All Equine All The Time

Northern Dancer ( WikiMedia Commons photo) On July 16, attention turns to fillies in Ireland when the 2016 Darley Irish Oaks takes place at the Curragh. Twelve fillies from seven different barns will line up to join a winner’s list that has seen names such as Ouija Board, Alexandrova, Peeping Fawn, Snow Fairy, Blue Bunting and Chicquita join it in recent years. International breeders will be paying close attention to this race as during the 2016 season, the eight sires represented in the entries stood in three different countries (Ireland, France, Germany) with no grandsire represented by more than one son. Not surprisingly, Galileo leads all sires by the number of runners with four in addition to being the grandsire of the Teofilo daughter Ajman Princess. As has been on prominent display in 2016, Galileo is turning into just as important a broodmare sire as a sire and he has two chances to pick up another classic win in that category here (Red Stars and Turret Rocks). ...

Donegal Moon The first yearling sale of the season is behind us with the Fasig-Tipton holding a two day sale on Monday and Tuesday that kicked off with a special evening session for a Horses of Racing Age sale with the yearling session the following day. After taking a day to dive into the sales results, here are a few observations from the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Sale. Testing the waters with Donegal Moon – Every year a handful of stallion prospects who still have some racing left to do go through the ring. But not many go through the ring in July of their 3-year-old year off a victory that makes it look like they can make a lot of noise the second half of this year. It was unknown how a type like Donegal Moon would go over in the ring but he proved that there is money out there for types like him if owners want to take it. He drew a final bid of $1.6-million, which wasn’t enough to get him sold but does open doors for this sale in the future if they want to try and recru...

An Animal Kingdom filly at Keeneland January The first major yearling sale in the United States every year, this year’s Fasig Tipton July Sale has 347 yearlings by 115 sires entered before outs. Sires with first yearlings are in the spotlight here with 32 freshmen represented but they aren’t the only stars people will be watching on July 12. Here are five sires (or group of sires in one case), both new and old, to be aware of when you flip through the catalog this week. Animal Kingdom - Of the 12 Animal Kingdom weanlings who went through the ring last year in the U.S., 11 sold with his most expensive being a $210,000 filly out of a daughter of multiple Grade 1 winner Precious Kitten and his most expensive colt being a $180,000 half-brother to Grade 1 winner Ice Box. Animal Kingdom started his stud career in Australia for the 2013 southern hemisphere season before shuttling to Darley America in 2014. His first yearlings in Australia hit the sales earlier this year with 46 of t...

The late Scat Daddy had a 100 percent win rate at Royal Ascot When 455 horses entered the gate during the 30 races held over the five days of the 2016 Royal Ascot meet, their owners weren’t the only ones hoping for wins. One hundred and seventy-three stallions standing in 19 countries were represented by at least one runner. While some of those stallions have either died or pensioned in the years between the time their Royal Ascot entries were conceived and the 2016 meet, many of the breeders who stand those who are still active were hoping for a good showing at the meet to add to their stud record. By the end of the five days, the offspring of 24 stallions got their picture taken after passing the winning post first. Standing in six countries, all but three of the winning sires are still active in the shed. Early in the week the late Scat Daddy and Kodiak looked like they may be able to sneak away with the leading sire title when they both had two winners each but in the ...

Tapit The 2016 U.S. Triple Crown season is rapidly disappearing in the rearview mirror, along with the northern hemisphere breeding season. But even though the Triple Crown preps don’t hit high gear until the middle of the breeding season, every result can impact the breeding industry for seasons to come. From first crop sire Uncle Mo making waves with his runners to stalwart stallions having their say in the Triple Crown races, r ead on to learn about some of the more interesting pedigree notes that came out of this year’s Road to the Triple Crown. Seventeen stallions sired Kentucky Derby prep race winners – Eight of those sired one winner on the Road to the Kentucky Derby while Tapit led all sires with six prep winners followed by Uncle Mo with five. The average stud fees of the stallions in 2012 when this crop of 3-year-old were conceived was $43,088 – The lowest stud fee was Holy Bull at $10,000 and the highest was Bernardini at $150,000. The average age of the st...

Malibu Moon The first two legs of the 2016 Triple Crown played like coming out parties for the younger generation of stallions with the 8-year-old Uncle Mo and 12-year-old Curlin siring the winners of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness respectively. But in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, the older stallions will attempt to reclaim the classic throne. The Belmont Stakes sire list reads as a who’s who of established stallions with seven of the stallions over the age of 14. The youngest stallion to sire a runner in this year’s Belmont is nine years old with the average stallion age in the race sitting at 15 1/2 years old. The elder statesmen of this Belmont Stakes are Giant’s Causeway and Malibu Moon. The 19-year-old stallions are searching for more classic success with Giant’s Causeway already siring French classic winner Shamardal and Malibu Moon siring 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb. Malibu Moon comes from the most popular sireline seen in this race with the stallion one of t...

 David Tsui's silks (WIkimedia/Zafonic photo) Usually when I look at the pedigrees in European classic races for these pieces one stallion seems to dominate. Farther back on the page it might be Northern Dancer while in the first few generations of classic runners it's usually Sadler’s Wells but in the case of the Investec Derby at this entry stage it’s a mare whose name is seen everywhere. After a racing career that any stallion would be jealous of, Urban Sea (Miswaki) hit the ground running as a broodmare with her first son high weighted as a 3-year-old in Ireland and her first daughter placing in two classics before proving herself as a producer. But it was that third foal that has played the biggest part in her legacy as a producer so far. Galileo was Urban Sea’s first champion and classic winner and these days is making sure her line in passed on. At this stage in the Investec Derby entries, Galileo has played his part extremely well with seven runners by the ...