Mill Ridge

Mill Ridge Farm will host a stallion open house daily this week from Wednesday to Friday, highlighted by Oscar Performance, who has been established among the nation's leading sires; Casa Creed, whose first foals will be born in the spring; and Aloha West, whose first runners will debut in 2026. Both Casa Creed and Aloha West are part of the "Ride Together" incentive, qualifying the registered breeder for a free season to that stallion if the offspring wins a straight maiden as a 2-year-old. Mill Ridge is located at 2800...

Robert Hunt, a respected veterinarian at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, passed away Thursday after a bout with cancer. Dr. Hunt graduated from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine in 1984. From 1984 to 1987 he worked at the Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Santa Ynez, California. He returned to the University of Georgia in 1987 to complete his surgical training and graduate degree in cardiovascular physiology. He paid his way through school by taking a job as a farrier. Dr. Hunt remained on faculty and became a...

Pin Oak Stud's World Beater (c, 3, Oscar Performance--Dabinett, by Blame), second last out behind Test Score (Lookin At Lucky) in the July 4 GI Belmont Derby, turned the tables on that rival to give his young trainer Riley Mott the first graded stakes win of his career in Saratoga's GI Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes Saturday. The son of and former assistant to Hall of Famer Bill Mott, Riley Mott is no stranger to racing's biggest stage. It will perhaps be more of a surprise to learn this is the...

In the first race of the Keeneland meet to stay on the grass after torrential rains throughout Kentucky, Amerman homebred Test Score (c, 3, Lookin At Lucky--Joy of Learning, by Kitten's Joy) captured Monday's rescheduled $600,000 GIII Transylvania Stakes and gave rider Manny Franco two consecutive black-type victories on the day after winning the Lafayette Stakes one race prior with 'TDN Rising Star' Colloquial (Vekoma). Test Score broke forwardly in the Transylvania, settling into an unbothered fifth on the outside as three-straight stakes winner Mi Bago (Vekoma) showed the way...

The first mare believed in foal to GISW Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed--Achalaya, by Bellamy Road) was reported by Mill Ridge Farm Tuesday afternoon. Owned by Newtown Anner Stud Farm, Hokey Okey (Lonhro {Aus}) is also the dam of Manitoba Derby winner Red Knobs (Union Rags), an earner of $285,000, who also hit the board in the GIII Canadian Derby and GIII Iroquois Stakes An earner of over $2.6 million on the track, Casa Creed won eight black-type races--including six at the graded level. His wins were highlighted by consecutive renewals...

When Jon Clay bought Strong Incentive for his Alpha Delta Stables for $2.15 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale, she had already produced Grade III winner and track-record holder Highly Motivated (Into Mischief), now a stallion at Airdrie Stud; two-time Grade III winner Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}); and an up-and-coming `TDN Rising Star' named Ways and Means (Practical Joke), who had run second in the Grade I Spinaway Stakes. Within a month of his purchase, Surge Capacity won the Grade I Matriarch, and by the following summer, Ways and...

Four-time Grade I winner and New York favorite Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed--Achalaya, by Bellamy Road), who was retired earlier this month at the age of eight with a minor hind ankle issue, will stand at Mill Ridge Farm near Lexington, the farm announced Tuesday afternoon. Lee Einsidler and Mike Francesa campaigned the Bill Mott trainee over seven seasons to a record of 36-9-5-6 and earnings of $2,691,308. Casa Creed has already arrived at Mill Ridge and will be syndicated. He will stand the 2025 season for $10,000. "Casa Creed is...

Pop quiz: which North American third-crop sire leads his contemporaries by individual graded stakes winners in the Northern Hemisphere in 2024? It's not Justify, nor Good Magic, who are each tied with three and are the runaway leaders by 2024 progeny earnings. The correct answer is Mill Ridge Farm's Oscar Performance, who has four graded winners in 2024 and also leads the top third-crop sires by percentage of black-type winners to runners at 6.6%. In addition, Oscar Performance secured his first career Grade I winner as a sire Saturday with...

For a stallion farm, it's the equivalent of the "difficult second album" so notorious in the music industry. You've launched a new sire, and profited from the customary stampede of commercial mares. But the vogue proves to be cruelly fleeting. When he returns to the covering shed, the following spring, he offers exactly the same performance history, chromosomes and conformation as before. But suddenly the phone is cold. Precisely the factors that drove his debut book--novelty, plus security from imminent exposure of his competence (or otherwise) to replicate ability--have meanwhile...

Headley Bell has run Nicoma Bloodstock for 40 years, planning matings for clients at his Mill Ridge Farm and beyond. "It's like being an artist," says Bell. "You're crafting, and planning matings is part of that whole creation." Bell said he uses various tools for his matings, including TDN's statistics on percentages of black type to foals, mare produce records, five-cross pedigrees, and examines patterns of broodmare sires with certain families. Finally, he takes physical traits of mares into consideration to determine, he said, "who that mare really is." He...

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends It wasn't so long ago that the magnificent sire Gone West held court at Mill Ridge Farm near Lexington. From 22 crops, all while at Mill Ridge, he netted a mouth-watering 9% black-type winners from starters, including Breeders' Cup winners Da Hoss (twice), Johar, and Speightstown, all back in the days when the Breeders' Cup was still a single day and there were far fewer races. The son of Mr. Prospector passed away in 2009, but his influence on the...

Aloha West (Hard Spun--Island Bound, by Speightstown), winner of the 2021 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, has had his first mare reported in foal. Bashful (Orb), owned by Carrie and Craig Brogden's Machmer Hall, was reported in foal to the 6-year-old stallion who is standing his first season at Mill Ridge for a fee of $10,000, live foal. "We love having teammates like Carrie and Craig Brogden supporting Aloha West, and thankful for quality shareholders and breeders who believe in him," said Price Bell, Mill Ridge syndicate and general manager.