Happily Unbridled

A horse previously stabled at Calder Race Course has tested positive for Equine Herpesvirus.

Serenading, who won the Nov. 26 Falls City Handicap (gr. II) at Churchill Downs, has been retired from racing.

Lahaleeb, winner of the E.P. Taylor Stakes (Can-IT) in October, topped the opening day of the Tattersalls December mare sale, bringing 1- million guineas ($1,727,247 in U.S. funds) Nov. 30 in England. The session posted an increase of 13.4% in its median price from a year ago, but the gross revenue and average price fell 4.9% and 7.6%, respectively.

California graded stakes winner E Z Warrior will enter stud in 2010 at Applebite Farms near French Camp, Calif.

Gregory Lamb, an auditor with the Colorado Division of Racing for the past 18 years, has been hired as supervisor of pari-mutuel wagering for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

Successful Appeal, who is represented by nine stakes winners this year, will stand the 2010 season for $17,500 at John T.L. Jones III’s Walmac Farm near Lexington.

Dr. Phil McCarthy, a veterinarian who specialized in reproductive issues and the owner of Watercress Farm near Paris, Ky., died Nov. 29 of cancer at his home in Lexington. He was 58.

Lahaleeb, a grade I-winning filly offered as a racing prospect, fetched a bid of 1,000,000 guineas (US$1.72 million) from John Egan during the Nov. 30 first session of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale at the Newmarket, England sales company’s Park Paddocks.

The Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society winter mixed sale concluded its one-day session with a dramatic increase in gross receipts from last year’s venue. One cause for the big increase was the sale topper, the grade I-placed stallion prospect Kentucky Bear who sold for $100,000.

Kodiak Kowboy, whose victory in the Nov. 28 Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile Handicap (gr. I) at Aqueduct was one of three grade I triumphs this year for the 4-year-old son of Posse, has been retired from racing and will enter stud in 2010 at Tom Simon’s Vinery near Lexington.