WinStar Farm

Nowadays, after Audible (Into Mischief) has retired and is ready to begin stud duties at WinStar Farm, WinStar General Manager David Hanley can say with confidence that the 2018 GI Florida Derby winner was a "tremendous horse." It just took everyone a while to figure that out. It seems that Audible didn't actually present as an overnight sensation. After being purchased for $500,000 at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Florida Select 2-Year-Olds in Training, the New York-bred wasn't exactly blowing away his owners or trainer Todd Pletcher. "He was always a very...

Through the first three installments of this series, we've repeatedly complained about ever-more manic investment in unproven stallions and the resulting potential for chronic deterioration in the gene pool. So we won't reprise the theme today, other than to remark that this situation creates a rather more immediate and specific challenge for the next group under review. Because while second- and third-season stallions can still offer breeders the possibility of riding an early vogue, this lot have just been exposed to the judgment of the yearling market--which history reveals to...

Sent off the lesser-preferred half of an uncoupled Steve Asmussen-trained entry at 13-1, Echo Town (Speightstown) was consigned to a three-wide, no-cover trip, but nonetheless went through his gears in a fast final quarter-mile to become the afternoon's second 'TDN Rising Star' in the Big Easy. Content to track from off the pace while monitoring the every move of his even-money stablemate Earner (Carpe Diem), a $425,000 Keeneland September graduate, Echo Town--himself a $100,000 purchase by the connections of GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Lookin At Lee (Lookin At Lucky)--ranged up...

A top-class racehorse on the track, Yoshida (Jpn) was as durable as he was successful, winning $2.5 million, split almost equally between dirt and turf. In the last two years of his career, he ran 10 times-nine in Grade I races, and once in a Grade II. A TDN Rising Star out of his first start at Keeneland, he went on to win the GI Woodward in his first start on the dirt, and the GI Old Forester Turf Classic S., earning a 106 Beyer. Kelsey Riley stopped by WinStar...

• A graded winner on turf and dirt, WinStar's Good Samaritan (Harlan's Holiday) was represented by his first reported foal, a filly out of the graded-stakes placed and stakes-producing Coulee (Vicar). The filly was born at Windmill Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. • She's a strong, precocious foal," said Windmill Farm's John Brooks. "She's a nice-looking filly with plenty of bone and substance." • Having served a book of 162 mares in 2019, Good Samaritan hails from the family of blue-hen La Troienne, which also includes such stallions as Sky Mesa...

Calumet Farm has topped the individual breeders list in North America in 2019 with $12,545,854 in earnings, according to statistics released Wednesday by The Jockey Club Information Systems. Calumet Farm bred 410 starters with 332 wins, 310 seconds and 323 thirds out of 2,435 starts. Kenneth L. Ramsey & Sarah K. Ramsey was second with earnings of $8,249,834 with 276 wins out of 1,779 starts. Calumet Farm also topped the breeders list that includes partners with $12,760,517 in earnings and 337 wins from 2,459 starts. WinStar Farm, LLC came in...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The two-day Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearlings Sale couldn't match up to its record-setting 2018 renewal, but when the dust settled Monday evening at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion, the auction had seen its fourth straight record-priced yearling. The record bid came from Larry Best, who said he had only seen the filly two hours before he spent $775,000 to acquire the daughter of Malibu Moon from the Winter Quarter Farm consignment. In all, 186 yearlings sold during the 2019 New York sale for a total of...