, Seize the Grey, Tapit Trice, and Charge It. But the quartet isn't all that's going on at Gainesway, where their first-crop stallion McKinzie is one of three stallions vying for 2024's leading freshman sire, along with Vekoma at Spendthrift and Coolmore's Tiz the Law. "We're busy here," said Graves. "You know, that's...

Gainesway's General Manager Brian Graves looks ahead to breeding season with a stallion roster that includes four new recruits on this week's TDN Writers' Room.

Two-time Eclipse champion sprinter Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) will be covered by MGISW Seize the Grey (Arrogate) this upcoming breeding season. The announcement was made by Resolute Racing's John Stewart on the social media site X Sunday evening. Goodnight Olive, who won her final start in 2023 in the GI PNC Bank Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, sold to Resolute for $6,000,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars sale shortly after. She was bred to Not This Time for her first cover due early next year. Seize the Grey...

There will be a changing of the guard in August when Stuart Janney, III steps down from his long-held position as the Chairman of The Jockey Club. His replacement will be owner-breeder Everett Dobson. Janney recommended Dobson, and the board of stewards of The Jockey Club agreed. Dobson has long involved himself with some of the sport's most important and influential organizations. He is on his second term as a steward of The Jockey Club. He serves on the executive committee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and is...

The 2-year-old filly Alyeska (Vekoma), an eye-catching, come-from-behind debut winner carrying the famed Marylou Whitney silks at Churchill Downs Sept. 20, brought a sale-topping $675,000 from bloodstock agent Steve Young at Keeneland's single-session November Horses of Racing Age sale Thursday, which produced substantial across-the-board increases. Fellow Marylou Whitney homebred and the once-raced 2-year-old colt Captain Cook (Practical Joke), a troubled sixth on debut beneath the Twin Spires Oct. 27, was also purchased by Young for $410,000, the second-most expensive lot of the day. The duo were both previously trained by...

If it stays like this, a single maiden winner might settle it. Because all that separates McKinzie ($2,294,679) from current leader Tiz the Law ($2,339,575) in the freshman table is $44,896. But wait, there's more. McKinzie isn't even second. Between the pair lurks Vekoma ($2,306,457), ensuring a desperate three-way contest for the prized laurels of champion first-season sire. It's even closer than this time last year, when four stallions were divided by barely $200,000. In the end, Mitole actually extended his lead down the stretch. But the fact that the...

The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale concluded its nine-day run in Lexington Wednesday with vibrant trade from a diverse buying bench leading to across-the-board increases where were highlighted by a new sales record median. "Overall, this was a very strong, fair market from start to finish," Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. "Book 1 gross jumped nearly 15% from last year with a much-improved clearance rate and that momentum powered the sale through the final days." For the nine days, 2,158 horses sold for $196,442,900. The average of...

by Jessica Martini, Christina Bossinakis, & Jill Williams LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale opened Tuesday in Lexington with a solid Book 1 session punctuated by nine million-dollar mares purchased by a diverse, international buying bench. Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm made the session's highest bid when purchasing graded-stakes winner Roses For Debra (Liam's Map) for $2.4 million from the Candy Meadows Sales consignment. "It was a very solid, vibrant marketplace," said Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin. "It was a really diverse buying bench. We had...

McKinzie (Street Sense), the sire of Grade I winners 'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick and Scottish Lassie from his first crop, will stand the 2025 breeding season at a fee of $75,000, according to Gainesway Farm, which announced additional stud fees on Tuesday. The first stallion since Mr. Prospector to account for the winners of the prestigious Champagne Stakes and Frizette Stakes in the same season, McKinzie has also proved successful in the sales arena, his yearlings having fetched as much as $975,000 while his first crop of 2-year-olds realized...

Tapit, North America's all-time leading sire by progeny earnings and the leading active sire by lifetime Grade I winners and graded stakes winners, will again lead the 2025 Gainesway stallion roster at a fee of $185,000, according to a press release from the farm Thursday. The son of Pulpit is represented this year on the racetrack by GI Whitney Stakes winner Arthur's Ride, GII Woodward Stakes winner Tapit Trice, and additional graded winners May Day Ready, Scylla, and Batten Down. He continues to be in demand in the auction ring,...

GI Blue Grass Stakes winner Tapit Trice (Tapit--Danzatrice, by Dunkirk) will return to his birthplace, Gainesway Farm, to enter stud upon his retirement from racing, the Central Kentucky nursery and stud farm announced Tuesday afternoon. Tapit Trice's next scheduled engagement is Saturday afternoon in the $7-million GI Breeders' Cup Classic, where he will break from post 10. He races for the partnership of Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm, LLC and Gainesway Stable. "Winning the Grade I Blue Grass Stakes in partnership with Gainesway has been a real highlight for our...