September 7, 2024
Fasig-Tipton
"GUNITEisextremelyimportanttohorseracinginthe currentclimate...He'sobviouslygotatremendousamount ofability. He'sextremelyattractive. He'sverycorrect. He'sunbelievablysound...He'sstillrunning3Ragsatthis stageofhiscareer. Incredible." STEVEAsMussrn
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On behalf of the Board of Trustees and Members of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, welcome to the 39th annual TOBA National Awards Dinner. It is our great privilege and honor to recognize the outstanding achievements of the leading owners and breeders across North America.
We are pleased to host once again the TOBA National Awards Dinner at FasigTipton. We are also excited to welcome the support of our sponsors for tonight’s celebration, including FanDuel Racing, Wilson Plant Co., Claiborne Farm, WinStar Farm, Castle & Key Distillery, NTRA, BloodHorse, The Jockey Club, Darley, Big Ass Fans, Daily Racing Form, Fasig-Tipton, National HBPA, Robert Clark Artist, Paris Valley Road Estate Winery and White Birch Farm.
TOBA continues to fulfill its mission to improve the economics, integrity and pleasure of the sport on behalf of Thoroughbred owners and breeders. We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to our TOBA members, sponsors and partners for their continued support.
Congratulations to all of tonight’s winners and finalists. We hope you enjoy the evening.
Sincerely Yours,
Dan Metzger President | Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association
For more than 40 years, Lane’s End has pursued one mission: helping our partners achieve their goals in sales, breeding and racing. That dedication to your success has guided us as we’ve celebrated your achievements--and will continue to guide us as we look toward our shared future.
As a member of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, you have access to many cost-saving benefits.
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The mission of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association is to improve the economics, integrity, and pleasure of the sport on behalf of owners and breeders.
The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA), based in Lexington, Ky., was formed in 1961 and is a national trade organization of Thoroughbred owners and breeders. Projects managed by TOBA include the American Graded Stakes Committee, Claiming Crown, Ownership Seminars, Breeding, Conformation & Pedigree Clinics, US-Bred, TOBA Owners Concierge, OwnerView, and the Sales Integrity Program. TOBA provides international representation for U.S. owners and breeders on the International Grading and Race Planning Advisory Committee, International Cataloguing Standards Committee and International Thoroughbred Breeders Federation. Thoroughbred Charities of America (TCA) is the charitable arm of TOBA. TOBA Media Properties, a subsidiary of TOBA, is the co-owner of BloodHorse LLC. TOBA is represented on the board of directors of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium as founding members.
© 2024 Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association
Joe Appelbaum
Shannon Bishop Arvin
Jake Ballis
Michael Banahan
Ben Bernhard
Jeffrey Bloom
Tina Marie Bond
Carrie Brogden
Doug Cauthen
Tim Cohen
Everett Dobson
Marette Farrell
Marshall Gramm
Stephanie Hronis
Billy Koch
Brant Laue
Jason Loutsch
Braxton Lynch
Dan Metzger President
Andy Schweigardt Senior Director of Industry Relations & Development
Charities
David O’Farrell
Garrett O’Rourke
Mandy Pope
Stephen Screnci
R. Glenn Sikura
Brook Smith
Francis Vanlangendonck
David O’Farrell Chairman
Everett Dobson Vice Chairman
Dan Metzger
President
Doug Cauthen
Secretary
Garrett O’Rourke
Treasurer
Susan Cheser Accounting Administrator
Brooke Purcell Director of Membership
Executive Committee
American Graded Stakes Committee
National Awards Committee
Finance & Investment Committee
Membership & Owners Committee
Nominating Committee
TOBA represents owners and breeders on the following national and international organizations and committees:
American Horse Council Racing Advisory Committee
International Grading and Race Planning Advisory Committee
International Thoroughbred Breeders’ Federation
National Thoroughbred Racing Association
North American International Cataloguing Standards Committee
Racing Medication & Testing Consortium
“As horse owners, you know we will try anything especially when we are desperate.
