Stallions

Coolmore America released the following statement Tuesday: It is with great sadness that we announce the death of “The Iron Horse” Giant’s Causeway, who passed away last night aged 21 at his Kentucky birthplace Ashford Stud, after a brief illness. Trained by Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle, and widely regarded as the best son of Storm […]

Our spotlight on new sires for 2018 shifts this week to a stallion whose promising, undefeated racing career was cut far too short by injury. With four victories from four starts, including three graded stakes wins along the Road to the Kentucky Derby, it could be argued Mastery would’ve been the favorite on the first […]

Achieving and maintaining a stallion in appropriate body condition tops the list of nutritional concerns for stallion managers. Too often, stallions become ribby because of breeding efforts or anxiety, or obese due to spring grass and inactivity. Body Condition Priming a stallion’s weight for breeding season starts well before the first mare of the year […]

A mare has been pronounced in foal to multiple graded stakes winner Wildcat Red, who is standing his first season at Buck Pond Farm for $7,500 live foal, stands and nurses. Pronounced in foal is Maccabee Farm’s 6-year-old winning Lemon Drop Kid mare Opie, a Maryland-bred from the family of multiple graded stakes winner Miss […]

As we continue to highlight the new sires of 2018, our attention turns to a record-setting son of Medaglia d’Oro who raced in Australia. Astern not only won his debut as a 2-year-old at Randwick but followed it up with a Group 2 victory in the Silver Slipper Stakes at Rosehill. The colt went on to […]

Spendthrift Farm reports that first-year stallion Gormley has had his first mare confirmed in foal. Gormley covered the multiple stakes-placed Forestry mare Canopy Lane among his initial group of mares bred, and she has been pronounced in foal. Campaigned by Jerry and Ann Moss, Gormley, by Malibu Moon, captured the FrontRunner S. (G1) in dominating […]

Research shows that the amount of effort a stallion invests in his ejaculates, referred to as ejaculate economics, can vary based on his attraction to the mare he is intended to breed and the teaser mare. Surprisingly, that attraction can be affected by the genetics of both the mare and stallion. What makes a mare attractive […]

One of the bugbears of contemporary breeding is the extreme attention paid to the results of the first-year sires’ standings. The hyper-focus on immediate, short-term racing success drives the market both for stallion prospects and their offspring. First of all, breeders look at a stallion prospect and ask themselves whether he’ll be a good 2-year-old […]

The geezer brigade of elder stallions made their presence and importance felt at the Breeders’ Cup over the weekend, and these include deceased sires like Smart Strike (Battle of Midway; BC Dirt Mile) and Unbridled’s Song (Forever Unbridled; Distaff). The oldest living sire of a Breeders’ Cup winner this year is the 24-year-old sire Northern […]

On seeing that the relatively young 12-year-old stallion Into Mischief (by Harlan’s Holiday) had supplanted evergreen Malibu Moon (A.P. Indy) as the high-priced stallion on the Spendthrift Farm roster, I wondered, “How many Kentucky Derby winners has Into Mischief sired?” Fair question, but the answer is the same as for nearly all stallions: none. So […]