breeding and racing

Ocala Breeders' Sales Company has partnered with Carlos Morales of Agentes 305 to provide Spanish-language coverage on site for the upcoming October Yearling Sale taking place Oct. 7-8, the auction company said via a release on Wednesday. Founded by Morales in 2019, Agentes 305 provides bilingual coverage of Thoroughbred racing's top events through video interviews with owners, trainers, jockeys and backstretch workers. "As the second largest segment of the United States population, the impact of the Spanish-language community cannot be overstated," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. "Our partnership...

A HISA pilot program released results from a study of advanced cardiac monitoring of Thoroughbreds that shows atrial fibrillation (AF)--traditionally considered a benign, performance-limiting condition--can worsen during exercise, cause a more severe arrhythmia that leads to sudden death, according to a press release from HISA on Thursday. The group said that electrocardiogram data from affected horses that displayed AF both at rest and under exertion, underscores the need for early detection and highlighs the potential of integrating routine cardiac screening into pre-training and pre-race evaluations. During the first six months...

Coming into the GI Pennsylvania Derby, Puca (Big Brown) may already have been the most valuable broodmare on the planet. But in the 1:48.03 it took to contest that race, she became worth even more. Baeza (McKinzie) won and is now the third son in a row out of Puca to capture a Grade I race. Puca's owner is John Stewart's Resolute Racing, who announced in August that Puca will be sold at this November's Fasig-Tipton "Night of the Stars" sale. As much as he'd like to keep Puca, he...

Sponsored by Pedigrees360. Candidly, it always feels a little cheap to delve into a pedigree once its functionality is established, scrubbing away any genetic mud before triumphantly producing some hidden nugget to explain how it has all come together. "Post rationalization" of this kind is standard in articles like this, and the absolute opposite of the grueling enterprise that has worn out the soles of so many shoes over the past couple of weeks. As ever, Keeneland presented thousands of perfectly plausible pages to measure against the animals paraded before...

Taylor Made Sales Agency will offer a share in sire Not This Time at the second edition of the Keeneland Championship Sale, to be held in the Del Mar Paddock on Wednesday, Oct. 29, two days before the Breeders' Cup World Championships, Keeneland said in a press release on Thursday morning. The share will include all income from Not This Time's 2025 breeding season, providing immediate returns, and is offered by Aaron and Marie Jones LLC, an operation that has bred and raised top-class horses for decades. Not This Time...

No doubt about it, the folks at Hagyards seem to have found themselves a promising intern. Still early days, mind. Richard Holder has only been there 53 years. In fact, Dr. Holder believes himself the first beneficiary of an official internship at the storied Lexington firm, founded in 1876, albeit Dr. William McGee himself was evidently granted a similar opening, less formally, by Dr. Charles Hagyard in 1940. (By 1953 the firm was renamed Hagyard-Davidson-McGee Associates.) In either case, safe to say that the internship model started pretty well. Holder...

Keeneland has catalogued 80 horses for its April Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale, which will be held the evening of Friday, Apr. 25 following the races on closing day of the Spring Meet, according to a press release from the sales company on Wednesday. Supplemental entries to the April Sale will be accepted until the sale date. The auction, which will be livestreamed on Keeneland.com, will begin at 6:30 p.m. ET following the 10-race card. With a post of 5:09 p.m. ET, the ninth race is the featured GIII...

For the first time in his 17-year stud career, Northview's Great Notion surpassed $6 million in progeny earnings in one year, joining Not For Love as the only other Maryland stallion to hit that mark when the farm's legendary sire did it back-to-back in 2008 and 2009, according to a press release on Thursday from Northview Stallion Station. Great Notion and Golden Lad, who is also on Northview's roster, ended 2024 as the Mid-Atlantic region's leading general sire and juvenile sire respectively. Both stallions hit career milestones last year. With...

With so many roads now leading to Del Mar, traffic may feel pretty slow just now. But we should make a virtue of that, in that our preoccupation with the elite program tends to deny due attention to those achieving their success a tier or so below the very top. After all, such people have typically required no less skill, endeavor and patience, often denied the very highest rewards only through lacking similar parity in resources. Take the breeder of GIII Ontario Derby winner Dresden Row (Lord Nelson), whose emergence...

Keeneland has catalogued 209 horses to the November Horses of Racing Age Sale to be held Nov. 14, the day after the conclusion of the November Breeding Stock Sale, the auction company said in a Wednesday press release. The sale will start at noon ET., which will enable trainers and racing entities to complete their morning activities. The majority of horses in the catalogue will be stabled at Keeneland in Barns 18-26 with some horses offered remotely from their training locations. The catalogue comprises 42 juveniles, 106 3-year-olds and 59...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 361 entries for its October Digital Sale with bidding now open through Tuesday, Oct. 8, beginning at 12 p.m. ET., the auction house said in a Thursday release. "The October Digital Sale is our largest digital sale to date," said Fasig-Tipton Director of Digital Sales Leif Aaron. "With our industry leading 83% clearance rate in 2024, buyers and sellers can both have confidence that they can get a horse bought or sold on Fasig-Tipton Digital." The catalogue includes 60-plus yearlings and weanlings, 80-plus horses of racing age,...

It's early, but maybe not too early to start dreaming of the GI Kentucky Derby. At least it's not for owner Richard Rigney. Rigney is the owner of 'TDN Rising Star' Jonathan's Way (Vekoma), the winner of last Saturday's GIII Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs, the first of many races that award Derby points to the top five finishers. Making his second career start after overcoming trouble to win a maiden at Saratoga, Jonathan's Way was an impressive winner, suggesting there could be bigger and better triumphs in his future....