Hill 'n' Dale

Today we finally come to a group that has at least had some initial opportunity to show whether or not they can replicate their own racing prowess. By the same token, of course, this means that their level of support--which in many cases will already have declined through each preceding year, as racetrack exposure draws perilously closer--may now fall off a cliff. If the stampede to unproven sires is ludicrous, then so is the haste with which they are abandoned. Stallions whose stock should plainly be granted time to mature...

No getting away from it, the young stallions we assess today have already completed their service to many breeders. They've processed a debut crop of yearlings, often on an industrial scale, and many have obliged with the kind of averages that vindicate the familiar, self-fulfilling commercial cycle that so favors new sires: demand generating supply, and the quality incidental to that increased supply in turn increasing demand. That leaves us with another tricky podium. You can't just congratulate those who have "won" on this system, topping out the first-crop yearling...

First-crop leading earner Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) continues to stride forward. Atop TDN's board, the sire had a half-dozen chances on Friday to extend his lead over chasers Good Magic (Curlin) and Justify (Scat Daddy). Named for a Spanish golfing legend, 2-year-old colt Olazabal ratcheted up the pressure with a tee-to-green victory in the fifth race at Turfway Park. Looking to move up in the standings, Justify found the rough when his filly Prove My Love did not make the cut in the race prior as an also-eligible. Across the...

Curly Jack became the second graded winner for his freshman sire (by Curlin) with an upset score in the GIII Iroquois S. at Churchill Downs Saturday. Away alertly, the bay raced off the fence in sixth in a tightly bunched pack as 'TDN Rising Star' and second choice in the betting Damon's Mound (Girvin) clocked a :23.53 opening quarter. Favored fellow 'Rising Star' Echo Again (Gun Runner) charged up to confront Damon's Mound as the half went in :47.48. Curly Jack bided his time as the top two knocked heads...

A colt by Curlin out of Grade I winner Carina Mia (Malibu Moon) (hip 169) added to a parade of seven-figure yearlings at Keeneland Monday when selling for $1.7 million. Three Chimneys' Doug Cauthen signed the ticket on the bay, who was consigned by Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency and was bred by Three Chimneys Farm and Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings. Three Chimneys and Hill 'n' Dale dissolved their partnership on Carina Mia when the mare sold for $2.6 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton November sale. Three Chimneys secured...

What a time to be alive for John Sikura, master of Hill 'n' Dale! The farm's stallions have been putting on quite a show lately while Sikura quietly goes about the task--well, it's a labor of love, really--of restoring, modernizing, and expanding Xalapa, the historically significant Bourbon County property near Paris that he acquired a few years ago. Xalapa now houses Hill 'n' Dale's roster of 12 stallions and all of the farm's mares, yearlings, and foals on close to 1,500 acres. On Sunday at Saratoga, the farm's Ghostzapper was...

Vegas Magic (Good Magic) made it a perfect three-for-three while providing her freshman sire with his first graded stakes victory in Saturday evening's GII Sorrento S. at Del Mar. A popular debut winner at Santa Anita June 11, she beat the boys by a nose in the Everett Nevin S. at Pleasanton last time July 9. Overlooked at 14-1 here, Vegas Magic sat a stalking trip on the inside as heavily favored runaway Los Al debut winner Procrastination (Not This Time) set the pace. Vegas Magic tipped off the rail...

Polite but perfunctory. That was pretty much the tone in which people tended to praise Kitten's Joy while he was with us, and I guess it should be no different now that he's gone. Even so, it strikes me that his loss has been inadequately lamented. Not just in his own right, as an avowed turf stallion who freakishly contrived two general sires' championships in North America; but also, virtually unremarked, as a final straw in what has over the past nine months become an outright catastrophe for the enlightened...

Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}--Kitten's First, by Lear Fan), twice the leading general sire in the United States and a perennial top-five turf sire, passed away from an apparent heart attack July 15 in his paddock at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, where he'd served mares since 2018. He entered stud in 2006 at his owners' Ken and Sarah Ramsey's Ramsey Farm. The blaze-faced chestnut was nearly sold, but was ultimately retained by the Ramseys after bidding stalled out at $95,000 at the 2003 OBS April Sale, and it proved...

Inventive, a multiple graded stakes-producing mare, has been pronounced in foal to Charlatan. By Dixie Union, Inventive is the dam of GI Del Mar Futurity winner Klimt. "It's only fitting that Charlatan's first in foal mare is the dam of a Grade I winner. The mare has a wonderful pedigree, hailing from the family of GI Test S. winner Fara's Team, the dam of Breeders' Cup Classic winner Concern. She is representative of the quality book Charlatan has attracted," said John G. Sikura, President of Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa....

The well-bred Courvoisier (Tapit), a narrow maiden winner at fourth asking at the Big A last time Dec. 2, picked up 10 points for the GI Kentucky Derby while securing his second straight win in Saturday's sloppy $150,000 Jerome S. His third and second-place finishes in his first two starts respectively set the colt up for a move forward with the addition of blinkers Oct. 27 at Delaware Park, where he was caught late going a mile and lost by a nose. Stretching out to 1 1/8 miles for his...

A colt from the first crop of champion sprinter Mitole (Eskendereya) (Hip 3154) topped the penultimate session of the Keeneland November Sale Thursday, bringing $100,000 from Rexy Bloodstock during the second of three Book 5 sessions. Hip 3154 was consigned by Hill 'n' Dales Sales Agency on behalf of Vinny Viola's St. Elias Stables, which purchased his dam Waltzing (Candy Ride {Arg}) with this colt in utero for $37,000 at this year's Fasig-Tipton February Sale. Waltzing is a half-sister to GSW Dancing Solo (Giant's Causeway) and hails from the family...