Tamara, trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, won the 2023 Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1) before finishing seventh in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), where she was found to have suffered a fractured splint bone.View the full article

The New York State Gaming Commission and Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen have entered into a monitoring agreement of his labor practices, resulting in the cancellation of a scheduled license revocation hearing.View the full article

Trainer Juan Muñoz Cano brings four starters to the Claiming Crown at Churchill Downs Nov. 16.View the full article

Breeding and Bloodstock Rowe On Monday - The Oak By Tim Rowe -  Iconic Kiwi stud The Oaks has hit the market as owner Dick Karreman celebrates another Group 1 win, while Qatar Racing’s David Redvers talks up with another stallion investment and a former Singapore trainer embarks on a new era.       The Oaks Stud in Cambridge is on the market. (Photo: The Oaks Stud) The Oaks on the market Queenslander Dick Karreman has raced a host of top-class horses over the years. There’s been champion mare Seachange - a dominant force in New Zealand racing in the mid-2000s and who is notably the second dam of Coolmore’s colt Storm Boy - and there’s been Recite, Artistic, Risque, Devise, Keepa Cruisin and Catalyst, just to name a few, all of whom have won elite races for The Oaks Stud owner. But Karreman’s latest racetrack star, Saturday’s New Zealand 2000 Guineas winner Savaglee, also holds special significance for the businessman who largely avoids the media and is rarely seen, either at the races or at Karaka where his prominent nursery The Oaks Stud is a vendor at the annual New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale. As usual, Karreman wasn’t at Riccarton to watch the Pam Gerard-trained colt in action on Saturday. He prefers to leave that to The Oaks Stud’s general manager Rick Williams, the man who selected the colt from the Waikato Stud for $400,000 at last year’s Karaka sale in the hope of turning him into a stallion. Coming five years after Karreman’s brilliant but injury plagued gelding Catalyst won the 2000 Guineas, the emergence of Savaglee coincides with changes that are in the air at The Oaks Stud. The billionaire businessman has quietly listed for sale his 202-hectare The Oaks Stud, a valuable piece of land that is located on the edge of Cambridge, which he has owned since 2002. “He (Karreman) has got a family situation that he has to sort out, and that's why it's part of a super fund, and the land is owned by the super fund, but there's a number of plans we've got going on between us at the moment,” Williams told The Straight.   “But it’s very satisfying, obviously. He wanted me to buy a colt, and I got lucky, but he was thrilled.  “He didn't come over, unfortunately, but obviously, when you get a classic winner of any sort, you're rapt and he's come through the race really well.” Williams will consult form analysts and ratings gurus to help him, Karreman and Gerard determine exactly where to head next preparation with Savaglee. Enhancing the colt’s value as a stallion prospect is high on the agenda. Rick Williams (centre) celebrates the win of Savaglee. (Photo: NZ Racing Desk) The inaugural NZB The Kiwi at Ellerslie on March 8 could be a possibility but the lure of the Group 1 status attached to the Australian Guineas at Flemington a week earlier may be too hard to ignore. “He ran the third fastest Guineas of all time (1:33.86 seconds), so you could say, ‘well, how good were they, the ones he beat?’” Williams says.  “We'll find out as these horses race on, but you can only win, and when you win in a good time, you've got to start looking at other options. “Obviously, he's worth a certain value, because it’s New Zealand Group 1 and a Classic Group 1, but he's worth a hell of a lot more for them to get one in Aussie, so we'll see.” The Oaks Stud will continue to be an active vendor for the foreseeable future. (Photo: The Oaks) For Williams, it’s business as usual at The Oaks Stud with about 30 yearlings likely to be offered at Karaka next January under the farm’s distinguished banner despite a possible sale of the farm hanging over them. “The property market is pretty quiet at the moment, so it's no surprise (about a lack of interest). It's a difficult time to be selling,” Williams said. “But I'm not surprised with that, and Dick isn't worried. He certainly doesn't need the money. He's got plenty of assets. “It's just a matter of which ones you sell off to square things up with his family. He's got plenty of plan Bs and Cs.”

Coverage was good snd so it should be on our premier day! Once again, get rid if that stupid drone! Adds nothing in my humble opinion!

Rathasker Stud has announced its fees for next season, with Bungle Inthejungle (GB), the sire of this year's G3 Phoenix Sprint Stakes winner Givemethebeatboys (Ire), leading the three-strong roster of stallions at €7,500. It will be the second consecutive year that Bungle Inthejungle has stood for €7,500, having covered 103 mares this season at his base in County Kildare. Perhaps best known as the sire of the G1 Nunthorpe Stakes heroine Winter Power (Ire), he enjoyed another notable result on the Knavesmire recently when his two-year-old Jungle Drums (Ire) won the Listed Rockingham Stakes. Bungle Inthejungle is joined at Rathasker by Coulsty (Ire) and Gregorian (Ire), both of whom remain unchanged at €5,500 and €4,500, respectively. Bolo Neighs (Ire) was the flagbearer for Coulsty in 2024 when winning the Goffs 500 and finishing third behind Jungle Drums at York, while Gregorian was represented well by the four-time winner Great Blasket (Ire). The post Bungle Inthejungle Heads Rathasker Stud Roster at Unchanged €7,500 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Survival of the smaller harness clubs certainly is a battle, ashburton generally seem to have plenty of horses, times are getting tougher and costs higher, do manawatu still have the greyhounds, was trying to recall the name of the greyhound track there.

