Three Chimneys

When the United States Trotting Association (USTA), the breed registry for standardbred racing in the U.S., proposed in 2006 limiting the number of mares a stallion could be bred to, Russell Williams, who then was a member of the USTA Board, prepared for an impending storm. He knew some breeders would be unhappy and there would likely be lawsuits looking to overturn the rule. But Williams, who is also an attorney, never wavered, confident that, in the end, the legal system would side with the USTA. He was right. The...

Three Chimneys Farm is the second stud farm in as many days to release a roster of reduced stud fees for the 2021 season due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The historic farm's 2021 roster is headlined by Horse of the Year Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) at $50,000 LFS&N. The six-time Grade I winner, who was represented by his first yearlings this season, stood for $70,000 in 2020. "The industry finds itself in unusual times," said Three Chimneys Chairman Goncalo Torrealba. "One can take comfort in knowing...

Saratoga's GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. winner Volatile (Violence-Melody Lady, by Unbridled's Song) has been injured with a hairline fracture of his right front cannon bone and has been retired. He will stand the 2021 season at Three Chimneys in Central Kentucky. While competing for the partnership of Three Chimneys Farm and Phoenix Thoroughbreds, Volatile was undefeated in three starts in 2020. In addition to his Vanderbilt win July 25, in which he clocked a final quarter in :22.94, the fastest in the race's history, the gray also captured Churchill's...

  Although it will look quite different this year, the start of the yearling sales season is finally around the corner and 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner would appear to be poised at the head of his class if stud fee and weanling average are anything to be. The son of Candy Ride (Arg) led all sires of first weanlings with an average of $275,923 with 13 of 14 sold, including a filly out of two-time Grade I winner Love and Pride (A.P Indy) who was the highest-priced...

Really, nobody can demand respect. It has to be commanded. This business has plenty of people who shout their achievements from the rooftops of social media. They have done their own reckoning, and that doesn't necessarily incline the rest of us to reinforce their self-esteem. How much more impressive, surely, is the understated, week-by-week accretion of laurels by a man like Doug Cauthen. He is always reluctant to "claim" credit for a particular horse, knowing that the fulfilment of its potential is always divided between so many different hands. Even...

So now we come to a group who will typically, at this stage of their careers, find themselves clinging by their fingertips to the commercial precipice--even as the agents and pinhookers press down ruthlessly with their boots. Yes, any breeder using these stallions this spring will at least have some valid evidence with which to evaluate what tends, in many cases, to be a dwindling fee: a first group of sophomores in 2019, backed up by the most precocious juveniles of their second crop. These, nonetheless, should by any sensible...

Grade I winner Funtastic (More Than Ready--Quiet Dance, by Quiet American) was represented by his first foal, a filly, Monday. Born at Nuckols Farm in Midway, KY, the filly is out of the Elusive Quality mare Tenshi, who is a half to GSW Something Ventured (Cobra King). "We are extremely excited about the arrival of Funtastic's first foal crop," said Tom Hamm, Director of Stallion Seasons at Three Chimneys Farm. "Funtastic himself is very good looking, and was a highly talented athlete by dominant sire More Than Ready. That, coupled...

● Sharp Azteca (Freud), winner of the 2017 GI Cigar Mile, was represented by his first foal when Special City (City Zip) produced a filly Jan. 5 at Wind-n-Wood Farm. ● The filly was bred by Chesapeake Farm and Crown Chase Farm and is the first foal out of Special City, whose dam is a half-sister to Grade I winner Haynesfield (Speightstown). ● Sharp Azteca stands at Three Chimneys. His 2020 fee is $10,000 LFS&N.