retirement

Group 1 winner No Half Measures (Cable Bay) has been retired according to trainer Richard Hughes. The R. P. Gallagher runner's biggest claim to fame was her victory in the G1 July Cup Stakes. She also won the G3 Trophy Stakes and Listed Prix Moonlight Cloud in 2024. Bred by Bumble Bloodstock and Mrs. S. Nicholls, she retires the winner of seven of her 16 starts with $735,634 in earnings. "We were thrilled with the run, we might have been a little bit unfortunate that it didn't come up soft...

Dual Group 1 winner Delacroix has been retired from racing and will stand at Coolmore Stud in Ireland next season. A stud fee for the TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard, will be revealed in due course. A winner of the G3 Autumn Stakes at two and only a nose away from also being a juvenile Group 1 winner in the Futurity Stakes, the son of $8-million dual-champion racemare Tepin (Bernstein) went to another level this year at three for Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore partners. Both the G3 Ballysax...

Twelve winning photos of Thoroughbreds were selected by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance to be featured in the fifth annual TAA calendar. All photos feature a registered Thoroughbred that is either in residence at or has been rehomed by a Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance accredited organization. Each winner will receive Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance branded merchandise and a copy of the calendar. Out of the twelve winners, the grand prize winner, Sara Ruggerone, was selected to be featured on the cover of the calendar and will receive a Tipperary helmet of their choice,...

Kentucky House Bill 8, passed during the 2024 General Assembly, has allocated $250,000 of annual funding to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA) from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the TAA announced Monday. The funding will go directly to accredited aftercare facilities in Kentucky that play a critical role in ensuring the wellbeing of horses beyond their racing years. The TAA will award the funds to the accredited organizations and facilities where they can have the greatest impact. "We are grateful to the Kentucky legislature, the Governor and everyone involved in this...

Multiple Graded/Group winner Drafted (Field Commission) has been named the 2025 Bill Kraatz Thoroughbred Makeover Ambassador Award recipient, the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) announced Friday morning. Named for the late past chief steward Bill Kraatz, the award recognizes a graduate horse that has gone on to serve as an ambassador for the athleticism and trainability of retired racehorses in their career beyond racing. Selected by a committee of Makeover officials, Drafted will be presented as the newest member of the honor roll. A millionaire on track, and a globetrotter who...

Racing has a serious integrity problem, Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale believes, and that is why he has pulled the plug and is leaving the game entirely. The Blood-Horse was the first to report the story. "We couldn't compete with all the drugs and all the injections when we were running on just hay, oats and water," he said. "It was an uphill battle. Runhappy climbed that hill but the rest of them couldn't. I'm not going to damage my integrity by drugging them and injecting them. I do right by...

Grade I winner Arthur's Ride (Tapit--Points of Grace, by Point Given) has retired from racing and will be offered as a stallion prospect--consigned by Lane's End--at the Keeneland November Sale, according to a Lane's End release Wednesday. Campaigned by Karl and Cathi Glassman's Glassman Racing, the grey enjoyed his best season in 2024, beginning with an allowance win by 7 1/2 lengths at Gulfstream. Later in the summer at Saratoga, he dazzled with a 12 ¾ length allowance win before taking the GI Whitney Stakes, where he defeated eventual Eclipse...

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation will host its final fundraiser of the year, the Backyard BBQ, at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Saratoga Springs on Tuesday, August 19, the organization announced Thursday. The event, held from 5:30-8:30pm, includes a full BBQ dinner, a drink ticket, live music, a silent auction and an opportunity to hear from graduates of the TRF Second Chances Program. All proceeds from the event benefit the TRF's herd of nearly 400 retired race horses and the Second Chances Program which pairs incarcerated individuals with horses to...

Champion stayer Kyprios has been retired from racing following the recurrence of an old injury, Coolmore announced on Tuesday. "Due to an aggravation of an old ringbone lesion we have decided to take no chances with Kyprios and although he is currently sound and doing well the decision has been made to retire him from racing," read a statement posted to X by Coolmore (@coolmorestud). Having won the 2022 and 2024 editions of the Gold Cup in a career which brought him eight Group 1 victories, Kyprios had been the...

Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National-winning rider Rachael Blackmore has announced her retirement from the saddle with immediate effect. The 35-year-old made international headlines in 2021 when she teamed up with the Henry de Bromhead-trained Minella Times to win the world's greatest steeplechase at Aintree--the first woman to do so in the then-182-year history of the race. In a statement, Blackmore said, "My days of being a jockey have come to an end. I feel the time is right. I'm sad but I'm also incredibly grateful for what my life...

Trevor McCarthy is only 30 and a winner of 1,871 races, which suggests he had many good years left in the saddle. Instead, McCarthy, who last rode on Aug. 15 at Colonial Downs, has retired and has gone into the real estate business. It was his way of escaping a job that was not only making him unhappy but bringing about mental health issues that he knew he had to find a way to get under control. "Mostly, this was about my mental health and my happiness," said McCarthy, who...

Cheltenham Festival-winning jockey Nick Scholfield has announced his retirement from race-riding and is set to join the training ranks next season. In a career which spanned nearly two decades and brought 680 winners, Scholfield enjoyed four victories at the top level, in addition to his three triumphs on the biggest stage of all at Prestbury Park. "As a child, all I ever wanted to do was become a jockey, following in my father's footsteps," said Scholfield. "I feel incredibly privileged to have ridden professionally and shared the weighing room with...