Breeding

LEXINGTON, KY--As the calendar turns over to June and the 2023 breeding season nears its close, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Manager's Club (KTFMC) focused its monthly meeting on advancements in the equine reproductive field and how the latest research, as well as new treatments and diagnostic tests, might have practical application for farm managers at this point in the breeding season and on into next year. Held Tuesday evening at Copper Roux in Lexington, the event featured presentations from three equine veterinarians. Dr. Emma Adam, who specializes in equine veterinary...

Gordon P. Ramsey, a breeder and owner in Massachusetts and Georgia who was instrumental in lobbying to secure legislation and funding to create and support the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association (MTBA) program in the early 1980s, died peacefully at his home in Georgia Apr. 21 after having suffered a stroke last month. He was 84. Ramsey, a Boston attorney, had served as the MTBA's first executive director. He and his wife of 40 years, Linda, operated Chabboquasset Farm in Massachusetts and Georgia, racing their homebreds at Suffolk Downs and Rockingham...

Official Starter for the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, Joe Banahan is hugely passionate about breeding, and from a small but select broodmare band, his family have enjoyed notable success on the Flat from their Moortown House Stud base near Navan. Joe's parents Percy and Elaine have recently passed away but, along with his wife Edel, he has carried on the proud family tradition in breeding. In this week's Starfield Stud-sponsored Q&A, Banahan, a former jockey, reveals how he became infatuated with breeding, what he aims to achieve from Moortown House...

After a debut season at Taylor Made during which he covered a hefty book of better than 150 mares, Horse of the Year and five-time Grade I winner Knicks Go (Paynter) is champing at the bit to get back to work as breeding sheds open their doors across Central Kentucky. The Korea Racing Authority raced the gray to 10 victories over the course of four-plus seasons and earnings north of $9.2 million, and his first year at Taylor Made has led to even greater optimism for his second. The KRA's...

Visitant (Ghostzapper--Peppermint Lodge, by Distorted Humor), a five-time stakes winner and twice placed at the graded-stakes level, has been retired and will enter stud this season at Arroyo Vista Farm in California. A homebred owned by Henry Williamson of Williamson Racing LLC, the 7-year-old was an 11-time winner from 20 starts overall including the 2021 Kentucky Club Classic, and he was also on the board behind Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man) in the GIII Affirmed S. and was runner-up to Maxfield (Street Sense) in the GII Alysheba S. Visitant retires...

How apt that one of Burt Bacharach's very first hits was The Story Of My Life. Because reading the tributes prompted by his loss a couple of days ago, it turns out that his music was pretty well a soundtrack to the lives of millions who--especially in the Sixties, an era of profound societal tension between materialism and idealism--wanted assurance that the essential bonds of humanity still united them all. He transcended those divisions much as he did musical genres, knowing that the middle-aged hosts of suburban cocktail parties and...

Flightline was clearly the star among stars at the Eclipse Awards ceremonies held Jan. 26 in Palm Beach, Florida, but a trio of stallions that call the rustic environs of John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa home stole the show from a sires' perspective, accounting for half of the evening's 10 winners among the Flat divisions. Success at the Eclipse Awards is obviously directly correlated with horse racing on its biggest stages, and the results from the first weekend of November, not far away from Xalapa at Keeneland Race...

Mind Control (Stay Thirsty--Feel That Fire, by Lightnin N Thunder), who closed his career with a battling victory in the GI Cigar Mile H., will anchor the 2023 stallion roster at Rockridge Stud, where he will stand for $8,500 LFSN as a joint venture between Irish Hill/Dutchess View Farm, Waldorf Farm and Hidden Lake Farm. The farm's other stallions with their stud fees (all LFSN) are: Al Khali (Medaglia d'Oro, $2,500); A Shin Forward (Forest Wildcat), $2,500); Disco Partner (Disco Rico, $4,000); Frank Conversation (Quality Road, private); Slumber (GB) (Cacique...

There's a lot that can be gleaned from the freshman sires and leading sires of 2-year-olds lists. Last year, Coolmore America's Practical Joke (Into Mischief) was second to Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) on the freshman sire list by progeny earnings, $2,339,717 to $4,315,980. Those numbers were good enough to make Gun Runner the leading sire of 2-year-olds and Practical Joke third, with leading sire Into Mischief splitting the newcomers with $2,971,018. That Practical Joke tied Gun Runner by number of black-type winners with six, tops among all freshman sires,...

Keepmeinmind (Laoban--Inclination, by Victory Gallop), a Grade II winner at two and placed three times at Grade I level, will enter stud in 2023 at Sequel New York, where he will cover mares at a fee of $6,500. Bred by Southern Equine Stables, Keepmeinmind was runner-up to future two-time Eclipse Award winner Essential Quality (Tapit) in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity and finished third to that rival in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile before breaking his maiden in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. Sixth in the GI Kentucky Derby...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 143 entries for its December Digital Selected Sale, which may now be viewed at digital.fasigtipton.com. Bidding is open as of Thursday, Dec. 8 at 12 p.m. ET and closes Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. ET. The catalogue features selected horses of racing age, breeding stock, weanlings, and yearlings. There are offerings located throughout the United States, including California, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. "We have put together a very exciting catalogue for this inaugural December Digital auction," said Leif Aaron,...

by Sue Finley & Katie Petrunyak Since 1958, the Head family has been raising champion Thoroughbreds at Haras du Quesnay, just a few kilometers from the Arqana sales ring. But now, with the passing of the family patriarch, Alec Head, and the sale of the historic nursery, the family's colors will fly for the last time at the December Breeding Stock sale, with the complete dispersal of the Heads' bloodstock interests. Le Quesnay will offer 48 broodmares, fillies and foals during the sale. "It's a big bunch of horses, and...