My 24-year-old Thoroughbred, Dylan, broke his leg (Olecranon fracture) on May 7, 2018. It was a bad break for a 24-year-old and, at that age, you know it’s a long road to recovery, if it heals at all.
My vets were amazed at the quick progress after we started Dylan on OCD Pellets. They said the improvement was remarkable and were impressed that he was still alive!
I have to say, going from the first day of injury wondering if I would have to put down my best friend to now trotting him in hand with no sign of lameness... Thank you, Doc’s and OCD Pellets! YOU SAVED MY HORSE DYLAN’S LIFE.”
– Carolyn Hauck LMT, CMLDT
ARIZONA THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Marvin Fleming, President
ARKANSAS THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS’ & HORSEMEN’S ASSOCIATION
Bill McDowell, President
Deana Echols, Executive Secretary
CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Terry Lovingier, Chairperson
Doug Burge, President
CANADIAN THOROUGHBRED HORSE SOCIETY NATIONAL OFFICE
David Anderson, President
Julie Coulter, National General Manager
FLORIDA THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS’ AND OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION
George Isaacs, President
Lonny T. Powell, CEO & Executive Vice President
INDIANA THOROUGHBRED OWNERS AND BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Dan Spears, President
Pat McGhee, Executive Secretary
IOWA THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS AND OWNERS ASSOCIATION
Kristal Freese, President
Brandi Jo Fett, Executive Director
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBRED ASSOCIATION/ KENTUCKY THOROUGHBRED OWNERS AND BREEDERS
Christopher L. Baker, President
Chauncey Morris, Executive Director
LOUISIANA THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Warren J. Harang III, President
Roger Heitzmann III, Secretary/Treasurer
MARYLAND HORSE BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Kent Murray, President
Cricket Goodall, Executive Director
MASSACHUSETTS THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Donna Pereira, Chair
Karen Benson, Treasurer
NEW MEXICO HORSE BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Jay L. Taylor, President
Mary M. Barber, Executive Director
NEW YORK THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS, INC.
Dr. Scott Ahlschwede DVM, President
Najja Thompson, Executive Director
NORTH CAROLINA THOROUGHBRED ASSOCIATION
Rebecca Montaldo, President
Jimmy Teal, Treasurer
OREGON THOROUGHBRED OWNERS & BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Connie Erickson, President
Lynnelle Fox Smith, Executive Director
PENNSYLVANIA HORSE BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Gregory C. Newell PE, President
Brian Sanfratello, Executive Secretary
SOUTH CAROLINA THOROUGHBRED OWNERS AND BREEDERS ASSOCIATION
Jack Sadler, President
TEXAS THOROUGHBRED ASSOCIATION
Tracy Sheffield, President
Mary Ruyle, Executive Director
THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY
Rory Huston, President
Michael Campbell, Executive Director
VIRGINIA THOROUGHBRED ASSOCIATION
Amy Moore, President
Debbie Easter, Executive Director
WASHINGTON THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS & OWNERS ASSOCIATION
Dana Halvorson, President
Deborah Price, Office Manager
John H. Adger
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A. Douglas Henderson
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Tamie Semler
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Arnold Zetcher
Marvin Fleming and Gerald Fleming - Fleming Thoroughbred Farm LLC
Fleming Thoroughbred Farm repeated as Arizona’s leading breeder in 2023 as the full-service farm and stallion station continued to play a major role in the state’s breeding, racing, and sales industries.
Brothers Marvin and Gerald Fleming own and operate the 320-acre facility in Willcox, Ariz., on land that has been in their family since 1947.
“My dad Gene Fleming purchased his first broodmare in 1947, and our farm has been in the family since then. It was the start of everything,” said Marvin Fleming, who in addition to being a hands-on operator also serves as president of the Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders Association.
