All Equine All The Time

Uncle Mo A day after having the most Triple Crown nomin ees of any stallion , Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) was on top of another list when he topped all sires on the U.S. Experimental Free Handicap with 10 2-year-olds listed including the highweighted champion 2-year-old colt Nyquist. Two-year-olds must have made at least one start in graded or listed stakes company in North America to be assigned a weight with The Jockey Club listing all horses weighted at 100 or above. Nyquist was given a weight of 126 as the highest weighted 2-year-old on the list, beating out highweighted filly Songbird (Medaglia d’Oro) by one point. Overall, Uncle Mo had four of the top 50 horses on the Experimental Free Handicap, including the seventh highest rated filly in Gomo. The only stallion to have more than one horse in the Top 10 was Bernardini (A.P. Indy), whose Greenpointcrusader and Rachel’s Valentina were both rated 120. Rachel Valentina’s 120 rating made her the second highest weighted filly in ...

Carpe Diem Bought by Stonestreet Stables for $1.6-million (approx. €1.48-million/£1.1-million) as a 2-year-old, Carpe Diem's career led to a successful partnership between the farm and WinStar in 2014 and 2015. Th is year, the pair teams up again to support him off the track in his first season at stud.  By top sire Giant’s Causeway, Carpe Diem won his debut at Saratoga in September of 2014 by 2 ¼ lengths. From there, trainer Todd Pletcher sent him to Keeneland for the track’s fall meet. The colt relished the Bluegrass track’s dirt in the Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity, cruising to a 6 ¼ length victory at odds of 2.40-to-1, beating a field that included future Grade 1 winner Keen Ice (Curlin) and propelling him into talk as one of the best 2-year-olds of the year. Carpe Diem made his first, and only, start in California in the Grade 1 Sentient Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when he showed another dimension to his running style. While he had went wire-to-wire in his ...

When El Prado (Sadler’s Wells) was imported to the United States after being purchased from Coolmore by Frank Stronach in the early 1990s, very few breeders were willing to give El Prado a shot.  "No one wanted a son of Sadler’s Wells in America,” Dermot Carty, who bought the horse for Stronach, told Blood-Horse when the stallion died. “Everyone saw him as just a grass horse, but now he’s a broodmare sire, a sire of sires, and he’s made history. It was a gamble … to buy a son of Sadler’s Wells was a major move, but it paid off." But over 20 years later, El Prado has made a major impact on the breed in North America. El Prado started his breeding career at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky for Stronach, who didn’t have a stallion operation at the time. Within a few years, Stronach’s opened up Adena Springs stallion facility and El Prado became one of the cornerstones of the operation.   Video courtesy of Thoroughbred Horses in Kentucky "He put us on the map,...

A Group 1 winner at 2 years of age and multiple Group 1 placed at 3, Siyouni (Pivotal) retired at the end of 2010 to the Aga Khan’s Haras de Bonneval for €7,000 (approx. $7,571US/£5,277). His first crop came out running in 2014 with 12 of his 2-year-olds winning at least one race, according to Racing Post. That group was led by 2-year-old Group 3 winners Ervedya, Souvenir Delondres and Bourree who would go on to make an even bigger impact on their sire's resume in 2015. Video courtesy of France Sire When Siyouni’s 93 horses of racing age hit the track last year, they built on his first year success with 45 winners giving him a 48.39 percent win rate. By the end of the year, he had 75 wins with five stakes winners and nine stakes wins to lead all European Second-Crop sires by earnings on Racing Post’s rankings with £1,737,065 (approx. $2,493,035US/€2,304,105). His group 3 winning 2-year-old Ervedya bettered that result in 2015 when she went four-for-five in her starts, w...

Munnings When Coolmore’s Demi O’Byrne paid $1.7-million for Munnings as an early 2-year-old, expectation were high for the chestnut son of Speightstown. After winning three graded stakes races and finishing on the board in six others, Munnings retired to Coolmore’s Ashford Stud for $12,500 (approx. €11,523/£8,792) in 2011. That crop produced 109 live foals with 53 of those making it to the track as 2-year-olds. Twenty-seven of those first 2-year-olds went to the winner’s circle with three stakes winners and one graded stakes winner in 2014, allowing Munnings to finish fourth by earnings behind Quality Road (Elusive Quality) on the Leading First-Crop Sires list.  Munnings also finished second behind fellow Ashford Stud Lookin at Lucky (Smart Strike) by winners and stakes winners (Super Saver (Maria’s Mon) tied with Lookin at Lucky at the top of the stakes winners list). But with 108 runners representing the stallion in 2015, the odds swung in his favor. Munnings had...

Breeders' Cup winner Hit It a Bomb was rated 116 When the European Two-Year-Old Rankings were released yesterday at the World’s Best Horse presentation in London, the diversity of stallions represented may have been surprising. It was no surprise that Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) led the group of sires represented on it with six 2-year-olds, all owned by the Coolmore partners, ranked. That group included Europe’s champion 2-year-old filly Minding, rated 120, who was the first filly to be rated above 119 since Six Perfections in 2002. “Minding is a very worthy favorite for the (one-mile) 1,000 Guineas,” said said Matthew Tester, the BHA Senior Handicapper. “Lumiere (a Shamardal filly rated 116) and Acapulco (a Scat Daddy filly rated 115) might have too much speed for a mile to be perfect for them, but Royal Ascot’s Commonwealth Cup is again shaping up as an exciting contest with Shalaa (an Invincible Spirit colt rated 121) looking likely to take them on”. Overall, 33 s...

In 2015 a strong group of colts retired to breeding sheds around Europe, giving breeders an embarrassment of riches to choose from. In 2016, breeders will learn if they made the right choices for their mares when foals by the new stallions arrive in foaling barns around the world. Here are only some of the popular new stallions in Europe who will be looking to prove their worth in the coming months and years as their first foals are born, hit the sales ring and ultimately the race track in 2018 and beyond. A full brother to three-time Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Goldikova, Anodin (Anabaa) nearly won his own Mile in 2014 when finishing second to Karakontie (Bernstein). Anodin only crossed the line first in a Group 3 event but he was second or third in five Group or Grade 1 events in his career in three different countries. In 2016, Anodin will stand for €7,500 (approx. $8,168US/ £ 5,731) in France for the second consecutive year. Touted as one of the best horses to ever ...

Karakontie The first of two straight Bernstein horses to win the Breeders’ Cup Mile, Karakontie retires to Gainesway in Lexington, Ky. for 2016. A horse with truly international ties, Karakonite is a Japanese-bred stallion out of a Japanese-bred mare and by a U.S.-bred stallion who was based in Kentucky until his death. To make his resume even more international, Karakonite primarily raced in France but also shipped to the United States for the Breeders’ Cup on two occasions. Karakontie started his career in July of his 2-year-old season, winning a seven furlong race over very soft turf against a field that included future Group 1 winner Ectot (Hurricane Run). After a close second in his next start, Karakontie ended his season with two group stakes victories including a Group 1 in the Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere over a field that included multiple Grade 1 winner Charm Spirit (Invincible Spirit). Coming back in April of the following season, Karakontie was bested by...