breeding operations

With an economic impact of more than $3.2 billion to the state, the importance of the Thoroughbred industry in Marion County, and Florida as a whole, cannot be overstated. Any action that threatens the viability of our racing and breeding operations is deeply troubling and unacceptable. Ocala Breeders' Sales Company, Inc. (OBS) is proud to be the leading seller of two-year-olds in training in the world and while the sales attract a broad group of domestic and international buyers, it is critical that OBS along with the Florida horsemen and...

I read with interest and a certain amount of confusion, Sue Finley's TDN article about the woes of Kentucky stallion studs. On the one hand, everyone is agreed that it is difficult to fill stallion books, and on the other, the idea of any book being full has long been consigned to the history books. When I worked at Ashford in the mid-90s, Woodman topped the active sires list ('96 or '97) and the size of his book caused scandalized conversation in some quarters. One breeder even told me it...

Three Chimneys's Gun Pilot will take up stud duty alongside his sire, Gun Runner, for the 2025 breeding season, the farm said in Wednesday press release. A five-time stakes entrant, Gun Pilot's highest achievement came this year on the Derby undercard where he took home the GI Churchill Downs Stakes. The homebred will be making his final start in the GI Cygames Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar, which comes off a runner-up performance in the GI Forego at Saratoga. A stud fee will be announced following the Breeders Cup. "I...

I have enormous respect for TDN writer Chris McGrath and Wayne Lyster. One's an outstanding journalist and eloquent writer who works for an essential trade publication; and, the other's built a highly-successful breeding operation. I, nevertheless, must respectfully disagree with their characterization of calls for replacing dirt tracks with synthetic surfaces as "hysterical." While I cherish racing's dirt traditions (my goodness, Man o' War is my favorite horse of all-time), I'm also mindful of existing data that explicitly show that synthetic racing is the safest surface in the U.S. Numbers...

Now we're really entering nosebleed altitudes for most breeders, between $30,000 and $50,000: a zone where you should feel that you're improving the odds of coming up with an elite horse. It tells you a lot about our business that the majority of the two dozen stallions operating at this level can only do so because they have yet to send a single runner into the starting gate. A quarter of these we immediately set to one side, as absolute beginners, because those received separate consideration in the opening instalment...

MGISW Cody's Wish (Curlin), who just won yesterday's GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile for the second year in a row, will stand at Darley America's Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Kentucky next season for $75,000, along with fellow new stallion GISW Proxy (Tapit) whose fee will be set at $25,000, the breeding operation said in a release early Sunday morning. "You couldn't have written a better script on how Cody's Wish would end his sensational career," said Darley Sales Manager Darren Fox. "He always, always, left all he...

Playing chess with nature. That's what Jean-Luc Lagardère called it, and the analogy has always resonated with Alberto Figueiredo. How, for instance, do we account for the sheer size of King Of Steel (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who sealed his place among the elite sophomores of Europe with his Group 1 success at Ascot last Saturday? You don't particularly see that bulk in the sire; and, tragically, it wasn't in the dam either. In her case, the disparity proved fatal. "She was a good, medium-sized mare but he was so big...

Recent discussions about racing fatalities are putting the sustainability of Thoroughbred racing to the test. Various solutions have been suggested to reduce fatalities and maintain public acceptance of our wonderful sport. We should pay more attention to the opportunities of breeding to improve sustainability. Let us look at the history of dairy cattle breeding for inspiration to breed more sustainable Thoroughbreds. For a long time, farmers focused almost exclusively on maximizing milk yield until their attention shifted towards reducing involuntary culling and improving animal health and welfare. Breed associations supported...