Located about 80 miles east of Tucson, Ariz., Fleming Thoroughbred Farm features a five-eighths-mile training track, training barn, foaling barn, and a big covered barn for mares. The farm also stands five stallions, including Arizona’s leading sire Lotsa Mischief–a stakes-winning son of five-time leading national sire Into Mischief.
Marvin’s daughter Wende Macumber runs the office and handles client interactions, which he said is a very important part of the farm.
By Pete Denk
“We have hired people who help feed and clean stalls, but we’re very hands-on. It’s me and my brother, and we work the farm every day,” Fleming said. “It’s a family thing, but it’s a lot of work.”
Their other four stallions are Arizona Moon, Per Capita, Ez Effort, and Distorted Reality.
The Flemings own 35-40 mares themselves and in partnership, plus they board outside mares, bringing the total to 60-70 resident mares. They also break and train young horses on site.
“Out here, you kind of have to be involved in a little bit of everything,” Fleming said. “Most of our mares we breed for the market, and we sell at the Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders Association sale. It’s a mixed sale, but primarily yearlings, usually the third or fourth week of October.
“It’s a whole different world out here. The breeding industry has really contracted. We don’t have near the farms or mares we used to. It used to be a two-day sale, but it’s retracted down to one day; maybe 120 horses total. It’s not a big sale, but it supports the population out here.”
Top 2023 performers on the track bred by Fleming Thoroughbred Farm include U Can Do U (by Lotsa Mischief), Alberta Sun (by Ministers Wild Cat), and Arizona Sun (by Ministers Wild Cat).
U Can Do U is a foal of 2021 who broke his maiden in an open company at Prairie Meadows in 2023. He returned to Arizona and won three local stakes in a row at Turf Paradise. Alberta Sun won the Ann Owens Distaff Stakes at Turf Paradise and Arizona Sun won an allowance race. ●
You can help the NTRA’s federal legislative team advocate for the industry in Washington, D.C., by contributing to the NTRA 1/4% Check-Off Program.
Join your peers from around the world who contribute each year by giving $2.50 for every $1,000 in a horse’s sale price, when you buy and sell at major domestic thoroughbred sales hosted by our partners. For more information, contact Joe Bacigalupo joeb@NTRA com.
“It never gets old” is a sentiment that Bill McDowell of McDowell Farm endorses.
McDowell Farm’s excellence in 2023 was recognized with yet another Arkansas breeder of the year award, nothing new for McDowell and his family, but nonetheless very satisfying. With 17 state breeding awards in his pocket, McDowell, who breeds to sell, doesn’t take the honor for granted.
“It is very gratifying to raise a nice horse to win in open company, especially if you’re beating bigger and more expensive (breeding operations), with Kentucky-breds or what have you,” said McDowell, who started raising horses at McDowell Farm in 1981 upon graduating high school. “It’s a tough business to make a living doing it all.”
McDowell and his wife, Mary, and children, Kirk and Leslie, continue the legacy of his father, Donald Dewitt McDowell, who died in 2020 after launching the family’s Thoroughbred breeding and cattle operation in the early 1970s in Sparkman, Ark. Mary handles all the office work. Leslie is in charge of foaling, and Kirk manages day-to-day operations of the 950 acres. In addition to overseeing McDowell Farm, Bill is the president of the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Horsemen’s Association.
By Karen M. Johnson
During breeding season on the farm, which is home to five stallions (High North, Gentlemen’s Bet, The Big Beast, Caddo River, and Cutting Humor), and 15 of the family’s broodmares plus outside mares, McDowell doesn’t often get to make the one-hour drive to Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., where many of the horses he breeds compete.
“You lose track of everything else during breeding season,” he said in July. “We foaled 47 this year. We do a lot of outside foaling. And right now, we’re getting ready to go to the Texas Summer Yearling Sale.”
