Fed Biz

"Looking for the hidden gem." That, to Mike Slezak, is the point of crossover; the place where his breakout success dovetails with a personal passion that has now evolved into a way of life. "Which means trying to ask questions in a different way," he elaborates. "Not making assumptions, looking a little closer." To the many who first encountered Slezak in his American Idol debrief shows, the next stage of the analogy will make perfect sense. "It's scouting for a contestant like David Cook," he explains. "No-one thought he was...

After completing our marathon tour of covering options in the Bluegrass, today we take a tour of the main regional hubs. Clearly, it would be impractical to go into anything like the same depth and, besides, local breeders know their own markets best. But while we will only visit some of the principal centers, and pick out only one or two names in each, bloodstock investors anywhere can acknowledge the professionalism that unites horsemen, coast to coast, and think about the possibilities of diversification or experiment--above all in those programs...

Fed Biz (Giant's Causeway--Spunoutacontrol, by Wild Again), a graded winner short and long and Grade I placed on both dirt and turf, is being relocated from WinStar Farm to Highfield Stock Farm in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. A $950,000 Keeneland September yearling, Fed Biz was a six-time winner at the races of over $770,000 and retired to stud at WinStar Farm. From three crops of racing age, Fed Biz is the sire of 10 black-type winners, including GSW Inthemidstofbiz. "Fed Biz was an incredibly talented racehorse," said Adrian Munro, President of...

TIMONIUM, MD - The three-day under-tack preview ahead of next week's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale concluded Friday under glorious blue skies and temperatures in rising steadily into the 80s through seven sets of workers. "It was a terrific under-tack show. All of the credit goes to [Maryland State Fairgrounds maintenance director Don] Chief Denmeyer," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. "We had challenging weather at the beginning of the week and this racetrack was as good, from beginning to end, as any under-tack show we've ever conducted. The...

TIMONIUM, MD - A filly by Bourbon Courage worked the fastest quarter-mile and three juveniles shared the day's fastest furlong work time during Thursday's second session of the under-tack show ahead of next week's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in Timonium, Maryland. Bourbon on Sunday (hip 286), a Maryland-bred daughter of Bourbon Courage consigned by Naoise Agnew's Nomad Farm Training and Sales, worked a quarter-mile in Thursday's bullet time of :21 1/5. It was the second fastest quarter-mile through two of three sessions of the under-tack show. "We actually...

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...