All Equine All The Time

The only son of top sire War Front at stud in England and only one of two standing in Europe, Due Diligence is poised for a big first year at stud in 2016. Standing at Whitsbury Manor Stud, Due Diligence raced for the Coolmore partnership with that group still keeping partial ownership of the horse when he retired to England late last year. A $190,000 yearling at the 2012 Keeneland September Sale, Due Diligence won his debut at Saratoga by 7 ½ lengths for the ownership group of Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence and trainer Chad Brown. But when he returned to the track for his second start in the Grade 3 Pilgram Stakes at Belmont two months later, his ownership had changed to Coolmore with Todd Pletcher getting the call as trainer. However, Pletcher didn’t have him in the barn long as Due Diligence was sent to Coolmore’s regular trainer, Aidan O’Brien, in Ireland after that start for his 3-year-old season.  His first start in the country came at Dundalk on the all-we...

An Irish-bred six-year-old, Lucky Speed created a big resume for himself in a short three seasons of racing. Making his first group stakes start in late April of his 3-year-old year, he finished second in the Group 3 Fruhjahrs – Preis des Bankhauses Metzler behind the multiple Group stakes winner Vif Monsieur (Doyen). But it didn’t take Lucky Speed long to get a stakes victory, taking home the Group 3 ONEXTWO.com Bavarian Classic in his next start. A little over a month later, he joined a list of Group 1 winners when winning this century's fastest Group 1 German Derby. While he didn't race again after that victory, his four 3-year-old races were enough to name him  the Top Rated German 3-Year-Old (11-13 furlongs) that year. Lucky Speed wasn’t seen again until June of his 4-year-old year when he finished third in the Group 2 Grosser Preis der Badischen Unternehmer. Two starts later, he again hit the board in the Group 1 124th Grosser Preis von Berlin but in four start...

When looking at stallions who have influenced the U.S. Thoroughbred breed the most in the early 21 st century, Unbridled’s Song (Unbridled) has to be near the top of the list. The gray stallion, who was born in 1993, was a well-known racehorse before he became an influential sire. He went off as the favorite in the 1996 Kentucky Derby after winning three graded races before the first Saturday in May, including the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He was retired to Taylor Made Farm, where he stood his whole career, after an injury early in his 4-year-old year. Will Take Charge Overall, Unbridled’s Song retired to the shed with five wins and four seconds in 12 career starts for $1,311,800 in earnings. While he did more than enough on the track to cement his place in the history books, his true calling came in the breeding shed. The stallion has sired three champions so far, with the latest of those three coming with Will Take Charge’s Eclipse award in 2013 as a 3-year-ol...

When looking at the freshmen sires in this year's Keeneland September sale, the number of yearlings by those stallions is staggering. Freshmen sires are represented by over 830 foals during the two week sale, a little over 20 percent of the catalog. That group is led by Bodemeister with 83 yearlings scheduled to sell from the stallion's first crop. As mentioned in my previous blog , 98 Bodemeister foals have sold or will sell at this year's summer Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland sales with the majority coming in this sale. To put the number of Bodemeister yearlings to sell at Keeneland into prospective, 61 percent of his first crop will be entering the Keeneland pavilion (before outs) in the first five books of the sale (Bodemeister has none cataloged in Book 6, which is the final two sessions of the sale). However, when looking at Bodemeister this interest in his yearlings makes sense. One of the most popular (if not the most popular) stallion prospects to retire for the ...

When one mentions that the racehorse industry has become commercialized, they only have to point to the yearling sales to prove their point.   This year’s first season sires are an example of that, with the racing industry getting to see a large sample of these new sires’ offspring a year before they make it to the track. Union Rags has 75 yearlings selling this summer Between the sales of the two major sales companies (Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton) summer yearling sales, many foals born to these new sires last year won’t race under their breeders’ names. Freshmen sires account for 990 yearlings selling this summer, with 45.3 percent of their foals born in 2013 going through the ring at Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland. On first glance, WinStar Farm’s Bodemeister, who had 135 foals born in 2014 looks to be the freshman stallion most visited by commercial breeders. Of those 135 born, 98 have either sold at a Fasig-Tipton yearling sale this summer or will sell at Keeneland S...