Looking Back on a Successful Year
Dear Sugar Plum Family & Friends:
With 2019 in its last months, we start to look back on another busy, successful, and fun year:
January found our stallion, WAR DANCER, beginning his third year at stud just outside of Saratoga, at Irish Hill and Dutchess Views stallion complex. We were pleased that he was well-received at the winter Stallion Show and Open House at Irish Hill and were especially pleased to have him just minutes away. Both the Stallion Show and our after-party at Sugar Plum Farm were well attended and we met lots of new friends.
Winter and Spring at Sugar Plum Farm were filled with the arrival of new foals, and by June the farm was a veritable nursery. Is there anything more hopeful and beautiful than seeing newborn foals as they test out their long legs and prance in circles around the paddock.
In July America's Most Eligible Stud was back at Sugar Plum Farm for a little R&R after completing his 3rd year at stud and covering over 60 mares. He spent lazy summer days in his paddock, enjoyed a pint of Guinness every evening (really!) and made a cameo appearance at our War Dancer Summer Party. The party was a huge success, with guests wowed by the entertainment, the ambiance and the creative food stations. Even the weather cooperated by giving us the perfect Saratoga evening. WAR DANCER held court in his man cave and was pleased to visit with (and show off a bit for) his fans.
As we turn the corner from Summer to Autumn the nights at Sugar Plum Farm are getting cooler, the days shorter, and looking out the window, we notice the trees beginning to change color. Overhead we’ve seen chevrons of geese making their way south for the winter. Down at the barn the foals have been weaned and spend their days being prepped for the Fall sales and romping in the paddocks with new friends.
Looking towards winter we anticipate an exciting year as WAR DANCER enters his 4th year at stud, and his first crop, who turn 2 on January 1st, head towards the racetrack. Ten War Dancer yearlings left Sugar Plum Farm last week for Florida, to begin their training in preparation for the races in 2020. We believe they're a talented group, and we're anxious to watch their progress as the year unfolds.
Life is never dull on the farm. It's hard work and we face ups and downs as the cycle runs its course from year to year. But there is nowhere we'd rather be than here, watching the foals playing in their paddocks, waking to see a heron rise in flight from the mist on the pond, listening to the soft nickering of mares in the barn at night or seeing a newborn foal take its first steps.
