Giant's Causeway
7th-GP, $84k, Msw, 3yo, 7f, 3:52 p.m. ET. Gary and Mary West homebred Final Story (Candy Ride {Arg}) has posted four bullet workouts, including a five-furlong breeze in 1:02 (1/28) Mar. 7, at Brad Cox's Payson Park base ahead of this debut run. Final Story's dam Book Review (Giant's Causeway) carried the couple's hot pink-and-black silks to a win in the 2012 GI La Brea S. and a close second in the 2013 GI Ballerina S. Leading sire and 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner was bred on this...
Another foaling year has begun and I truly have learned to go into each season with a "brace yourself" mentality as any long-term breeder realizes it is the only way you can keep your sanity year after year. This season, we continue to tackle the flock to the big-book first years and proven sires while breaking out the crystal ball to try to guess which of the bubble horses will succeed when their progeny hits the track. If any of you have ever participated in Geoffrey Russell's freshman sire contest,...
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...
Sponsored by Pedigrees360. How timely, that the first starting points for the 2026 Classics should be offered at Churchill even as the big spenders were driving each other to record heights up the road at Keeneland in their quest for a horse for 2027. Admittedly Saturday's initial rehearsals offered alternatives to those who cannot spend millions at the September Sale. One winner was out of a homebred Cowboy Cal mare, admittedly using a stallion who banked 12 seven-figure sales at Keeneland; while the other was a $20,000 discovery, inevitably by...
Keeneland has supplemented a filly by Tapit and a colt by Uncle Mo to Book 1 of the September Yearling Sale Sept. 8-9, the company said via a Thursday release. Opening day of the auction, which begins at 1 p.m. ET will include: Hip 183, a daughter of Tapit who is from the family of current sire Life Is Good, MGISW Diamondrella (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}). Consigned by Paramount Sales, agent, she is out of She'samericanmade (American Pharoah). Supplemented to the second day is: Hip 374, a colt by...
Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway--Private World, by Thunder Gulch), winner of the 2022 GI Caesars Belmont Derby Invitational S., has been retired to Pope McLean's Crestwood Farm for the 2025 breeding season. He will stand for $6,500 live foal. "We are thrilled to have Classic Causeway at Crestwood Farm," McLean said. "He was precocious at two, and a Grade I winner at three. He was versatile on both dirt and turf, with earnings over $1.5 million. His sire Giant's Causeway is a top sire of sires, with Not This Time proving...
How has your year gone? With the holidays approaching in earnest, it's not uncommon for American families to send a letter to loved ones sharing highlights from their year. If a stallion were to do that, Not This Time's letter might go something like this: Dear Friends and Family, It's been another great year! One son set the North American record on grass for 5 1/2 furlongs and has been billed as "the fastest horse in the world." Another couldn't be beaten at marathons on the dirt. Yet another was...
Dubai Millennium (GB) (Seeking the Gold), arguably the greatest horse to ever carry the Godolphin silks, has won a hotly contested three-week public vote for which 'Turn of the Century' horse should be inducted to the QIPCO Hall of Fame. In so doing, he was chosen over Daylami (Ire), Giant's Causeway and Montjeu (Ire). Dubai Millennium won nine of his 10 career trips to the post from 1998-2000, his only career defeat coming when failing to see out the 12-furlong trip in the Derby in 1999. He won his other...
The racing public will have the opportunity to decide which 'Turn of the Century' Flat horse should be inducted into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame. Voting is now open to select from Daylami (Ire), Dubai Millennium (GB), Giant's Causeway and Montjeu (Ire). Voting closes just before midnight on Monday, August 26. The globetrotting Daylami won seven Group 1 races during his illustrious career, including the Poule d'Essai des Poulains as a three-year-old when trained by Alain De Royer-Dupre for the Aga Khan. He was later purchased by Godolphin...
It is the typically interesting opinion of John Sikura that "a stallion's genetic switch is either on or off." The quality and quantity of his books may affect his profile, but his potency (or otherwise) will be operative the day he covers his first mare. Sure enough, six Grade I winners to date for Not This Time all belong to his first two books, conceived at just $15,000. Whatever he might yet achieve with his upgraded mares, paying $135,000 last year and now $150,000, he did not need their help...
Turkish stallion Red Giant (Giant's Causeway) has died from old age, according to Turkish horseman Tarik Tekce. A course record-setting Grade I-winner in his time on the track in the States, Red Giant initially stood at Three Chimneys and spent a period of time shuttling before moving to New Zealand's Westbury Stud in 2016. He was purchased by the Turkish Jockey Club later that year, where he would remain until his passing. In total, he sired three champions, five Group/Graded winners, and 14 listed winners across both hemispheres with his...
Multiple group winner Mutasaabeq (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}--Ghanaati, by Giant's Causeway) has been retired and will take up stallion duties at The National Stud in Newmarket next year. The dual G2 Joel S. hero's fee will be £6,500. "We are delighted to have secured Mutasaabeq to join our stallion roster for the 2024 season," said The National Stud CEO Anna Kerr. "He was a very consistent horse on the track and showed a great attitude in his races. It is rare that a prospect with such an outstanding pedigree becomes...