Ocala Stud Riding High as 2017 Unfolds
Thursday, January 19, 2017

    Ocala Stud Farm reported that the first foal sired by The Big Beast was born in Ocala on Jan. 3 - a colt out of the Slew Gin Fizz mare Look to the Stars, who is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Isitingood. Christy Whitman is the breeder.

    The Big Beast won the Gr. I King's Bishop at Saratoga as a 3-year-old and lost the Gr. I Vanderbilt Handicap by a head the next year. He's by former Florida champion freshman sire Yes It's True and was bred to 103 mares in his first book; he stands for $6,000.  

    Ocala Stud  is the unquestioned Florida leader in the stallion department - the addition of Jess's Dream a few weeks ago boosted the farm's total to 14. Jess's Dream has a blockbuster pedigree, by Curlin out of Rachel Alexandra. Rachel Alexandra has one foal to race, Gr. I winner Rachel's Valentina, by Bernardini. Jess's Dream stands for what appears to be a bargain $5,000. The farm's other stallions with runners, High Cotton, Adios Charlie, In Summation and the rest, are all high on the state's sire lists. 

    WHERE'S THE DOUGH? - Just when you thought that, other than fake racing, everyone seemed to be getting along fairly well in Florida, comes the news that Saturday's Sunshine Millions program at Gulfstream Park will dole out just $600,000 in purse money instead of the originally announced $900,000. That's a big hit to the owners who have entries on the competitive card. Seems there's a big flap of some kind between the FTBOA and the FHBPA and the FTBOA is withholding the extra purse money. This one can't turn out well.

    Somebody forgot to tell the people at TVG about the missing $300,000, and during today's telecasts, they continued to use the $900,000 figure along with the wrong amounts on individual races.  

    GETTING CLOSER - Frank Stronach's brainchild - the Jan. 28 Pegasus World Cup - may or may not turn out to be one of the major positive stories of 2017. It's one of those deals where we won't be able to fully evaluate the ramifications until it's all over. However, the $12 million epic has been the talk of the racing world for months, and the wheeling, dealing, buying, selling, trading and leasing of probable and possible participants has kept everybody guessing and excited at the same time.

    The impending battle between Arrogate and California Chrome is great for the game, although there will no doubt be many tears shed as Chromie walks away for the final time. Every member of the ownership team that kept this great horse going should receive an Eclipse Award of Merit for service to the sport above and beyond.  

 

 

Leave a comment below
comments powered by Disqus