South America

More so than perhaps any top trainer in the sport, Ken McPeek is always thinking outside the box. And he's at it again. McPeek is in the midst of a three-day excursion to Argentina, where he is shopping for yearlings. It's not at all uncommon for American trainers to buy yearlings overseas, but to do so in the Southern Hemisphere is largely unchartered territory. That's because Southern Hemisphere horses are born primarily in the months of August, September, October and November. For U.S. racing purposes, they turn a year older...

Orpen (Lure--Bonita Francita, by Devil's Bag), a leading sire in South America since his arrival on the continent in the mid-2000s, passed away Jan. 26 following emergency colic surgery, Turf Diario reports. He was 25 years old. A $525,000 Keeneland November weanling purchase in 1996, around the same time his half-brother Jules (Forty Niner) won the GIII Nashua S. in New York, Orpen annexed the 1998 G1 Prix Morny in the colors of John Magnier and entered stud in Ireland for the 2000 breeding season. Also a half-brother to SW...