He does keep tabs on entries, though, and, in 2023, McDowell enjoyed seeing the names of two dozen winners he bred topping race charts, including Watch This Birdie and Millie G, who both also accounted for stakes placings. And McDowell didn’t have to wait long to get his first winner of 2023 with Sobriety taking a maiden claiming race for state-breds at Oaklawn Park on New Year’s Day.
Watch This Birdie, out of the Boston Harbor mare, Bird Harbor, won three races in 2023, two at Churchill Downs–an allowance race and an allowance optional claimer–and a maiden special weight at Colonial Downs. The daughter of Astern also finished third in the Pago Hop Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
Millie G, a daughter of Gentlemen’s Bet out of a daughter of Exchange Rate, Kitty’s Dream, was a debut winner in a maiden special weight at Lone Star Park in June 2023. In Millie G’s next start, the filly finished second in the Texas Thoroughbred Association Futurity. ●
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Early Foal Deadline: August 1
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Pre-Entry Deadline: October 21
Stallion Nomination Deadline: December 15
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BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Over $34 Million in Purses and Awards 14 Grade I Championship Races
Eight undercard races worth $1.5 million
November 1 & 2, 2024 • Del Mar, CA October 31 & November 1, 2025 • Del Mar, CA
Family and teamwork have propelled Richard Barton Enterprises to the top of the breeder ranks in California. Those concepts imbue all facets of Barton, which was named the 2023 Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s California breeder of the year for 2023.
Kate Barton Penner, as executive vice president, may head the organization but, whenever she speaks of Barton’s accomplishments, she credits her parents, Richard and Beth, as well as the crew at Barton Thoroughbreds, the farm in Santa Ynez, Calif., with Kevin Dickson as the farm manager.
“Everyone on the farm are such team players—we couldn’t be here without them,” Penner said at this year’s California Thoroughbred Breeders Association awards banquet.
Barton for the first time was the leading California breeder of the year, with total earnings of $4,166,591. It also was honored as the breeder of One in Vermillion, champion California-bred 3-year-old male and the leading Barton earner with $564,220.
Barton is a major market breeder, and thus One in Vermillion didn’t race for them. Barton sold him as a yearling to Jonathan Kalman at the 2021 Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Fall Mixed Sale. The son of Army Mule proceeded to win five stakes for Kalman, including the 2023 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course and Lazaro
Barrera Stakes at Santa Anita Park.
By Tracy Gantz
Barton-bred horses in 2023 won 138 races, 10 of those in stakes (including non-black type). The Barton stakes winners included Pushiness, winner of the CTBA Stakes at Del Mar for Repole Stable; multiple stakes winner Spitten Kitten; Echo Eddie Stakes winner Kangaroo Court; Golden State Juvenile Stakes winner Magic Spoon; and California Dreamin’ Stakes winner Carmelita’s Man, the last-named bred in partnership with Robert Traynor.
Those runners demonstrate Barton’s range. Barton excels in buying in-foal mares who subsequently produce Cal-breds, such as One in Vermillion, Pushiness, Spitten Kitten, and Carmelita’s Man. Those mares then comprise much of Barton’s large broodmare band to support the stallions standing at the farm. Barton also breeds many mares in Kentucky and brings them back to California to foal Cal-breds.
Kangaroo Court is by farm stallion Dads Caps. Penner is excited about another Dads Caps runner, Broadway Venus, a 2022 homebred who won in her debut at Santa Anita May 3.
Cat Burglar, One Bad Boy, and Tap Back also stand at Barton, as does newcomer Shaaz, a graded stakes-placed son of Uncle Mo who stood his first season in 2024.
“Shaaz has bred over 90 mares in his first year at stud,” said Penner, who looks forward to seeing those foals arrive in 2025.
That forward-thinking attitude puts Barton in a terrific position for the future, which Penner said includes “our biggest and best consignment of yearlings” at the Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearling Sale Sept. 24. ●
"A dream come true"
By Jennifer Morrison
Adena Springs North, near Aurora, Ontario, led all Canadian breeders again in 2023.
