All Equine All The Time

An interesting addition to the U.S. stallion ranks in 2016 is the 6-year-old Teofilo son Amira’s Prince. Standing in Florida at Pleasant Acres Stallions, Amira’s Prince joins Treasure Beach (Galileo) as an Irish-bred, turf stallion at the farm.  Amira's Prince Amira’s Prince started his career in Ireland in September of 2011 when he finished fifth in his debut on yielding to soft ground at the Curragh. He wasn’t seen again until the following March but it was worth the wait for his connections with the colt finishing first by 3 ¼ lengths over eventual multiple group/graded stakes winner Speaking of Which (Invincible Spirit). From there, he hit the board in a few races in Europe before being bought by U.S. interests and transferred to trainer Bill Mott. Making his first start in the U.S. in December of 2012 after a four month break, Amira’s Prince hit the track running when he started a four-race win streak when winning by 1 ¼ lengths in an optional claiming race over 1...

Tale of the Cat in 2014 A Grade 2 winner at seven furlongs and Grade 1 placed at nine furlongs, Tale of the Cat (Storm Cat) was more than useful as a racehorse. His successful racing career turned out to be a foreshadowing of his stud career when he joined the stallion ranks in 1999, retiring to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky for $25,000.  By a top sire in Storm Cat and from a strong female family that includes champion Johannesburg (Hennessy) (out of Tale of the Cat’s half-sister) and Pulpit (A.P. Indy), Tale of the Cat has constantly ranked in the top 30 on the General Sires list since graduating from the crop-specific lists (where he was ranked in the top five on the first, second and third crop sires lists). While never a leading General Sire, Tale of the Cat is more often than not seen in the top 15 with his best ranking on that list being a seventh. The stallion has also done well enough with his 2-year-olds to lead the Two-Year-Old Sires list in 2003 and to rank seco...

One of the most exciting new sires of 2016 is Ireland’s Gleneagles (Galileo), whose bloodlines and race record make an attractive package for breeders. Standing for €60,000 ($65,640U.S.) in his first season, Gleneagles is one of three new stallions at Coolmore Stud’s Irish base and brings a serious race record with him to the farm. The colt finished fourth of 10 in his debut at Leopardstown on June 6, 2014 but from there lit up the European turf. He broke his maiden against 10 others at the Curragh at the end of June before spending the summer adding the Group 2 Futurity Stakes and Group 3 Tyros Stakes to his resume. The season culminated for the colt in the Group 1 National Stakes at the Curragh by 1 ½ lengths, his fourth consecutive victory. Unfortunately for the colt’s record, he drifted a little in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luck Lagardere at Longchamp on Arc day and French racing rules required that he be disqualified to third behind Full Mast (Mizzen Mast). However, ...

Liam's Map is one of the more successful expensive yearlings in his group Possibly the biggest “high money” area of the commercial side of horse racing, every year yearling sales see many yearlings sold for $500,000 or more. While it is rare that horses sold for that much money will make it back on the track, researching sales and race results from some of the horses sold at the the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearling and Keeneland September Yearling sales from 2010 to 2013 provided some interesting insight on where buyers may have the best bang for their buck with on-track results. For this project, all of the $1-million yearlings sold at those sales during that time frame in addition to the top five lots sold at each sale each year in the $751,000 to $999,000 and $500,000 to $750,000 ranges were looked at. If more than five horses tied at one of the top prices, all were included in the table with those ties accounting for the 43 horses in the $500,000 to $750,000 ran...

Nite Train is one of the horses with a North American connection this weekend. With a close-knit international community, it isn’t rare to see horses whose immediate family has a United States connection show up in countries outside North America. Just last month, the United States (Kentucky)-bred Air Force Blue was named Europe’s champion 2-year-old male while many U.S.-based stallions shuttle to southern hemisphere locations every summer after they finish the northern hemisphere season. In Panama on December 12 and 13, some familiar bloodlines will be seen during the Clasico del Caribe weekend of racing at Hipodromo Presidente Remon in Panama City. The five races during the festival make up a small Breeders’ Cup-like racemeet for central America with five countries (Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and Venezuela) represented by horses in the event. While Blood-Horse’s Stallion Register doesn’t include all the stallions standing in these countries, it does list 117 ...