Major sire Seeking the Goldhas been pensioned from stallion duty at the Hancock family’s Claiborne Farm near Paris, Ky. The son of Mr. Prospector will be 24 next breeding season.
“It was a combination of things, including his age,” said Claiborne bloodstock manager Bernie Sams.
Seeking the Gold’s fee, which had been as high as $250,000, had been $125,000 since 2005.
Seeking the Gold, who stood for a syndicate, is represented by 88 stakes winners and the earners of $85 million. Five of his runners were champions: Dubai Millennium, Seeking the Pearl, Heavenly Prize, Flanders, and Catch the Ring; and three were Breeders’ Cup (gr. I) winners: Flanders, Cash Run, and Pleasant Home.
Racing as a homebred for Ogden Phipps, Seeking the Gold was one of the best runners from the stellar 1985 crop that also included champions Forty Niner and Risen Star, plus Brian’s Time, Private Terms, and Proper Reality.
Trained by Shug McGaughey, Seeking the Gold won the Super Derby (gr. I), plus the Dwyer (gr. I), Peter Pan (gr. II), and Swale Stakes. He was second in six stakes, five of which were grade I, including the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Classic, in which he finished a half-length behind subsequent Horse of the Year Alysheba. He entered stud at Claiborne at 5 in 1990.
Heavenly Prize, a homebred for Phipps, won eight grade I stakes over three years and was voted champion 3-year-old filly. She finished second in the 1994-95 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Phipps’ son, Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps, won the 2005 Distaff, sponsored by Emirates Airline, with Pleasant Home. She was bred and raced in the name of Phipps Stable.
Seeking the Gold sired such other grade I winners as Bob and John, Dream Supreme, Cape Town, and Jazil, whose dam, 2007 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Better Than Honour, sold for $14 million at the recent Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale. It was a world-record price for a broodmare or broodmare prospect sold at auction.
Seeking the Gold was produced from the Buckpasser mare Con Game.