Lane's End Farm

It has been a poignant year for his mother's family, who last summer grieved not only their own venerable patriarch but the founder of many parallel equine dynasties. Within months of Alec Head's death, their Haras du Quesnay was being dismantled and, as a reflective young man, Fernando Laffon could not fail to sense the end of a cycle as his grandmother Criquette Head-Maarek was joined in retirement by her brother Freddy. But just as Freddy's children Christopher and Victoria meanwhile continue in training careers of their own, so Laffon...

The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance's second annual Off to the Races online auction concluded Feb. 6 and raised over $56,000 from the 17 offered VIP experience packages and no guarantee Season to Lexitonian (Speightstown). The auction featured experience packages on 17 major race days in 2023 and 2024, each offering a unique itinerary of horse racing-related bucket list activities and tickets to the specified race day(s). Additionally, a no guarantee season with a breed back to 2021 G1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt S. winner Lexitonian was offered online to breeders on Feb....

Edited Press Release The 2009 Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life (Kris S-- Symbolically, by Flying Paster), the dam of champion Sweet Catomine (Storm Cat) and MGISW Life Is Sweet, has passed away at age 27. Sweet Catomine was crowned champion 2-year-old filly in 2004 after capturing the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, GI Del Mar Debutante S. and GI Oak Leaf S. At age three, she was victorious in the GI Santa Anita Oaks and GIII Santa Ysabel S. Three years after foaling Sweet Catomine, Sweet Life foaled a...

Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}--Reunited, by Dixie Union), winner of the 2019 GI Runhappy Travers S. and GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, was euthanized Friday after suffering a bout of colic. Bred and raced by W.S. Farish, the 6-year-old stood his first season at stud at the Farish family's Lane's End Farm this past spring. Trained by Shug McGaughey, Code of Honor was second in the 2018 GI Champagne S. He won the GII Fountain of Youth S. the following March before finishing third in the GI Florida Derby...

Guillaume Vitse is probably best known as the man who helped to launch the Cindarella-story careers of the top French stallions Kendargent (Fr) and Galiway (Ire) when he worked at Guy Pariente's Haras de Colleville. Now, Vitse looks to write his own fairytale story alongside his wife Camille with their new project, Normandie Breeding, and it appears they are well on their way to doing so. Normandie Breeding brought 16 horses to the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale from their operation in Beuvron-en-Auge about 30 minutes southeast of Deauville, after bringing...

The Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners will offer over 75 stallion seasons during its 2022 auction which will be hosted by Starquine.com. Preview days will be held Dec. 5-6 and the auction opens Dec. 7 and continues through  8 p.m. Dec. 8. Darby Dan Farm will offer seasons to its entire roster of stallions, as will Indiana Stallion Station. Also participating in the auction are farms such as Gainesway, Lane's End, Claiborne, WinStar, Calumet, Walmac, Airdrie, Darley, and Ashford. Regional sires from from Raimonde Farms, RC Cline, and additional Ohio...

Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to relive the unforgettable racing career of champion Flightline and look ahead to his first year at stud at Lane's End Farm.

Lexington, KY - While the Flightline connections have been busy at the Keeneland November Sale assembling a powerhouse group of mares to send to their new stallion, the superstar himself has been settling into his new home at Lane's End Farm. 'TDN Rising Star' Flightline (Tapit - Feathered, by Indian Charlie) arrived at the Versailles-based breeding operation less than 24 hours after he cemented his place in history in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic. Accompanied by John Sadler's assistant and exercise rider Juan Leyva and barn foreman Cesar Aguilar,...

2018 GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint winner and Eclipse winner Shamrock Rose (First Dude) (hip 170) sold for $2.5 million to Michael Shannon at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November sale, and bettered that price Monday at Keeneland when she went for $3 million to Japan's Tomoyuki Nakamura of KI Farm. She was offered this time with a coveted Curlin cover. The Lane's End consignee's first foal, a War Front colt, sold to Ingordo Bloodstock this Keeneland September for $175,000 and she produced a Nyquist colt in 2022. Her half-sister Loyalty (Hard...

LEXINGTON, KY--Keeneland kicked off its November Breeding Stock Sale Monday afternoon with the highly anticipated auctioning off of a 2.5% interest in unbeaten all-time great, GI Breeders' Cup Classic hero and new Lane's End stallion Flightline (Tapit). The show, partially conducted in the Metaverse, certainly did not disappoint. The pavilion was lined wall-to-wall with industry participants squeezing in anywhere they could to witness the one-of-a-kind event. When the dust had settled after a very spirited round of bidding, Brookdale's Freddy Seitz saw off all challengers--which included the Coolmore partners as direct...

Flightline (Tapit--Feathered, by Indian Charlie), who capped a brilliant unbeaten career with an 8 1/4-length victory in Saturday's GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, has been retired to Lane's End Farm, his connections announced Sunday morning. He will stand as the property of a syndicate with a stud fee still to be announced. It was previously announced that a 2.5% ownership share in Flightline as he prepares to embark on his stallion career will be offered Monday on Day 1 of the Keeneland November Sale. From a prolific Phipps family, Flightline...

Bill Farish joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to share more details surrounding the news of Flightline's journey into the metaverse.