Rancho San Miguel

GISW and nationally ranked fourth-crop sire Collected (City Zip) will highlight Rancho San Miguel's 2025 Open House & Stallion Show to be held Saturday, December 6. The free event will be hosted from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with all regional Thoroughbred breeders, owners, trainers and enthusiasts invited to attend. Collected recently arrived at the San Luis Obispo County farm from Airdrie Stud in Kentucky, which is partnering with Rancho San Miguel and prominent California breeder/owner Marsha Naify to stand the 12-year-old son of City Zip for a $7,500 fee...

Grade I winner Eight Rings (Empire Maker) has relocated from Harris Farms to Rancho San Miguel and will stand at the new farm for a 2026 fee of $6,000 with a live foal guarantee, it was announced by press release. The son of Empire Maker claimed his elite-level win in the GI American Pharoah Stakes for Hall of Famer Bob Baffert as a juvenile and went on to be placed in four other graded contests--namely the GI Bing Crosby (second); GIII Native Diver (third); GII San Antonio Stakes (second); and...

Uptown Rythem (Speightstown--Listen to My Song, by Unbridled's Song), who previously stood at Harris Farms, has been relocated to stand at Rancho San Miguel in Central California for the 2026 breeding season. He will stand for $1,500, live foal guarantee. From extremely modest crops, Uptown Rythem's Average Earnings Index of 1.19 is among the best in California. His unraced dam is a half-sister to the dam of 2017 GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes winner La Coronel (Colonel John) from the extended family of 2025 GI Blue Grass Stakes...

Grade I winner Mo Forza (Uncle Mo--Inflamed, by Unusual Heat) was represented by his first winner when Mo Holland Drive won at Santa Anita last Sunday. The 9-year-old freshman sire stands at Rancho San Miguel in San Miguel, California. Mo Holland Drive is the first foal out of the multiple winner Awesome Drive (Summer Front). Bred by River Oak Farm LLC, the colt has earned $58,680 to date for the ownership group of Altamira Racing Stable, California Racing Partners, Ciaglia Racing LLC, Tom Kagele and Nathan McCauley. Through three seasons...

California-breds have long been a staple of the state's racing product. Since 2014, CA-breds have represented between 45% and 50% of all starters at Thoroughbred race meets. Since the consolidation of racing in the south of the state, that trend has continued. From the start of the Santa Anita winter meeting through mid-March, Cal-breds made up about 47% of all individual starters, which includes both open races and those restricted to northern trainers. But with last year's foal crop (now yearlings) currently sitting at just below 1000 amid a breeding...

The news has arrived thick and fast for the Northern California industry over the last couple of months, as racing operations have consolidated in the Southern half of the state. Few state industry stakeholders remain unaffected by these developments, certainly not the breeders, whose commercial decisions today ripple years into the future. The breeding sheds don't open for another couple of weeks. During that time, many currently undecided minds will be resolved. Among those California breeders currently canvassed, however, their outlooks for 2025 are a mixed bag. On the one...

Southern California stallion Bolden (Square Eddie), a dual-surface winner who was undefeated in his racing career, was represented by his firstborn foal born January 4. The bay colt, who was bred by and foaled at Rancho San Miguel in California, weighed in at 125 pounds and is the second foal out of the eight-time winner and $144,010-earner Trina (Peppered Cat). "Bolden is a big, good-looking and classy stallion who has us excited for the future," said Rancho San Miguel owner Tom Clark. "If all the Boldens look like this first...

California-based The Street Fighter (Street Boss--Silver Swallow, by Alphabet Soup) will join the Rancho San Miguel roster for 2025. A winner at three and five who placed in Del Mar's California Dreamin' Stakes, The Street Fighter will stand for $2,500, live foal guarantee. The chestnut was bred in California by Bruce Headley and Andrew Molasky, trained by Headley until he passed away in 2021, and trained for his final starts that same year by Headley's daughter, Karen. The latter now owns him along with Marsha Naify, a longtime Headley client....

California's Rancho San Miguel, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2025, will host an open house and stallion show Saturday, Nov. 16. The event, which will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., was moved up from the January date previously employed prior to the last two breeding seasons. "By moving our Open House earlier on the calendar to November, well ahead of the upcoming breeding season, we're hoping to give regional mare owners a helpful headstart on making their all-important breeding decisions for 2025," said Rancho San...

Alfred Pais's homebred Brickyard Ride (Clubhouse Ride--Brickyard Helen, by Southern Image), a multiple graded stakes winner who campaigned from ages two to seven, has been retired and will stand the 2025 season at Rancho San Miguel in Central California. His introductory fee will be $4,000, live foal guarantee. "He had wicked speed, and he stuck around for a long time," said trainer Craig Lewis, who trained both Brickyard Ride and his sire, Clubhouse Ride. "He was a very, very talented horse who loved to train, and he loved the competition,...

California's Rancho San Miguel will host an open house and stallion show Saturday, Jan. 20 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. while featuring an informational program for both current and prospective Thoroughbred owners and breeders, the farm said in a release Friday. In addition to a parade of the farm's nine-horse stallion roster, the free event will also offer horse husbandry seminars, networking opportunities, a catered lunch, and giveaways, including a stallion season raffle. The farm's newest addition to the stallion roster is the undefeated Bolden (Square Eddie), who will stand...

Tom Clark is the owner and manager of Rancho San Miguel, where more than 400 horses currently roam a sprawling 250-acres in California's San Luis Obispo County. He owns and manages the farm with his wife, Nancy. They have run it since 2000. The farm is a lynchpin of the state's breeding industry, housing as it does such workhorses of the California breeding shed as Sir Prancealot (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}), Danzing Candy (Twirling Candy) and Mo Forza (Uncle Mo). But Clark harbors a grim prediction for the future of the...