Okay, so the top price at Fasig-Tipton last week was paid for a mare by Frankel (GB), followed by daughters of Justify and his damsire Ghostzapper. But next, at $3.6 million, came a daughter of Flintshire (GB), Surge Capacity, while her own dam Strong Incentive made $2.75 million, despite also being by a Kentucky reject in Warrior's Reward. Other seven-figure sales included mares by Speightster, Frac Daddy and Marking, while the first such transactions at Keeneland next day concerned daughters of Mastery and Bird Song. It's the same every year. Seven-figure mares at Keeneland last time round included daughters of Big Brown, Afleet Alex, Pastorius (Ger), First Samurai and (again) Mastery. I'd congratulate any highly paid counsellor, asked to seed a breeding program, who might dare to recommend using such sires. These mares have elevated their value by disclosing a genetic functionality–whether through performance or production–that allows investors to indulge their unfashionable sires, who were typically working a brief window of opportunity in their earliest books. Blue hens have certainly emerged from obscurity.     Families evolve. Some rise, some fall, most do a bit of both. But between blue-collar and blueblood, one way or another the bull needs his herd. It was certainly striking, last weekend, how a series of graded stakes scorers happened to be descended from landmark mares. The fourth dam of GII Red Smith Stakes winner Integration (Quality Road) is Chic Shirine. GIII Hill Prince Stakes winner Deterministic (Liam's Map) traces to Courtly Dee as fifth dam. GIII Long Island Stakes scorer Be Your Best (Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}) is out of a great-granddaughter of Up the Flagpole. Lady Be Good features as sixth dam of GIII Bessarabian Stakes winner Stormcast (Mitole). And if you go back far enough, you'll even find that GII River City Stakes winner Battle of Normandy (City of Light) eventually leads you to Busher. What does all that prove? Not much, perhaps. The influence of these matriarchs is surely too attenuated to explain athletic prowess here and now. But it would be less contentious to suggest that the whole culture they represent, of patient curation, secures a depth of genetic soil that has conjured these blooms as only the latest among many. The seeding of these families was almost invariably the work of owner-breeders, who chose matings with the quaint objective of producing a fast horse, and not just a fast buck. Perhaps we should not be surprised that four of these five horses won on turf, and the other on synthetic, not an environment, as we know, favored by many commercial breeders today. Old-school diligence (and resources!) won't pay off all the time, of course, and many good horses, equally obviously, emerge from commercially improvised pages. Perhaps it simply boils down to what gives us most confidence, as individuals, in judging how best to build on the work of our predecessors. For instance, the three dams dividing Integration from Chic Shirine are by Scat Daddy, Sky Mesa and that excellent distaff influence, Lyphard. The first two are both by sires tracing to the Claiborne matriarch, Narrate, the third dam of Johannesburg, granddam of Pulpit. I couldn't pretend to know quite how that may have helped Integration's dam Harmonize become a Grade I winner, and now replicate that talent in her son; any more than I could say what the same pair–Pulpit, as sire of the second dam; Johannesburg, as grandsire–together contributed to Justify. But I do find it comforting whenever sheer breadth of quality neutralizes the unpredictable distribution of genetic influence. Seeing Sky Mesa behind a mare, for instance, would always reassure me. His extremely solid output, from limited opportunity, is rooted in the elementary combination of a superbly bred sire and a superbly bred dam (tracing to Busanda). The same elementary formula (genetic gold x genetic gold) produced Mineshaft, who performs a similar role in Battle of Normandy's pedigree, as sire of the second dam. He was by A.P. Indy out of Prospectors Delite, herself by Mr. Prospector out of Up the Flagpole–and that blend, as it happens, is strongly echoed in the granddam of Be Your Best, who was by A.P. Indy out of Up the Flagpole's daughter by Nureyev, Flagbird. Obviously all these winners owe much to their sires, too, and the way their genes complement the maternal family. But we should never forget how the market's obsession with stallions is often primarily a matter of convenience. Modern book sizes, in particular, provide a helpfully legible statistical handle. But what actually unlocks the door, very often, is family. Never Too Much of a Good Thing If you want to take this saturation of quality a step further, there's no more blatant technique than inbreeding–something conspicuous in another of the winners mentioned above. Stormcast is out of a Quiet American mare, which will always guarantee certain flavors. Famously, not only are Quiet American himself and his sire Fappiano both out of Dr. Fager mares, but those mares are themselves both out of a daughter of Cequillo (Princequillo). In the case of Stormcast, however, second dam