Questroyal Stud announced today that it has signed a contract to purchase Sez Who North, a 265-acre farm in Stillwater, New York outside of Saratoga Springs. Gus Schoenborn Jr., former owner of Contemporary Stallions near Coxsackie, will be a 25 percent minority owner of the property.

Barry R. Ostrager, owner of Questroyal Stud and Board President of New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. (NYTB), said, “This property is obviously a good place to breed horses and now is the time to breed horses in New York – there has just never been a better time to breed and race New York-breds.”

Sez Who North, owned from 2001 to 2009 by Richard Simon, was named leading New York breeder for three consecutive years, from 2005 to 2007, and led the state’s breeders in both earnings and stakes winners from 2005 to 2009 (with a tie for stakes winners in 2009). At one time the farm was home to nearly 1000 thoroughbreds.

Ostrager added, “Questroyal and Gus Schoenborn have managed some of the most outstanding stallions ever to stand in New York, including most notably, City Zip, Belong To Me, [Grade 1 Preakness and Grade 1 Belmont winner] Hansel, Gold Token, and others.” Questroyal presently stands Marsh Side, Roaring Fever, and Patriot Act.

Jeffrey Cannizzo, Executive Director of NYTB, said, “It’s really great to see one of the largest most important thoroughbred farms in the state being revitalized and reintroduced into our newly-enhanced program. For another large commercial farm to reopen its doors is yet another vote of confidence in the bright future of New York breeding and racing.”

The Sez Who property has 120 stalls and a stallion facility. The transaction is scheduled to close on February 21.

Edition Farm, twice named TOBA New York Breeder of the Year, announced on Sunday that Fred Winters has been appointed farm manager. A graduate of Arizona State University with a B.S. in Agriculture, Winters has run his own farm, managed Lazy Lane Farm in Kentucky and worked with Ron Wallace at Farm Equine Management.

Craig Bandoroff, whose Denali Stud recently entered into a “Strategic Alliance” with Vivien Malloy’s Edition Farm said, “Mrs. Malloy and I are very excited to have Fred managing Edition Farm. He brings a lifetime of experience in farm management in the thoroughbred industry.  We are confident that he will be a strong asset for our clients and their goals.”

Winters said, “I am humbled to have been selected as farm manager for the twice honored New York Thoroughbred Breeder of the Year. I am looking forward to working with both teams to develop the Strategic Alliance, to the benefit of all of our clients.”

Congressionalhonor, a half-brother to Saint Liam, will stand the 2012 breeding season at Sandy Way Farm in Greene, NY for owner Angelo Katrakazos.

An 11-year-old horse by Forestry, Congressionalhonor was bred in Kentucky by Edward P. Evans. Out of stakes-winner Quiet Dance, by Quiet American, Congressionalhonor, is a half brother to the late Saint Liam, 2005 Horse of the Year and sire of 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace. Congressionalhonor, who raced for two seasons, won the Grade 3 Bay Meadows Derby on turf, won or placed in nine of 15 starts and earned $112,413.

Congressionalhonor entered stud in 2006, standing in Pennsylvania before moving to Oklahoma Equine in Washington, Oklahoma for the 2011 breeding season. He has 159 foals from five crops and his progeny have earned over $600,000.

Congressionalhonor’s 2012 stud fee is $2,500, live foal stands and nurses. A special consideration will be made for New York foaling mares.

Grade 1 Mile Championship at Kyoto 11/21/2010 (Photo: japanracing.jp)

The Japan Racing Association (JRA) announced that Grade 1-winning New Yorker A Shin Forward, bred by Vivien Malloy’s Edition Farm, has been retired to stud in Japan. The second highest all-time New York-bred earner bankrolled a total of $US 3,421,360 – just $100,000 and change shy of top-earner, Grade 1 Kentucky Derby hero Funny Cide ($3,529,412).

A Shin Forward retired officially on December 30 and will stand as a stallion at Lex Stud in Hokkaido. The January 4, 2012 announcement appeared exclusively on the Japanese-language version JRA website. A representative from the JRA said that A Shin Forward’s trainer Masato Nishizono commented, “We have a lot of memories with him. With his speed and American pedigree, he will be a good stallion.” According to breeder Vivien Malloy, A Shin Forward retired sound, but his connections decided the time was right to send him to the breeding shed after a winless campaign in 2011 fell well short of his 2010 triumphs.

Mrs. Malloy expressed no regrets that A Shin Forward fell short of Funny Cide’s earnings benchmark. “I’m just excited we got so far with him. He ran for a much longer time than Funny Cide and he’s going to be a stallion and will be able to pass on his genes. Funny Cide was a wonderful, wonderful horse, but A Shin Forward will have the opportunity that Funny Cide didn’t have to leave a legacy.” She praised A Shin Forward’s final performance on December 28, one of only three career dirt starts, when he finished fourth. “He came flying at the end. It shows just how much talent he has.” Mrs. Malloy added, “He ran on no medication. No Lasix. No drugs are allowed on race day in Japan. He was all natural!”

