Darby Dan Farm

Grade I winner Shirl's Speight (Speightstown--Perfect Shirl, by Perfect Soul {Ire}) has had his first mares checked in foal, Darby Dan Farm announced Tuesday. The 8-year-old stallion won the 2022 GI Maker's Mark Mile Stakes, as well as that year's GIII Tampa Bay Stakes and the 2020 GIII Marine Stakes. He was second in the 2022 GI Breeders' Cup Mile and 2023 GI Woodbine Mile. Shirl's Speight stands at Darby Dan for $5,000, S&N.

Darby Dan Farm's first-year stallion Blazing Sevens (Good Magic--Trophy Girl, by Warrior's Reward), Classic placed and a Grade I winner at two, has had his first mares checked in foal. Blazing Sevens stands at Darby Dan for $12,500 S&N. Named a TDN Rising Star as a 2-year-old after a debut victory at Saratoga--winning at six furlongs by 6 1/4 lengths--Blazing Sevens won the GI Champagne Stakes for owner Rodeo Creek Racing and trainer Chad Brown in just his third career outing. At three, Blazing Sevens was beaten just a head...

Darby Dan Farm has unveiled a Breeder Reassurance Plan which will provide breeders a 60-day window of financial security to provide insurance should a foal face an unforeseen challenge during its first two months. Instead of the standard 48-hour stand-and-nurse payment deadline after the birth of a live foal, Darby Dan will extend the payment window by 60 days, specifically protecting breeders in the unfortunate event of foal mortality within that period. The time frame aligns with the foal's most delicate stage of development. "We recognize the inherent risks and...

The first reported foal by three-time Grade I winner Gufo (Declaration of War--Floy, by Petionville) was born Friday, Jan. 24. Out of Blurricane (Rebellion {GB}), winner of the 2017 Ballade Stakes at Woodbine and earner of more than $500,000, the colt was bred by Ballycroy Bloodstock in Ontario. Gufo stood his first season at Ballycroy before moving to Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky ahead of the 2025 season, his second year at stud. "We're thrilled with this colt out of the resilient mare Blurricane," said Michaela Kemp of Ballycroy Bloodstock....

Graded stakes winner Copper Bullet (More Than Ready--Allegory, by Unbridled's Song) has been acquired by Marjorie Farms and will stand the 2025 season at the Fredericksburg, Texas farm for a fee of $4,000. The 9-year-old, winner of the 2017 GII Saratoga Special, previously stood at Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky. Copper Bullet is the sire of multiple stakes winner Copper Tax and stakes winner Ponce de Leon. "Copper Bullet's on-track success with both speed and at distance fits a wide range of breeders. Texas and the Southwest will be well...

Gufo (Declaration of War-Floy, by Petionville), a Grade I winner at three, four, and five, is relocating from Ballycroy Bloodstock in Ontario to Darby Dan Farm for the 2025 breeding season. Gufo will stand the upcoming breeding season for $5,000 S&N. Incentives will be available for qualified mares. Gufo, who stood his first season at stud this year, will welcome first foals in 2025. He is owned by Dr. John Little, who co-bred the multi-millionaire in partnership with longtime friend Dr. Stephen Cainelli. The latter campaigned Gufo under the nom...

After his racing career is complete this year, Blazing Sevens (Good Magic), the winner of the GI Champagne Stakes at two and the runner-up in the GI Preakness Stakes, will stand at Darby Dan for 2025, the farm said via a press release on Thursday. A stud fee for the 'TDN Rising Star' and future stallion will be named before the year is out and plans are being finalized syndicate him. Peter Bradley, bloodstock advisor for owner Rodeo Creek Racing, brokered the deal to stand the son of Good Magic...

The Brunetti family's Red Oak Stable, which finds itself with plenty of the family, will offer a filly by Uncle Mo (hip 45) during Monday's first session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The yearling, consigned by Darby Dan Farm, is a half-sister to the operation's multiple Grade I-winning star Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) and to its Grade I-placed filly Goddess of Fire (Mineshaft). "We are selling this one, and we actually sold Goddess of Fire also, because we have so many from the same female line," Red Oak racing...

After a seven-figure RNA earlier in the session, an Into Mischief colt was the first to crack the $1-million threshold in Monday evening's opening session of Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga Select Yearling Sale when selling to Coolmore's M. V. Magnier and White Birch's Peter Brant. The Darby Dan Farm-consigned colt was bred in Kentucky by Lothenbach Stables out of the winning Distorted Music (Distorted Humor), dam of 2022 GIII Chilukki Stakes winner She Can't Sing (Bernardini). The Feb. 28-foaled, $1-million colt, who went through the ring as Hip 30, sold earlier this...

Modernist (Uncle Mo) will shuttle to Chile and stand at Haras Dadinco for the Southern Hemisphere 2024 season, it was announced via presser Friday. The winner of the GII Risen Star Stakes and the GIII Excelsior Stakes with on-the-board finishes in three other graded contests, he'd retired to Darby Dan in 2022 and bred 280 mares in his first three years at stud. Modernist hails from the female line of Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life (Kris S.), who also produced his dam's half-sisters GI Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic (now...

A colt by super sire Into Mischief (hip 30) returns to the sales ring for the second time in six months when he sells through the Darby Dan Farm consignment during the first session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale Monday. The yearling holds the distinction of having the highest previous sales price in the Saratoga auction's 240-head catalogue after selling for $650,000 as part of the Lothenbach dispersal the Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale in February. A colt by Constitution (hip 59) has the next highest previous price, having sold for...

Last weekend represented a staging post on the Derby trail, a chance not only to reflect on some rather puzzling sophomore skirmishes, to this point, but also to celebrate fulfilments that remain far more pertinent to the vast majority of Thoroughbreds. After all, very few get anywhere near testing their eligibility for the Classics and few others, certainly among the male of the species, will contrive a second career from such opportunities as remain once they have missed that one. That's why purses are so important. Otherwise racehorse ownership would...