Millie's Delight additionally doubles down on Buckpasser. Her sire El Gran Senor is out of Sex Appeal, Buckpasser's daughter out of the celebrated Best In Show, while her dam Defer (Damascus) is out of I Pass, who was by Buckpasser out of Impish (herself daughter of Lady Be Good and Majestic Prince). Over recent days, however, perhaps no pedigree has been more concentrated than that of Paris Lily (City of Light), a Godolphin homebred who broke her maiden at Churchill last Friday. We're long familiar with Secretariat's distaff footprint, but he tramples all over this filly. Her first two dams are by sires out of Secretariat mares (Storm Cat and Lion Cavern); so, too, is City of Light's damsire Dehere; while his great-grandsire is Lion Cavern's brother Gone West, and his granddam is by Secretariat's half-brother Somethingfabulous. Battle of Normandy | Coady Media Paris Lily, incidentally, contributed to a healthy run for City of Light, who had taken time to consolidate his breakout champion Fierceness. The latter could hardly have done more, in defeat, than he did at the Breeders' Cup. The aforementioned Battle of Normandy is their sire's sixth graded stakes winner. Illuminare resumed his progress with a 98 Beyer in an optional allowance at Aqueduct and another sophomore, the $750,000 juvenile Benedetta, continued to regroup in a similar sprint at Churchill. City of Light found himself in a hot intake and cannot yet match the cumulative stakes ratios of several peers. But his fee has been adjusted accordingly, even as he has taken a step forward with each of his three years with runners–giving his stock a profile consistent with his own, as one that thrived with maturity. A Fertile Field The point expounded earlier, about the long-term percolation of curated quality, is further attested by Elysian Field, winner of the GIII Maple Leaf Stakes–a timely illustration, during the breeding stock sales, of how breeders sharing the same principles can tap into each other's work. Her granddam Initiation (Deputy Minister), sold as a yearling to Augustin Stable, represented six generations of stewardship by Peter Blum all the way to his foundation mare Mono. (Blum had actually sold Initiation's dam, but later repented and bought her back). Despite winning a stakes in a light career, Initiation was later culled to St Simon Place (confirming its extraordinary flair for bargains) for just $9,000 at the 2020 November Sale. She was 15, and proving a modest producer. That same spring, however, her half-sister Treasure delivered a Quality Road colt who would eventually become GI Preakness and GI Met Mile winner National Treasure. National Treasure | Sarah Andrew In the meantime, Initiation's daughter by Smart Strike, Elysian, had been sold to Anderson Farms after winning three times in the Strawbridge silks, for $100,000 at Keeneland January in 2018. She was sent to Hard Spun, and Elysian Field is the result. Despite making no more than $50,000 as a yearling, with her dam moved on soon afterwards, Elysian Field won the Woodbine Oaks last year (also runner-up in the King's Plate) and her graded stakes breakthrough makes Zilli's Fasig-Tipton Digital purchase last October of her dam, carrying a full-sibling, appear a tremendous strike at $55,000. “Strike” is the operative word, Hard Spun having lately been on quite a roll with Smart Strike mares. Saturday's runner-up, Millie Girl, herself represents the same cross. So, too, does GII Hillsborough Stakes winner Sparkle Blue; likewise, sophomore stakes scorers Give It a Whirl and Good Lord Lorrie. Hard Spun has clicked with many different influences and I leave to others any excitement that three of his four sons (Two Phil's the exception) contesting an eventual succession in Kentucky are also out of mares by sires tracing to Mr. Prospector. It always baffles me that the same people who “brand” entire sire-lines scoff at the idea that class might be concentrated beneath similarly recessed mares. They can dismiss as ancient history the fact that Blum bought Mono 50 years ago because she was out of a sister to Assault, but they can't really have it both ways. Because of the precious link Hard Spun provides to Danzig, and a Smart Strike mare doing the same with Mr. Prospector, doubtless Elysian Field will be acclaimed as “Northern Dancer over Mr. Prospector.” But who could sensibly say the same of Occult (Into Mischief), the GIII Monmouth Oaks winner who last month claimed her third Grade I podium when runner-up in the Spinster Stakes? Each to their own. But I'm rather more interested that Occult's fifth dam is Mono, and Blum and his team have expertly developed the line right down to her sale as a $625,000 yearling, than in finding Northern Dancer five generations behind Into Mischief and Mr. Prospector three behind Empire Maker. The post Breeding Digest: Blue-Collar Mares and Bluebloods appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Tamara, trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, won the 2023 Del Mar Debutante (G1) before finishing seventh in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), where she was found to have suffered a fractured splint bone.View the full article