French Wine discovered to be sterile

It has been confirmed by the co-owners that million dollar winning harness racing trotter French Wine (Bar Hopping – Creamy Mimi- Conway Hall) is sterile and will not be able to breed for the 2024 season.

It was reported after the end of his three-year-old season in 2023 that French Wine 3,1:50m ($1,007,194) would stand his first season at stud at Winterwood Farm in Bellville, Ohio under the management of Dr. J Stallion Management and would stand for an initial service fee of $6,000 and that shares were available for purchase.

Now those plans have changed according to French Wine’s trainer and co-owner, Julie Miller.

“We took him to Rood & Riddle for test results,” Miller said. “And we also took him to Walnridge Farm for a second opinion. And, as of yesterday (Dec. 5), they deemed him sterile and that he would not be a sire this year.

“But they did say,” Miller explained. “That sometimes when a racehorse comes off the track, they need time to get the racing mentality out of their head and learn to become a horse again in the field.

“Obviously we have taken him out of the stud book for this coming season,” Miller said. “But they want to re-test him in five to six weeks after he has been in the field and gets the racetrack out of his mind and think about making babies.”

When asked if French Wine remains sterile would they bring him back to the races in 2024, Miller replied.

“110% we would bring him back to race again,” Miller said. He was an absolutely sound horse; he is talented and that is absolutely what we would plan to do.

When asked if French Wine could breed down the road would they race and breed him, Miller said.

“Those are great questions,” Miller said. “But I don’t have a crystal ball. In a perfect world that would be great. We would have to wait and see what our vets say about that and whether or not he could handle it.

“Right now, we just need to give him time to relax,” Miller added. “The other issues we will handle down the road. Now that we have taken him out of the stud book, if he would be OK to breed later this season, he would have no mares to breed to. We will now need to look at 2025 if he is able to breed and right now, we do not want to get too far ahead of ourselves.”

by Steve Wolf, for Harnesslink