Tag: Bloodstock

Green Up Named Virginia’s 2022 Horse Of The Year

The Virginia Thoroughbred Alliance announced the winners of its annual Championship Awards at the Virginia Gold Cup held over the weekend. The awards recognize the top Virginia-bred horses, trainers, and breeders for their achievements in racing over the past year.

The VTA presented the Virginia-bred Horse of the Year award to Green Up, a 4-year-old filly by Upstart out of the mare Green Punch.

Owned by Team Valor International LLC , Green Up has won four of her seven career starts, including a victory in the Cathryn Sophia Stakes at Parx Racing in August 2022 and the Boiling Springs Stakes at Monmouth Park in July 2022.

The 2022 Breeder of the Year award was given to South Gate Farm, and owner Amy Moore. While unfortunately the Kentucky Derby favorite Forte scratched out of the big race, in 2022, he won the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, G1 Breeders' Futurity, and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. In January he was awarded an Eclipse Award as the 2022 Champion 2-year-old male.

The Trainer of the Year award was given to Susan Cooney. After producing her highest earnings year ever in 2021, Cooney topped that milestone by about $30,000 in 2022.

This is the third time in six years that Cooney has been named the Leading Virginia-based trainer. Not only did she top her earnings record from last year, but her win percentage (10 percent) and her average earnings per start ($4,186) both increased over last year. She was the seventh-leading trainer in starts at Colonial Downs and finished 15th in the trainers' race. Top horses Fionnbharr ($180,942) and Island Philo ($139,390) powered her to the top half of the trainer list at Colonial.

In addition, the VTA recognized the top Virginia-bred horses in various categories. The winners of the 2022 VTA Championship Awards are:

– Virginia-Certified Horse: Leave No Trace, a 3-year-old filly by Outwork, out of Tanquerray, bred by Red Cloak Farm LLC and owned by WellSpring Stables

– Virginia-Bred 2-Year-Old Colt Champion: Gigante, a colt by Not This Time, out of Summertime Green, bred by Ann Mudge Backer & Smitten Farm and owned by Lapetus Racing & Smitten Farm

– Virginia-Bred 2-Year-Old Filly Champion: Whichwaze, a filly by Cross Traffic, out of Deherewego, bred by Old Chapel Farm LLC and owned by Tina Casse

– Virginia-Bred 3-Year-Old Champion: Determined Kingdom, a gelding by Animal Kingdom, out of Filia, bred by Audley Farm Equine LLC  and owned by D Hartman Thoroughbreds and Kingdom Bloodstock INC

– Virginia-Bred Older Horse Champion: Repo Rocks, a 5-year-old gelding by Tapiture, out of Hawaiian Love, bred by Mrs. C Oliver Iselin III and owned by Double B Racing Stables

– Virginia-Bred Turf Horse: Largent, a 7-year-old gelding by Into Mischief, out of Life in Seattle, bred by Lazy Lane Farms LLC and owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners & Twin Creeks Racing Stables LLC

– Virginia-Bred Turf Mare Champion: Chambeau, is a 6-year-old mare by Karakontie (JPN), out of If Not For Lust, bred and owned by Sam E. English II

– Virginia-Owned Champion: True Valour (IRE), a 9-year-old horse by Kodiac (GB), out of Sutton Veny (IRE), bred by Mr. P. O'Rourke and owned by R. Larry Johnson

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Darley Stallion Maxfield Shuttling To Argentina For 2023 Southern Hemisphere Season

Multiple Grade 1 winner Maxfield will shuttle to Haras Firmamento in the Buenos Aires Province of Argentina for the 2023 Southern Hemisphere breeding season.

The announcement was made Wednesday via Darley America's social media channels.

Maxfield, a 6-year-old son of Street Sense, is in the midst of his second season at stud at Darley's Lexington, Ky., stallion operation, where he stands for an advertised fee of $40,000.

“We are very excited with what we're seeing from Maxfield's first crop hitting the ground this year, and are pleased to be able to team up with a stud farm as prestigious as Haras Firmamento,” said Darley sales manager Darren Fox.

Maxfield won eight of 11 starts during his on-track career, earning $2,001,812 as a homebred for the Godolphin operation, trained by Brendan Walsh.

He won the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity at two, then he came back during his 3-year-old campaign to win G3 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs. He experienced his strongest season at age four, winning the G1 Clark Stakes, along with victories in the G2 Stephen Foster Stakes and Alysheba Stakes and the G3 Mineshaft Stakes.

Maxfield is out of the winning Bernardini mare Velvety, with an extended family that includes champion Outstandingly, Grade 1 winners Sky Mesa and Matareya, and prominent sire Bernstein.

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Kentucky Derby Winner Fusaichi Pegasus Dies At Age 26

It is with great sadness that Coolmore's Ashford Stud announces the death of Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus who was euthanized at the farm Tuesday due to the infirmities of old age.

Bred by Arthur Hancock and Bob and Janice McNair of Stonerside farm, 'Fu Peg' as he was affectionately known, was a $4-million yearling when purchased by Fusao Sekiguchi at the 1998 Keeneland July sale. Trained by Neil Drysdale, Fusaichi Pegasus took the Grrade 2 San Felipe Stakes and the G2 Wood Memorial before winning the 2000 Kentucky Derby as the favorite and finishing second in the Preakness Stakes.