A dark bay or brown 7-year-old son of Forest Wildcat, A Shin Forward is the first foal out of multiple stakes-winner Wake Up Kiss (Cure the Blues/Good Morning Smile), 2003 New York Champion Turf Female. Edition purchased Wake Up Kiss in foal for $380,000 at the 2004 Keeneland November Sale. A Shin Forward sold as a Fasig-Tipton New York Select yearling in 2006 for $125,000 before being purchased by Hirotsugo Hirai the following March at the Fasig-Tipton Florida Select Two-Year-Olds in Training sale for $290,000. He raced for five seasons in Japan for Eishindo Co. Ltd. (which prefixes many horse names with “A Shin” or “Eishin”), running almost exclusively on the turf at distances between six furlongs and one mile.

After winning his first two starts late in his 2-year-old year, at three A Shin Forward captured two consecutive stakes-placings in the Arlington Cup at Hanshin and New Zealand Trophy at Nakayama. At four over the Hanshin turf, he finished third in the Dotombori Stakes and won the Rokko Island Stakes and Final Stakes.

Although A Shin Forward broke through the million-dollar earnings threshold in the final days of 2009, he reserved his greatest triumphs for his 5-year-old campaign. After a second-place finish in the New Year Stakes at Nakayama and a third in the Grade 3 Tokyo Shimbun Hai, he won the the Grade 3 Hankyu Hai at Hanshin before going on to his greatest triumph: a victory in the Grade 1 Mile Championship at Kyoto, where he crossed the wire in stakes record time under Yasunari Iwata at odds of 52-to-1. He also ran third by a neck in the Grade 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen at Chukyo.

A Shin Forward retired with three stakes victories, a total of eight stakes placings, a record of 31-6-3-3 and US$3,421,360 in earnings.

Bank Heist, a four-year-old half brother to multiple Grade 1 winner and 2007 champion sprinter Midnight Lute, will enter his stud career in 2012 at Peter Kazamias’ Kaz Hill Farm in Middletown.

A dark bay son of Maria’s Mon, Bank Heist is out of the unraced Dehere mare Candytuft and is her most successful sales offspring, commanding $900,000 at the 2007 Keeneland September Yearling sale. All six of Candytuft’s foals to start are winners, with sprint champion Midnight Lute, by Real Quiet, heading the family ($2,690,600). Midnight Lute, two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, entered stud at Hill ’n’ Dale Farms near Lexington in 2009 and bred 159 mares in his first year. Candytuft has produced two more stakes horses: Captain Cherokee by Sir Cherokee with four Grade 2 placings to his credit ($361,845) and filly Tusculum Rd (Gilded Time), who is stakes placed. Bank Heist’s second dam Bolt From the Blue is a graded winner and producer of stakes horses.

Peter Kazamias said, “Bank Heist has a pedigree that’s as good as any horse standing in New York in 2012. His sire was a blazing-fast and precocious two-year-old, but he’s also sired two Kentucky Derby winners in Monarchos and Super Saver, and an Eclipse champion turf mare in Wait a While, among his 59 total stakes winners. Even better, Bank Heist’s dam produced Midnight Lute, who’s among the most exciting freshman sire prospects of 2012.”

Kazamias added, “We feel like Bank Heist can be to Midnight Lute what Freud is to Giant’s Causeway—a value-priced, New York-based version of his Kentucky-based brother that gives local breeders an opportunity to hit it out of the ballpark. We’ll be supporting Bank Heist with a number of our own best mares.”

Bank Heist ($58,000), who won once in six career starts for owners George Bolton and Gulf Coast Farms and trainer Todd Pletcher, will stand for $2,500, but the fee will be waived for black-type mares, mares with black type under the first dam, and winners or producers of $50,000 or more.

Joe McMahon announced on Friday that two new sires will stand at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds for the 2012 breeding season. Darley’s multiple graded-stakes winner Justenuffhumor has relocated to McMahon’s for his second season at stud, and Grade 1 winner Here Comes Ben, retired in late September, has been added to the farm’s roster, bringing the total number of stallions to nine for 2012.

Here Comes Ben, a son of Street Cry, was bred in Kentucky by Marianna and Brandon L. Chase. He is out of the Dayjur mare Chasetheragingwind, who is a half-sister to G3 winners King Charlemagne and Meshaheer as well as the dam of G1 winner Albertus Maximus. His second dam is the G1 winner Race The Wild Wind.

Trained by Charles Lopresti, Here Comes Ben raced for his owners. In his graded stakes debut, the Grade 1 Forego, Here Comes Ben won his fourth consecutive victory at the seven-furlong distance and defeated a stellar field, including champion Big Drama, who won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint in his next start, and Girolamo, who won the Grade 1 Vosburg next out, as well as Vineyard Haven, Warrior’s Reward and Bribon, all Grade 1 winners.

Justenuffhumor, by Distorted Humor, won six straight races, including back-to-back wins in Saratoga’s Fourstardave and Bernard Baruch Handicaps, both Grade 2s, earning 103 and 106 Beyers, as well as running third in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile, beaten just 1 1/2 lengths by world champion Goldikova. In three seasons he won six of his 12 career starts and earned $533,900. Out of multiple stakes-winner Justenuffheart, by Broad Brush, Justenuffhumor is a half brother to champion Dreaming of Anna and multiple Grade 2 winner Lewis Michael.

