Category Archives: Farm

The history of the San Felipe is littered with brilliant horses: California Chrome, Medaglia d’Oro, Point Given, Fusaichi Pegasus, Sunday Silence and Affirmed, to name just a few. That this year’s winner, Mastery, is unlikely to join them is a cruel blow to the sport because, make no mistake, he might just have done so.

Instead, he faces an uncertain future after a leg fracture left his racing career hanging in the balance. Whatever the prognosis, the son of Candy Ride may just be too valuable to bring back to the track.

Looking back at Saturday’s experience, owner Everett Dobson said he’s focused on the positive. “It could have been worse,” he said. “We didn’t have anything catastrophic happen, and I was told surgery went great. We’ll just take it one day at a time. We’re cautiously optimistic.”

A full sister to 2015 Champion Juvenile Air Force Blue was foaled March 9 at Arthur B. Hancock III’s Stone Farm, in Paris, Kentucky. The filly is out of the stakes-placed Maria’s Mon mare Chatham and is by top sire War Front.

A sterling performance by Cheyenne Stables’ Mastery in the $400,000 San Felipe Stakes (G2) for a moment appeared to stamp him as the clear favorite for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1).

The undefeated son of Candy Ride set the pace, turned away a challenge from grade 1 winner Gormley and San Vicente (G2) winner Iliad, and pulled away in the stretch to win by 6 3/4 lengths. But Mastery was pulled up by Mike Smith after the wire and the Hall of Fame jockey jumped off the colt in the turn.

For the fifth year running, Menifee claimed the Leading General Sire in Korea title in 2016. The 20-year-old stallion headed an all American-bred top ten with his progeny winning nearly double the amount of prize-money than nearest rival, Forest Camp.

Arthur Hancock III can recite pedigrees as well as any other Central Kentucky hardboot, meaning he can go back off the top of his head through generationof equine families at sometimes dizzying speed. Hancock, though, is also a big believer in omens, karma, and philosophical pieces of wisdom, which he can also recite on demand. All of the above played a role in his 2009 purchase of the mare Steady Course from the dispersal of William T. Young’s Overbrook Farm. Steady Course’s name hit the bright lights Nov. 19 when her son Mastery won the Bob Hope Stakes (gr. III) at Del Mar. The son of Candy Ride at that moment became Bob Baffert’s leading contender for the 2017 Triple Crown series.

Menifee raced for the partnership of James Stone and Arthur Hancock and was trained by Elliott Walden, winning the GI Blue Grass S. and GI Haskell Invitational S. in 1999 after finishing runner-up to Charismatic (Summer Squall) in that year’s GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S.