Hard Spun

It tells you plenty about the business today that this final leg of our quest for value on Kentucky farms should compress together stallions whose various retirements from the racetrack spanned more than decade. In devoting nearly all the previous instalments to individual classes of younger stallions, we've simply mirrored the distribution of mares, which as we all know is massively loaded towards largely unproven sires. To me, then, those few survivors that do establish a viable niche in the Bluegrass are real heroes. While dozens of their original competitors...

2nd-Gulfstream, $70,000, Msw, 1-28, 3yo, 7f, 1:22.54, ft, 3 3/4 lengths. MAGE (c, 3, Good Magic--Puca {SW & GSP, $299,406}, by Big Brown), dismissed by the betting public at 11-1 in his debut start despite selling for $290,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale, avoided trouble with a forward ride out of the gate, setting the early pace from just off the rail. Positioned inside of pressure from Perform (Good Magic) through the half-mile in :45.88, Mage hit his best stride past the quarter pole and drew off nicely down...

The red-and-white colors of Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farms will not be seen on the racetrack again. Eighteen months after Porter passed away after a long battle with cancer, the final horse still owned by Fox Hill, Royal Ship (Brz) (Midshipman), has been acquired by Porter's son, Scott, and will race under the name of Fox Hollow Farm. Siena Farm LLC has retained its minority interest in the horse. "We could have kept him running in Fox Hill silks, but, accounting-wise, it made sense to put an end to that...

Sparkle Blue proved she was aptly named when she kicked home from the nine post to brilliantly take the GIII Rubicon Valley View S. in her first career graded victory ahead of a blanket charge for the minors. After capping her 2021 season a distant 10th in the GIII Jimmy Durante S. Nov. 27 at Del Mar, her connections gave her some time away and brought their filly back July 2 in Delaware's Christiana S. sporting first-time blinkers. Gamely overcoming contact in the stretch, she held on to win by...

Perennial top sire Medaglia d'Oro once again heads Darley's Jonabell Farm roster for 2023 with his fee remaining at $100,000, the same amount as 2022. Darley has also added two new stallions to the now-11 horse roster, including G1SW Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper) and GISW Speaker's Corner (Street Sense). Mystic Guide, who won the 2021 G1 Dubai World Cup, was retired earlier this year. He will stand for a fee of $15,000 in his initial season at stud. Speaker's Corner, a Godolphin homebred out of Tyburn Brook (Bernardini) who is bred...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The momentum from last week's record-setting Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale carried into the first of two sessions of the company's New York-bred Yearlings Sale in Saratoga Sunday night, with a colt by Hard Spun bringing a record-tying final bid of $600,000 from owner Al Gold. "It was an outstanding session tonight," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. "It was a great start to the New York-bred sale. The place was full of people and full of energy again, just like it was for the selected sale....

1st-Tampa Bay Downs, $28,600, Alw (NW1X)/Opt. Clm ($75,000), 2-19, 3yo, 7f, 1:24.10, ft, head. BELGRADE (c, 3, Hard Spun--Miss Prytania, by Eskendereya), a $700,000 KEEJAN purchase earlier this year off the heels of a six-length debut graduation for owner Randy Bradshaw and trainer Brendan Walsh in a maiden special weight reserved for horses that sold or RNA'd for $45,000 or less at auction at Fair Grounds Dec. 18, delivered as the 1-2 favorite after some anxious moments in his first start for his new connections at Tampa Saturday. Off to...

by Christie DeBernardis & Jessica Martini LEXINGTON, KY--Keeneland saved the best for last during Wednesday's second Book 1 session of their January Horses of All Ages Sale with the 3-year-old colt Belgrade (Hard Spun), a debut winner at Fair Grounds, topping the day's action at $700,000. A total of 263 head changed hands Wednesday for $18,859,500 with an average of $71,709 and a median of $40,000. Sixty-four horses left the ring unsold for an RNA rate of 19.57%. During the equivalent 2021 session, which was boosted by the Paul Pompa...

And so we reach the final leg of our journey hunting out value among Kentucky sires in 2022. It's been a rather more focused exercise this time round, and if that means plenty of stallions (and indeed some farms) have been overlooked, so be it. It's only ever the subjective view of a single bystander. You'll know what works for your own mare, and for your own agenda, too, whether you're an end user, say, or first and foremost need to anticipate commercial demand. We've often complained that a market...

According to Walker Hancock, Silver State (Hard Spun - Supreme, by Empire Maker) has been an easy sell as breeders have stopped by Claiborne Farm in the past few weeks to see the new, Grade I-winning arrival. "Everyone who has come to see him has absolutely loved him," Hancock reported. "They can't get enough of him. We've even sold shares to him just with people who have come out to see him. The comments we get are that people didn't realize how big he is. He's 16'3 and is dappled...

Hard to put a price on a stallion like this. Apart from anything else, he is the parting legacy of Danzig--conceived when the great patriarch was 26--and his maternal line brings a daughter of the wartime foal My Babu (Fr) as close up as third dam. True to that venerable seeding, his stock has emulated both the class and constitution that sustained his own speed--carrying commitment on the racetrack. Though his career was compressed into barely a year, he didn't just "dance every dance," but turned the pages for the...

Claiborne Farm announced Monday that this year's GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. winner Silver State (Hard Spun) will stand for $20,000 for the 2022 breeding season. It was announced last month that Claiborne had acquired the Steve Asmussen trainee's breeding rights. Campaigned by Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC and Willis Horton Racing LLC, the $450,000 KEESEP yearling was completing a six-race win streak in the Met Mile, and defeated GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Knicks Go (Paynter) in the process. Silver State will be available for inspection later this week by...