Joe McMahon said, “ Here Comes Ben is by Darley star Street Cry, sire of Horse of the Year Zenyatta and Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense. Breeders’ Cup-placed Justenuffhumor is by Distorted Humor, sire of champion dual classic winner Funny Cide, a McMahon graduate, as well as 2011 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Grade 1 Belmont Stakes winner Drosselmeyer. New York is poised to become a leading state in breeding and racing and McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds is committed to the future of our industry here.”

McMahon added “Both horses are from active racing families with proven sires within the first three dams. I believe breeders can succeed with these horses on the track or in the sales ring. Here Comes Ben will stand for $7,500 and Justenuffhumor will stand for $5,000, both are live foal guaranteed.”

For more information, please contact Joe or John McMahon, (518) 587-3426.

Craig Bandoroff’s Denali Stud and Vivien Malloy’s Edition Farm announced this week that they have formed a strategic alliance.

Craig Bandoroff has long enjoyed close relationships with New York’s top breeders, and for the last four years has been the leading consignor at Fasig-Tipton’s New York Preferred Sale. Vivien Malloy, owner of Edition Farm, which is now celebrating 25 years in operation, was named 2010 New York Breeder of the year by NYTB and has twice been selected as TOBA New York Breeder of the Year. Denali and Edition will join forces as the New York breeding industry enters a new era with the advent of VLT revenue from the Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct.

Full Press Release follows:

Chief Seattle, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up and New York’s leading sire in 2007, passed away at the end of October overnight in his paddock at Lake Shore Farm in Indiana at age 14.

Bred in Kentucky by Atwood Richards, Incorporated, Chief Seattle was by Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew and the most successful of four winning foals out of Skatingonthinice ($171,757), a dual stakes winner by Icecapade and half sister to the dam of top Second Crop Sire War Front.

Richards sold Chief Seattle as a weanling to Oxbow Stables for $145,000 at the 1997 Keeneland November Sale. Trained by John Kimmel and ridden exclusively by Edgar Prado, the colt raced under the colors of William J. Betz and Philip D. Needham.

Chief Seattle raced four times, three times at the Grade 1 level following a nine-plus length maiden-breaking debut at Saratoga. Second time out the bay finished fourth in the Futurity at Belmont only 1 1/4 lengths behind the winner, and three weeks later ran second in the Champagne at Belmont. In his final start, Chief Seattle finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Gulfstream Park, earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 98.

Derailed from the Derby trail the following year by fever, Chief Seattle was retired to stud with $327,000 in earnings. Co-owner William Betz partnered with Darley Stud Management, who acquired Chief Seattle privately after the Breeders’ Cup, to stand Chief Seattle for a fee of $10,000 at Spendthrift Farm near Lexington, where he remained for five years.

The next chapter in Chief Seattle’s career at stud took him to New York. Through an agreement with Darley he moved to Empire Stud/Vinery New York in 2006, where he stood for an initial fee of $7,500. Resident in New York from 2006 to 2009, Chief Seattle covered 193 mares and in 2007 was the leading state’s leading sire. In 2010 Chief Seattle moved on to Indiana, purchased by WinRich Farm, before moving to Lake Shore Farm for the 2011 breeding season.

Gale Bess, part-owner of Lake Shore Farm said, “We had fed him the night before and everything was fine. He was our main stallion and was as healthy as could be. He covered more than 40 mares this year.” Bess added, “He will be greatly missed by all of us here at Lake Shore and by all his fans.”

Chief Seattle has sired eight stakes winners, including three graded winners and Canada’s 2006 champion 3-year-old male Shillelagh Slew. His Sophia Slew was champion imported older mare in Panama in 2008 and Free Race was champion imported older horse in Mexico in 2010. His top earner is Bold Chieftain, a California-bred Grade 2 winner and winner of 14 stakes, who has earned $1,653,171 to date in seven campaigns. Chief Seattle has another California Grade 2 winner in Seafree. Overall his progeny have earned more than $16 million.

Adena Springs has published its 2012 stud fees, including the fees for the five stallions standing at Joe and Anne McMahon’s McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds.

The 2012 stud fees for the Adena/McMahon stallions are:

Alphabet Soup (Cozzene): $6,000
Harlem Rocker (Macho Uno): $3,500
Silent Name (JPN) (Sunday Silence): $5,000
Tiago (Pleasant Tap): $5,000
Touch Gold (Deputy Minister): $10,000

For further information please contact Joe McMahon at (518) 587-3426.

Vinery announced 2012 stud fees on Friday, including fees for the six stallions standing for Vinery New York at Sugar Maple Farm in Hudson.

The 2012 Vinery New York fees, all “live foal, stands and nurses,” are:

Bluegrass Cat: $17,500
D’ Funnybone: $3,500
Friendly Island: $3,500
Frost Giant: $5,000
Giant Surprise:  $3,500
Posse: $10,000