Gift Box

Lane's End Farm brought their stallion roster up to 21 members this year as they welcomed several new additions for the 2021 season in Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}), Gift Box (Twirling Candy), Honor A. P. (Honor Code) and Daredevil (More Than Ready). We sat down with Bill Farish and spoke with him on Game Winner and Gift Box, both Grade I-winning millionaires who will join Twirling Candy and Unified in carrying on the Candy Ride (Arg) legacy at Lane's End. Now a perennial leading general sire, Candy Ride began...

The Lane's End Press Pass event has become increasingly popular over the past few years, and while hosting a large gathering in their stud barn was made impossible for the farm due to the current circumstances, Lane's End still worked to make the third annual Press Pass a reality. Through a Zoom meeting, media members joined the virtual get-together to chat with Bill Farish and the rest of the Lane's End team about the farm's stallion program. TVG racing analyst Scott Hazelton hosted the event and led participants through the...

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...

On the heels of the announcement Friday that top three leading second-crop sire Daredevil will return to the U.S. from Turkey to stand at Lane's End Farm, the Versailles nursery and stallion station released its full roster and stud fees for 2021. A total of 21 stallions will make up the roster, led again by stalwart Quality Road, who gets a fee cut from $200,000 to $150,000. A majority of key breeding sheds are cutting 2021 stud fees due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Candy Ride (Arg) will also see his...

Hronis Racing's Grade I-winning millionaire Gift Box (Twirling Candy--Special Me, by Unbridled's Song) has been retired from racing and will take up stud duties in 2021 at Lane's End Farm. On the board in the GII Remsen S. as a juvenile and second in the Curlin S. at Saratoga as a sophomore, Gift Box joined the John Sadler barn in the second half of his 5-year-old season and immediately bested GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile hero Battle of Midway (Smart Strike) in the GII San Antonio S. in December of...

   Agent Liz Crow went to $1.025 million late in Tuesday's Book 1 session to secure an Into Mischief half-sister to GISW Gift Box (Twirling Candy), MGSW Stonetastic (Mizzen Mast) and MGSP Special Forces (Candy Ride {Arg}). Hip 405 was bred by Carrie and Craig Brogden and Dr. Sandra Fubini's Machmer Hall and offered by their new Machmer Hall Sales.    "We just really like buying from Carrie; I think she and Craig do such a good job of raising really good racehorses," Crow said. "Obviously, the mare has proven...

John Sadler's chance at a record-setting third straight win in the GI Santa Anita H. looked imperiled when he had to scratch morning-line favorite Gift Box (Twirling Candy) Saturday morning, but the trainer was able to pick up the historic achievement when Combatant (Scat Daddy) came home first in the 1 1/4-mile race Saturday afternoon. "It was a great day; we were just thrilled," said Sadler, who also sent out Flagstaff (Speightstown) to take the GII San Carlos S. Saturday. "To win our third Big 'Cap in a row is...

Hronis Racing's Gift Box (Twirling Candy), the 6-5 morning-line favorite and defending champion, has been scratched from Saturday's GI Santa Anita H. The 7-year-old had been expected to make his 2020 debut in the race. In his most recent start, he won his second straight GII San Antonio S. Dec. 28. Trainer John Sadler, looking to become the first trainer to win the Big 'Cap three years in a row, will still be represented in the race. He will saddle Combatant (Scat Daddy). With the scratch, the Big 'Cap, which...