Lane's End

3rd-Tampa Bay Downs, $32,000, Msw, 2-8, 3yo, f, 6 1/2f, 1:16.07, ft, head. CASSIAR (f, 3, City of Light--Nellie Cashman {GSW, $349,839}, by Mineshaft), one of four first timers who made the gate, the filly proved best when it mattered most. Overlooked as a 12-1 shot here, the longshot exited the outside gate and was up near the pace rolling towards the far turn. Salted (Tapit) assumed control around the far turn, but the 3-year-old was moving within striking distance. In the shadow of the wire, Cassiar poked her head...

Multiple stakes winner Last Leaf (Not This Time) (hip 56) brought the highest price at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Winter Mixed Sale Tuesday when bringing a final bid of $140,000 from Joey Peacock. Peacock purchased the 6-year-old broodmare prospect in the name of Senor's Senoritas to support his recently retired G1 Saudi Cup winner Senor Buscador (Mineshaft). Last Leaf was the only six-figure offering at the one-session Mixed Sale, which was downsized from its two-day 2024 format. In all, 212 horses sold Tuesday for a gross of $3,098,700, an...

Robert Slack, celebrating his 78th birthday last Tuesday, had a ready answer when asked about his goals for his Kentucky-based Stoneriggs Farm. "Live long enough to watch it prosper," he said with a chuckle. "I wish I had gotten into it 10 years earlier, but I wasn't able to at that stage." Stoneriggs Farm has been in operation in Paris, Kentucky for just four years, but Slack is already well on his way to realizing that goal, not just in the sales ring, but also on the racetrack where the...

The G1 Saudi Cup hero from a year ago, Senor Buscador, will aim to continue the legacy of his sire Horse of the Year Mineshaft at Lane's End as he stands for $7,500 LFSN, the farm said via a press release on Friday. Bred in Kentucky by Joe R. Peacock, Sr. and Joey Peacock, Jr., Senor Buscador retires from racing with $12,944,427 in earnings and was trained by Todd Fincher. The 7-year-old had shipped last week to Gulfstream Park where he was set to make another start in the GI...

Champion turf male Up to the Mark (Not This Time), has sired his first foal, a colt out of La Croix Valmer (Malibu Moon), born Jan. 16, 2025 at Newtown Anner Stud Farm, Millbrook, New York. La Croix Valmer is a full sister to Grade I-placed stakes winner Moon de French. La Croix Valmer was a $235,000 yearling purchase by Newtown Anner Stud Farm. "This colt lives up to his father's name," said Newtown Anner Stud Farm General Manager Hanzly Albina. "He is everything we expected and wanted when breeding...

The Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) made two new additions to their board at their December meeting as Robert Hartman and Chris Knehr were elected, according to a Wednesday press release from the nonprofit. Hartman is the chair of the University of Arizona's Race Track Industry Program (RTIP). After holding marketing and management positions with NYRA, Santa Anita Park, and Golden Gate, he joined the RTIP program as chair in 2021. In this role, Hartman oversees the direction of the RTIP program, as well as the hosting of the annual Global...

Growing up in the Thoroughbred industry, Headley VanMeter has always dreamed of starting his own consignment. Now, he is doing it by going out on his own this summer under the banner of VanMeter Sales. "Starting a consignment has always been a goal of mine," said VanMeter. "Everything I have done to this point has been to build a strong foundation as a horsemen. I feel like now is a great time to try to start my own business. I've been really fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of...

The 2023 champion 3-year-old male MGISW Arcangelo (Arrogate) has sired his first foal, born Jan. 10, at Safari North Farm, Lane's End announced via release Saturday afternoon. The filly is out of the Bernardini mare Bhoma, who earned just shy of $230,000 in her career, and who claims multiple graded winner Mom's One Strike (First Dude) as a half-sister as well as SW Otago (Speightstown) and MSP Reminder (Audible). "Bhoma has been with the program since she was a yearling and we were excited about her first foal by Arcangelo,"...

Jack Bolton and Nico Bowden, friends since they were teenagers attending the same prep school, are young and they are smart. Bolton is a senior at USC and Bowden just graduated from MIT. For many such college graduates that might mean entering the work world with an eye on becoming a CEO or a lawyer or perhaps starting a hedge fund or doing something else on Wall Street. Not Bolton and Bowden. They have decided to get involved in the horse racing business. The two are partners in Triple Crown...

Todd Claunch, the farm manager at William Farish's Lane's End Farm, will retire at the end of this month following a 34-year career, the nursery said in a release Dec. 23. He is to be succeeded by Peter Sheehen, a 16-year veteran at Lane's End and its current stallion manager. Claunch joined the yearling division at Lane's End in 1990 and had the distinction of working with champion and Horse of the Year A.P. Indy as a yearling. He was named yearling manager in 1994, managing all aspects of horse...

If this seems a strangely specific category, that's because it is. There are two dozen sires standing in Kentucky at $10,000, a fee that attempts to preserve their dignity against a candid slide into the bargain basement. Though you're only a cent away from offering your stallion at four figures, you want him to look accessible without being low-rent. Only a couple are newcomers, all of which were dealt with separately in opening this series. Otherwise this is chiefly the bracket of youngish stallions whose rookie vogue is spent, anxious...

Champion Lemon Drop Kid (Kingmambo--Charming Lassie, by Seattle Slew) has died of an undisclosed cause at the age of 28 at Lane's End, the farm said via a press release on Friday morning. Foaled at Lane's End and bred by W. S. Farish and W. S. Kilroy, Lemon Drop Kid is out of Charming Lassie, a half-sister to Broodmare of the Year Weekend Surprise (Secretariat). The Lane's End sire was closely-related to the impactful A.P. Indy. Lemon Drop Kid was sold for $200,000 at the 1997 Keeneland September Sale to...