Stone Farm

   Lynn Hancock breezed through the Fasig-Tipton sales grounds early Tuesday morning last week, heading for Barn 1 wearing a baseball cap and a smile. After a long stretch of days running a successful consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale, Stone Farm's Director of Racing and Sales had enjoyed a night of celebration when her consignment sold the highest-priced yearling of the auction's first session. "I didn't want to get out of bed this morning, but the horses needed fed," she said with a grin, nodding toward the...

Agent Jacob West, acting on behalf of Robert and Lawana Low, saw off all challengers to take home an Uncle Mo colt out of GISW Dame Dorothy (Bernardini)--a half to the Lows' GSW 'TDN Rising Star' Spice is Nice (Curlin)--during Monday evening's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. When the dust had settled, the price tag was $1.6 million. The May 2 colt was consigned by Stone Farm as hip 73 on behalf of breeder Bobby Flay. Flay also bred and still co-campaigns the 2019 Saratoga sale co-topper and GSW First Captain (Curlin).

Every year, like the fireflies, they emerge with the gathering heat of summer. Even as the more established sophomores hobble out of the Triple Crown series--many requiring rest or recuperation, some even menaced by retirement--a second wave reliably reinvigorates the crop. Sure enough, in recent days a couple of new names have volunteered themselves to test the resilience of those Classic protagonists who do persevere to Saratoga and beyond. But while both share a fresh, progressive profile, in other respects they could scarcely be more different. 'TDN Rising Star' First...

Florida businessman, Robert Slack, founder of Robert Slack, LLC, a Florida real estate brokerage, purchased Kilflynn Farm on Winchester Rd. near Paris, Kentucky. The 417-acre farm, formerly owned by Denis Brosnan, was originally part of Stone Farm. Joe Riddell of the Riddell Smith Group at Rector Hayden Realtors handled the sale. "I have been interested in a farm in Kentucky for many years, and when this one became available, I finally took the plunge, and I am excited to be in the same neighborhood as Claiborne, Machmer Hall, Hidden Brook,...

Singing Sweetly (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) gave birth to a filly foal by Study Of Man (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) at Stone Farm, Kentucky earlier this week. The filly is from the first crop of the Lanwades-based stallion, who won the G1 Qipco Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly in 2018. The former Coolmore-owned Singing Sweetly was purchased by James Delahooke, on behalf of Bobby Flay, at last year's Arqana Breeding Stock Sale from Haras des Capucines for €125,000. "She's an excellent first foal--well balanced, correct and plenty of bone. A...

The Thoroughbred Club of America has chosen Arthur B. Hancock III as its 2020 Honor Guest, to be honored at the 89th Testimonial Dinner on a date yet to be determined due to COVID-19. The Thoroughbred Club Testimonial Dinner was inaugurated in 1932, the same year the club was founded, to recognize distinguished contributions of leadership as well as success in the Thoroughbred industry. Previous recipients have included Col. E. R. Bradley, William Woodward, Sr., Ted Bassett, and three generations of Hancock's extended family from Claiborne Farm. "The Thoroughbred Club...

by Brian DiDonato, Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY--A Tapit filly out of GISW Embellish the Lace (Super Saver) topped the opening session of Keeneland's September yearling sale on a $1.25-million bid by Claiborne Farm's Bernie Sams. The bay was consigned to the auction as hip 149 by Bluewater Sales LLC, Agent XVI, on behalf of breeder China Horse Club. While stringent COVID-19 protocols put in place to allow the world's largest yearling sale to be held at all may have dulled some of the electricity typically felt in...

Since the start of sales season last fall, comments have circulated on how Mastery could be the dark horse in his class of first-crop yearling sires. There are many unknowns about the son of Candy Ride (Arg), as he may have never reached his full potential on the track when an injury forced him to retire prematurely. But his four-for-four career start had garnered talk of Kentucky Derby favoritism after dominating performances in the GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity and the GII San Felipe S. Now in the stud...

For half a century, Arthur Boyd Hancock III has called Stone Farm home. It is a tract of land where, as the nursery's website succinctly states, the team is 'trying to raise you a good horse.' To say they've achieved that goal over the years would be an understatement of monumental proportions. The list of animals that have grown up on that stretch of Bourbon County Bluegrass include stakes winners too numerous to mention; horses from A to Y, including Classic-winning and Classic-placed runners like Gato del Sol, Risen Star,...

The Curlin show continued Tuesday evening at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale when another son of the leading sire brought a co-topping $1.5 million from the partnership group of West Point, Woodford, Siena, Valdes Singleton, Sandbrook and Freeman. Consigned by Stone Farm, agent, Hip 174, the first foal out of GSW & MGISP America (A.P. Indy), was bred in Kentucky by B. Flay Thoroughbreds. This is the extended female family of bluehen mare Better Than Honour. A Curlin colt out of Chilean champion & MG1SW Wapi (Chi) (Scat Daddy) (Hip...