stallions

Spendthrift Farm announced Tuesday the reduction of stud fees for most of its current roster of stallions set to stand at the Lexington-based farm in 2021. Leading sire Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday) heads the roster at a previously announced fee of $225,000 S&N. Booked full, he represents the only stallion with an increased fee in 2021. Top sire Malibu Moon (A.P. Indy) and second-season sire Omaha Beach will both stand for $35,000 S&N. Malibu Moon stood for $60,000, while Omaha Beach stood for $45,000 in 2020. Fellow second-season sire Vino...

The Jockey Club (TJC) released breeding statistics Monday, which indicate that the 2020 North American foal crop will be about 20,500, a 3.4% decrease from the prior year. A total of 1,552 North American stallions covered 31,198 mares in 2019. The matings have resulted in 19,677 live foals of 2020, a figure that is 3.4% lower than the one reported at this time last year. Through Sept. 29, the number of live foals reported is estimated to be approximately 85-90% complete. The number of stallions declined 4.8% from the 1,630...

Sean Tugel, who served WinStar Farm as its director of bloodstock services and assistant racing manager for the last decade, and Lakota Gibson, who spent the last five years working alongside David Ingordo in the bloodstock department at Lane's End Farm, have joined the team at Gainesway. A native of Rochester, New York, and a Lexington resident since 2004, Tugel has been named the director of stallion sales and recruitment. He has also served in management roles at Hill 'n' Dale Farm and Paul's Mill. "We're excited about adding Sean...

Desert Party (Street Cry {Ire}--Sage Cat, by Tabasco Cat), a graded/group winner at ages two, three and four, has been sold to continue his stud career in Saudi Arabia. The deal was brokered by Chad Schumer of Chad Schumer Bloodstock. Bred in Kentucky by David Smith and Steven Sinatra, Desert Party was purchased by Paul Pompa, Jr. for $425,000 at the 2007 Keeneland September sale, then watched as his pinhook prospect topped the Fasig-Tipton Calder Sale on John Ferguson's bid of $2.1 million less than six months later. Winner of...

Let's cut to the chase. The recent dictum from The Jockey Club (TJC) that North American stallions born in 2020 and forward will be limited to covering 140 mares in a calendar year is an attempt to divert mares from popular stallions to others not as in demand. It's a simplistic approach to a complex issue, and it's akin to applying a Band-Aid to a cut that requires stitches. These days, stallions that need help the most are third- and fourth-year horses and proven mid-priced bread-and-butter stallions with some age...

Starting with horses born in 2020, the number of mares a stallion can be bred to in a season will be limited to 140, The Jockey Club announced Thursday. "The rule reflects The Jockey Club's goal to preserve the health of the Thoroughbred breed for the long term..." Thursday's press release read. When reached by the TDN, Jockey Club President and COO Jim Gagliano declined to comment further. "I think this is great for the sustainability of our industry going forward," said Claiborne President Walker Hancock. "It's really going to...

'TDN Rising Star' Maximus Mischief (Into Mischief), who stands alongside his superstar sire at Spendthrift Farm, has had his first mare confirmed in foal. Spin to Gold (Hard Spun) scanned in foal Feb. 28 for breeder D J Stable at Hidden Brook Farm in Paris, KY. Spin to Gold was a maiden winner at first asking, same as Maximus Mischief. Winner of his first two career starts by a combined 14 3/4 lengths, Maximus Mischief remained unbeaten in the GII Remsen S. and was third in the GII Holy Bull...

   Chris McGrath's Value Sires series in the TDN has frequently touched on the difficulty in selling nominations to stallions in their third-year at stud, as well as to solid, established stallions standing for a moderate fee. We asked stallion managers and nominations teams as well as bloodstock agents what changes could be made, if any, to help the situation.   Lucas Marquardt, Thorostride This has been a great, informative series often approached as a supply-side issue. That is, viewed from the perspective of breeders and stallion farms, mostly through...

Two-time US Horse of the Year California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) is recovering well from a bout with enteritis since his arrival at Arrow Stud Jan. 29, the JS Company--who manages the stallion business at Arrow Stud--reported across social media early Thursday (Japanese time). He was not part of the Arrow Stud stallion parade in recent days, prompting concern, but he will be paraded in March. The tweet read: "Dear all of fans, CC has a minor enteritis after arriving at Arrow Stud and recovering now. Fortunately, he eats very well and his...

With the doors of breeding sheds about to swing open for yet another season, we bring you the sixth and final installment of TDN Europe's Value Sires series. No longer are we judging stallions on their promise alone or their preliminary racetrack merits: these are the proven battlers, with real numbers behind them. No hiding places anymore. For this installment, we will focus on proven sires standing for £/€20,000 and below. This can be a tricky segment of the market to stand a proven horse in, with many sires in...

Country Life Farm in Fallston, Maryland, is hosting an open house Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be a heated tent, featuring crab soup, and stallions will be shown in the breeding shed. Among the stallions on display will be Mosler, Divining Rod, Friesan Fire and Super Ninety-Nine.

The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton Although the long-term implication of breeding trends on the soundness of racehorses was not an aspect that got covered in the post-mortem report released last week on Mongolian Groom (Hightail)'s fatal injury in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, the author of that analysis, Dr. Larry Bramlage, did address the topic in a Jan. 16 media teleconference that followed up on the study he was commissioned to write for the Breeders' Cup. And while the breeding-related remarks by the internationally respected equine orthopedic surgeon...