Ned Toffey

The first of back-to-back GI Breeders' Cup Classic winners retired to Spendthrift, Vino Rosso currently leads the U.S. freshman sire list and has had four individuals place in Grade I races in the last five weeks, including three on Oct. 7. "Since he is a son of Curlin, we were fortunate enough to acquire the breeding rights to him in his 4-year-old year, and that's when he really began to take off," said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift. "He won the Wood Memorial, so he was good early in...

It's hard for a horse to have a better season than Mitole did at four: his four Grade Is included the Sprint as well as the Met Mile and it's no small thing to set (and still hold) Saratoga's GI Forego stakes record of 1:20.80 for seven panels. "A long time ago somebody asked a groom what makes a good racehorse. He said speed and more speed. That always makes me think of Mitole," said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift Farm. "This was a horse that had an unbelievable...

Daniel Toffey has joined the stallion sales team at Spendthrift, the farm said in a release Thursday morning. "Tammy and I are happy Daniel has decided to come back home to work at Spendthrift," said owner Eric Gustavson. "He's a hardworking, energetic young man with a wide range of skills, and we know he will be a great fit here." Born and raised in Lexington, Toffey's passion for horses began early on, spending countless hours around Thoroughbreds with his father, Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey. After graduating from high school,...

When The Jockey Club announced last week that the estimated North American foal crop for 2024 was 18,000, a 2.7% decline from the projected 2023 foal crop, the news was hardly a surprise. By the time the final numbers are in for 2024,the foal crop will have declined in 18 of the last 19 years and this will be the smallest foal crop since 1964. Since 2005, when there were 38,365 foals, the crop has declined by more than half. How big of a problem is this. Why is it...

The only two-time winner of the Dirt Mile to date, Goldencents had gameness written all over him. The Equibase chart for his second Breeders' Cup win summed up much of his career: "gunned hard," "met the oncoming challenge," and "dug in tenaciously." "Goldencents was a special horse for us because he is the first horse that really began to put Into Mischief on the map," said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift Farm. "He and [MGSW & MGISP] Vyjack came out of Into Mischief's first crop. Obviously he went on...

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends Each race--particularly a Breeders' Cup win--is special to the connections of the winner, but some races stand out more than others in all who are lucky enough to witness them. Some get embedded in the mind and take up permanent residence there. Just about everyone in racing can recall in vivid detail Arazi's scintillating 1991 Juvenile or Personal Ensign's electrifying 1988 Distaff or Tiznow's gripping 2001 Classic. Each of those are among the transcendent performances in our sport that stir...

Four-time leading sire Into Mischief, who has broken records with 15 seven-figure yearlings to sell this year, will head the Spendthrift Farm stallion roster once again for 2024, the Central Kentucky farm announced Thursday afternoon. Into Mischief will stand for $250,000 S&N in 2024, identical to his advertised fee for 2023. Into Mischief is currently leading the general sires list for 2024 by a comfortable margin. His progeny for 2024 include 21 black-type winners, nine graded winners, and four Grade I winners, led by GI Kentucky Oaks winner and 'TDN...

Zedan Racing Stables' Taiba (Gun Runner), a three-time Grade I winner and 'TDN Rising Star', has been retired from racing and taken up residency at Spendthrift Farm, where he will begin his stud career in 2024 along with Zandon (Upstart) and Arabian Lion (Justify) as was announced Saturday. Taiba will stand for an introductory fee of $35,000 S&N and is available for inspection by appointment. "There are very few stallion prospects that tick all the boxes, to use the old cliché. Taiba is certainly one of those horses that possesses...

By Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland September Yearling Sale's first Book 2 session continued right on from where the auction's elite Book 1 section concluded, producing strong results largely in line with last year's record-setting renewal. During Wednesday's session, 209 yearlings sold for $64,024,000. The session average of $306,335 and the median was $255,000. During last year's Book 2 opener, 219 head grossed $66,695,000 for an average of $304,543 and a median of $250,000. With 83 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 28.42%....

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale of Selected Yearlings, which looked to have a tough task to live up to its record-smashing 2022 renewal, proved more than equal to that task and, when a fast and frenetic session concluded Tuesday night, the auction had once again set high-water marks for gross and average and tied its record median. "We have experienced some magical nights in Saratoga in the past and you've heard me talk about the Saratoga magic, but we ain't seen...

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in the case of one of the world's most precious broodmares it has so far been a case of "look but don't touch." That's all about to change, however, with the inclusion in Fasig-Tipton's freshly-minted Saratoga catalogue of a colt by Curlin out of Beholder (Henny Hughes). This is the first of the Hall of Famer's foals to be offered for sale by Spendthrift, a move that reflects a quiet shift of the weathervane as the farm evolves...

LEXINGTON, KY - The Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings failed to live up to its lofty 2022 levels, but concluded Tuesday evening with solid numbers and a filly from the first crop of GI Kentucky Derby winner Authentic leading the way when selling for $475,000 to Alex and Jo Ann Lieblong. "We had a very solid start to the 2023 yearling sales marketplace," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. "I think we all recognized that we were coming off a euphoric 2022 yearling marketplace that saw pretty significant increases across...