Kentucky 2007: Claiborne's Seeking the Gold!

Here are some photos of Seeking the Gold, the grand old stallion of Claiborne Farms. His 2007 stud fee was $125,000! He earned $2,307,000 on the track and in 15 starts had 8 wins and 6 places! His dad and mom were Mr. Prospector and Con Game by Buckpasser. One of his children is Jazil whose mom is Better than Honour, the same mom as Rags to Riches who also won the Belmont!

Anyway, Seeking the Gold has had 17 foal crops and 899 foals. Fifteen of his crops are of racing age, and 839 of his children are of racing age. He currently has 63 2 year-olds, 49 yearlings, and 11 weanlings. His yearlings and weanlings sell in the hundreds of thousands of dollars! The tour guide told us a story that because Seeking the Gold has been around the block, he tends to take a long time in the breeding shed. He will often take up to 45 minutes to get "in the mood" as compared to a few fierce seconds. He can cause quite a little traffic jam of mares waiting to be bred. When Barbie and I went home, Tom verified this story, telling about how he had to wait one day outside in the cold with a mare while Seeking the Gold took his sweet old time! Hey, you can't rush making priceless gems!! You take your time, stud!

My girls are related to him in numerous ways, including Case Ace, Nasrullah, Count Fleet, War Admiral, Traffic Court, Sir Gallahad, Blue Larkspur, and Teddy. You can read more about this beautiful elder statesman at the following links, including seeing footage of him in some of his races!
http://www.claibornefarm.com/stallions/seeking-the-gold.shtml
or
http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/stallion-directory/stallion.aspx?stallion_no=1043178
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeking_The_Gold
or
http://www.equineline.com/extendedcontent/tt_content.cfm?StallionRef=1043178&rtype=stats
or
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4RSGq-JfMgc
or
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BlGlhukSBTk
or
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wj47oeisobQ
or
http://youtube.com/watch?v=35pA7AI2Rhk
or
http://youtube.com/watch?v=e8Ki-sx3kTo

Better than Honour and my girls!

Better than Honour is related to Violet and Hailee, and, of course, is the mom of the 2006 Belmont Stakes winner, Jazil, and the 2007 Belmont Stakes winner, Rags to Riches!. Right now, she is an 11 year-old mare who has foaled five children out of Mineshaft, Seeking the Gold, A.P. Indy, and Storm Cat. Jazil's sire is Seeking the Gold, and Rags' sire is A.P. Indy. Better than Honour was purchased as a yearly at a July 1997 sale. Her trainer, John Kimmel said, "She was a gorgeaus filly by Deputy Minister out of a Kentucky Oaks winner (Blush with Pride). She was the most expensive yearling filly to sell. At that time, they had the summer and fall sale. The fall usually was a little less quality than the select Keeneland horses. She was the best of what was there. She was a beautiful horse physically with tremendous pedigree. She turned out to be a good racehorse." She had an 8-race career and won the Demoiselles Stakes! Her grandpa on her dam's side is Violet's great-grandpa, Blushing Groom!