A year on from his legendary sire Mr. Prospector passing away, a heated bidding war involving most farms in Lexington for Fusaichi Pegasus ensued, and he retired to Ashford Stud at the end of 2000 for a then record breaking sum.

Fusaichi Pegasus went on to sire six champions worldwide and Grade 1 winners including Roman Ruler, Champ Pegasus, Haradasun and Bandini, while Southern Hemisphere stints at Haras Don Alberto and Haras Philipson yielded Horse Of The Year Bronzo and champion miler Telamon. He was also broodmare sire of 2023 Chilean Triple Crown winner Fortino.

Fusaichi Pegasus was pensioned from stud duties in 2020 and had been living out his retirement at Ashford.

“Fu Peg was a fantastic racehorse and a colorful character,” commented Ashford Stud general manager Dermot Ryan, “I would like to thank Richard Barry and all of his team, past and present, for providing the highest level of care for him throughout his time at Ashford.”

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Bloodlines Presented By No-No Cribbing Collar: Blum Does It Again (And Again, And Again) With Preakness Winner National Treasure

The family that produced the 2023 Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure has been owned by breeder Peter Blum since Moses was wearing diapers.

Over the past seven generations of this family, from sixth dam Mono (by Better Self) to breeding and selling the Preakness winner through the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale consignment of Bridie Harrison, whose family farm operation foaled and raised the colt, Blum has concentrated on quality. Quality and classic athleticism.

But the mare that began this saga and that Peter Blum acquired a while back was the Better Self mare Mono, out of Sin Iqual. Mono was a good-looking mare, and this is a family with good looks and attractive physicality. Broad and thick-bodied, Mono wasn't the very best racing type, not being especially tall and scopey, but she was much better than average as a producer, and her family continues on to the present with such as this year's Preakness winner.

Bred in Kentucky by King Ranch, Mono proved a winner and was six times second or third from 14 starts, earning $3,752. Judged surplus to requirements for King Ranch, Mono went on to produce three stakes winners, including Rare Performer (by Mr. Prospector) for Blum, and the bay son of Mr. Prospector went to stud in Kentucky at Murty Farm, then moved to Prestonwood Farm (now WinStar) in the late 1980s.

Rare Performer was a fast son of Mr. Prospector who sired a powerful, chunky type in the mold of this family. And Blum bred a full sister to Rare Performer whose physique followed the family type (just a bit chubby) but whose racing success was limited.

Like her dam, Mine Only proved a winner on the racetrack but a dazzling success as a broodmare. That has been the common thread among the broodmares of this line that Blum has retained. Only one has done more than win a maiden, National Treasure's second dam Proposal (Mt. Livermore), who won at two and four and placed in a stakes.

Retired to stud, Proposal produced four stakes winners. Each of the dams tracing backward, even beyond the ownership of Blum, show a perplexing laxity on the point of racing performance, but they are dynamite broodmares.

Each has produced at least one stakes winner; most went for multiples.

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Another facet to the breeding story of National Treasure is the repeated addition of classic quality to these rugged, fast, strong mares. In particular, the sire and broodmare sire of National Treasure, Quality Road and Medaglia d'Oro, are dominant for adding scope and classic stamina to pedigrees; their addition to this fast, sturdy family resulted in National Treasure. Last season, the bay colt could fairly have been called the third-best juvenile after a second-place finish to Cave Rock (Arrogate) in the American Pharoah and then a third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile behind Forte (Violence) and Cave Rock again.

Thus, the step forward to compete in the classics was not a long one from National Treasure's standing at two, although his level of success was a major elevation for his dam, the Medaglia d'Oro mare Treasure. She placed six times from seven starts, earning $63,180, and the Preakness winner is her fourth foal.

In addition to the current Preakness winner, this is the family line of the 1946 Preakness (and Triple Crown) winner Assault (Bold Venture), and National Treasure's seventh dam is Sin Igual (Bold Venture), a full sister to Assault foaled in 1952. They are both out of the unraced Equipoise mare Igual.

As a mate for Bold Venture, Igual delivered for King Ranch, getting a Triple Crown winner and other talented racers. Bold Venture, whom King Ranch had acquired after his racing career was finished, proved a mixed blessing for the breeding operation. The 1936 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner sired a Triple Crown winner for them, plus Middleground, who won the 1950 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

In the loss column, however, Bold Venture wasn't the most fertile stallion, and his sons were somewhat worse. Assault was effectively sterile, and Middleground was noted as a “patchy foal-getter.”

That doesn't seem to have been a problem with the fillies in the family, however, and the line continued on.

Nor are Assault and his sire the only other Preakness winners related to this distinguished family. Igual's dam is the Chicle mare Incandescent, bred in Kentucky by C.V. Whitney and a minor stakes winner out of the Fair Play mare Masda. The latter is the elder full sister to 1920 Preakness winner Man o' War.

If you breed to real quality, it keeps coming back.

The post Bloodlines Presented By No-No Cribbing Collar: Blum Does It Again (And Again, And Again) With Preakness Winner National Treasure appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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