Payson Stud

After a pair of near-misses in graded company this summer, Lael Stables' She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) left nothing to chance Saturday at Keeneland, skipping home the easiest of winners in the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes. The King's Plate winner Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach) broke sharply and went right to the lead in the nine-furlong event, while She Feels Pretty, adding blinkers for this effort, sat just off the pacesetter and in cover along the rail. Caitlinhergrtness was clear through a quarter in :23.45 and a half in...

A Gainesway-consigned Ghostzapper filly out of winning Seeking the Blue (Arch) hammered to John Stewart's Resolute Bloodstock for $1.2 million at Tuesday's session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. The half-sister to MGSP Janis Joplin (California Chrome) and MSP Vino Rouge (Vino Rosso) was bred in Kentucky by Payson Stud and went through the ring as Hip 147. The May 5 filly joins another Ghostzapper purchase in the Resolute portfolio--Stewart purchased champion Goodnight Olive at Fasig-Tipton's November sale for $6 million.         ⚡ GHOSTZAPPER (@HillnDaleFarm) filly sells for...

Virginia Kraft Payson, a pioneer with a buoyant spirit who often referred to her life as "a magic carpet ride" woven from a whirlwind of adventure travel, a passion for outdoors journalism, and a mid-life immersion into the world of Thoroughbred racing and breeding, died Jan. 9 at age 92 at her Payson Stud farm in Lexington, Kentucky. The cause of death was complications from Parkinson's disease, as confirmed by Christian Erickson, a decades-long family friend and the trustee of the Payson estate. Payson's entry into Thoroughbred ownership was the...