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Surf Cat Moves To Rancho San Miguel In California

Veteran stallion Surf Cat, a multiple Grade 2-winning millionaire and the sire of 2017 California Horse of the Year Sircat Sally, will stand at Rancho San Miguel in San Miguel, Calif. during the 2021 breeding season. His fee is $2,500, live foal guarantee.

The 19-year-old son of Storm Cat's multiple graded stakes winner Sir Cat has stood exclusively in California since his retirement from racing in 2009 — originally at historic Old English Rancho and most recently at a small, private farm near Chowchilla.

From nine crops of racing age, Surf Cat has sired 57 winners from 84 starters to date, with lifetime progeny earnings of $4,046,140 and average earnings per starter of $48,168. His five black type runners are led by Sircat Sally, a $552,860-earner who won three graded turf stakes at Santa Anita Park and California-bred Horse of the Year honors from the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association in 2017. He is also represented by the dual Grade 3 winner San Onofre ($402,730).

Conditioned by the late trainer Bruce Headley, Surf Cat won six Grade 2 races from 6 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/8 miles from 2005 through 2008: the Swaps Breeders' Cup Stakes and two editions of the Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Hollywood Park and the Potrero Grande Breeders' Cup Handicap and two runnings of the San Carlos Handicap at Santa Anita. He also ran second by a head in Hollywood's 2007 G1 Triple Bend Invitational Handicap en route to earning $1,045,420 from his 23 career starts.

“I am thrilled to have Surf Cat back; he was one of my favorite racehorses,” said owner Marsha Naify, who campaigned Surf Cat with Headley's wife, Aase. “Bruce did such a wonderful job training him. He has never been promoted very heavily as a stallion, but he has had some good runners, and I want to make the most of his remaining breeding years.”

Produced by the five-time winner Trust Greta, a multiple graded stakes-producing daughter of the Mr. Prospector stallion Centrust, Surf Cat hails from the family of leading sire Broad Brush.

“We are thrilled to have Surf Cat come to Rancho San Miguel,” said farm owner/manager Tom Clark. “He has an amazingly strong produce record from his small crops to date. We look forward to working with Marsha to help Surf Cat reach his full potential as a sire.”

Surf Cat joins a 2021 Rancho San Miguel stallion roster that features Curlin to Mischief, Danzing Candy, Heartwood, Northern Causeway, Richard's Kid, Sir Prancealot (Ire), Slew's Tiznow and Tom's Tribute. Inspections of all stallions at the central California farm are available by appointment.

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Surf Cat Relocating to Rancho San Miguel

Surf Cat (Sir Cat–Trust Greta, by Centrust), the sire of graded winner and 2017 California Horse of the Year Sircat Sally and GSW San Onofre, will stand the 2021 breeding season at Rancho San Miguel in San Miguel, CA. He will command a fee of $2,500, live foal guarantee.

A graded winner on dirt and synthetic, short and long, and placed in Grade I company for the late Bruce Headley, Surf Cat has sired 57 winners to date, including the additional stakes horses Tule Fog, K Thirty Eight and Surfing Star.

“We are thrilled to have Surf Cat come to Rancho San Miguel,” said farm owner / manager Tom Clark. “He has an amazingly strong produce record from his small crops to date. We look forward to working with Marsha to help Surf Cat reach his full potential as a sire.”

The post Surf Cat Relocating to Rancho San Miguel appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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California ADW Agreement Set to Boost Purses by $15 Million

With many wheels of California’s daily industry operations greased through wagering made at bricks and mortar venues, a pandemic-driven wholesale betting shift towards ADW platforms has thrown a sizeable wrench into the works, prompting something of a fiscal scramble to readjust.

Just last week, the Southern California Stabling & Vanning Racing Committee announced a set of stop-gap funding measures to grapple with a $2-million deficit and maintain the stabling status-quo in the southern portion of the state during 2021.

On Wednesday, the Thoroughbred Owners of California (“TOC”) announced a new “purse enhancement” program with TVG, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, and The Stronach Group’s 1/ST Racing to inject up to $15 million into California Thoroughbred purses in 2021 and 2022.

“California racing has always been very important to TVG, and we are committed to continuing our support of the racing industry here, especially given the challenging circumstances the industry faced in 2020,” said TVG CEO Kip Levin, in the press release. “We feel the right strategy is to partner with the stakeholders to further strengthen what has always been a premier racing circuit in the United States.”

In October, the TDN reported that during the first eight months of 2020–when compared to the same period in 2018–the number of races had declined 30%, and while the overall handle declined 18.8%, purses dropped more than 26%.

During that time, overall purses in the state dropped from about $87 million in 2018 to around $64 million in 2020–a near 30% decline. The press release, however, makes a number of financial projections under the new agreement.

Santa Anita Park recently announced a 10% across the board purse increase for its 2020-2021 Winter/Spring Meet, putting the daily purse average around the $533,000 mark, making Santa Anita Park “competitive with the top circuits in the U.S. despite not receiving any casino revenues or government subsidies,” the press release states.

Under the new program, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club is projected to increase average daily purse levels to over $600,000 in 2021.

“This is a great development for California horse racing,” said Craig Fravel, The Stronach Group’s CEO of Racing. “Along with our horsemen and regulators, we instituted historic safety reforms starting in 2019. We believe these reforms and the enhanced purses previously announced have created a great racing environment that has already attracted top stakes horses, trainers and riders from all over the country to our current Santa Anita Winter/Spring meet.”

Del Mar’s president, Josh Rubinstein, said that, “Coming off our extraordinarily successful summer and fall meets in 2020, these increased purses, coupled with the growing excitement for the 2021 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, sets us up for a fantastic 2021.”

According to TOC president, Greg Avioli, “This unprecedented level of partnership among California’s horsemen and women, FanDuel/TVG, The Stronach Group and Del Mar is just the beginning. With sports wagering on the horizon and its potential to both add millions more to purse accounts and to create new horse players, combined with the successful safety and welfare measures instituted over the last two years by our race tracks, we are well on the way to returning California to its historic place as the country’s premier racing circuit.”

There is pushback, however. According to the Paulick Report, Churchill Downs Inc.’s ADW company, TwinSpires, does not go along with the agreement-prefaced upon ADW platforms accepting a lower fee on all wagers from California residents-and the matter will reportedly go to arbitration.

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Chasing Moments Tops CTBA January Mixed Sale At $70,000

Chasing Moments, a daughter of Orb in foal to California stallion Stay Thirsty, sold for $70,000 to top Wednesday's California Thoroughbred Breeders Association January Mixed Sale at Fairplex Park.

Marcelo Aguera purchased the 6-year-old mare, who is a half-sister to the Grade 2 winner Authenticity, herself the dam of stakes winner Hanalei Moon.

The second-highest priced purchase was a yearling filly by Malibu Moon, out of the Bluegrass Cat mare Brush Strokes, purchased for $60,000 by Double Chevron Racing.

Aguera also made a pair of $40,000 purchases – Mobilize, a War Front mare in foal to Stay Thirsty, and Wedding Dress, a Medaglia d'Oro mare in foal to Stay Thirsty.

The 72 horses sold for a gross of $574,100, an average of $7,974 and median of $3,450.

To view the auction's full results, click here.

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