At the Jockey Club of Canada’s Sovereign Awards, Adena Springs was voted outstanding breeder for an unprecedented 14th time. It was a bittersweet moment for Frank Stronach as he accepted the Sovereign just a few weeks after his wife, Frieda, matriarch of the farm, died at age 80.
“It’s great to see so many people here, all of us who love horses,” said Stronach in accepting that award. “I know Frieda would love this and I know she is watching this from heaven.”
Frank, who bought his first horse in the mid 1960s and built his first farm, Beechwood, into a leading racing and breeding operation, opened Adena Springs North in the 1990s. It was followed by divisions in Kentucky and Florida. A member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, Frank was presented the Eclipse Award of Merit in 2018.
In 2023 wins by Adena Springs horses were frequent and the star of the season was Moira, Canada’s 2022 Horse of the Year and champion 3-yearold filly who came back as a 4-year-old better than ever. The tough filly won the Canadian Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine, defeating eventual 2023 Canadian Horse of the Year Fev Rover.
Campaigned by X-Men Racing, SF Racing, and Madaket Stables, who purchased her for $150,000 as a 2020 Keeneland September yearling, Moira placed in four graded stakes at Woodbine in 2023, including a
By Jennifer Morrison
third-place effort in the E. P. Taylor Stakes (G1T). She ended her season with a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) at Santa Anita Park. Offered at Fasig Tipton’s The November Sale in Kentucky, Moira was bought back by most of her original owners for $3 million.
An Eclipse Award finalist for champion turf female of 2023, Moira is a daughter of star Adena stallion Ghostzapper, who stands in Kentucky. Stronach purchased Moira’s dam, Devine Aida, a daughter of Unbridled’s Song, as a 2-year-old in 2014. Stronach races a few homebreds each year and in 2023 2-year-old filly Shamans Girl scored an exciting last-to-first victory in Woodbine’s CA$150,000 Shady Well Stakes in her career debut. A daughter of Adena’s Ontario-based stallion Shaman Ghost, Shamans Girl is from the Stronachs’ 2008 Woodbine Oaks-winning mare Ginger Brew. The Stronach team also saw their homebred gelding Malibu Mambo finish third in the Singspiel Stakes (G3T). In the United States, Adena-breds Silent Poet and Bay Street Money were graded stakes placed.
This is the second consecutive year that Adena Springs has been named TOBA’s Canadian Breeder of the Year. ●
Sean Fitzhenry
Sean Fitzhenry and wife Dorothy have been breeding, selling, and racing Thoroughbreds in Ontario for about 20 years and have put together a very successful boutique broodmare band.
The Toronto couple got into owning shares in a couple of racehorses through friends before setting off on their own to try breeding. They foal out mares at some top Ontario breeding establishments as they don’t have their own farm, but they do most of the research in purchasing mares and planning matings.
In their first few years they sold a filly by Medaglia d’Oro, later named Marketing Mix, for $150,000 at the 2009 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She went on to earn more than $2 million behind multiple grade 1 wins in the United States.
The Fitzhenrys breed to sell, but occasionally will keep a homebred that doesn’t realize a preferred auction. One of those was Dixie Moon, a Curlin filly who won the 2018 Woodbine Oaks over subsequent Queen’s Plate Stakes winner Wonder Gadot.
The year 2023 was another big one for horses bred by the Fitzhenrys as Millie Girl, a daughter of Hard Spun—Mendocino Beano, by Smart Strike, was voted Canada’s champion older dirt mare at the Jockey Club of Canada’s Sovereign Awards. Purchased for $67,000 from the 2021 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale by trainer Catherine Day Phillips as agent, Millie Girl won the Maple Leaf (G3) and Ontario Matron (G3) stakes at Woodbine for owners Kingfield Racing, Braconcrest, and Apricot Valley Thoroughbreds in a breakout season for the stretch-running mare.
Trained by Phillips, Millie Girl was second in the Seaway Stakes (G3) and third in the Nassau (G2T) and Royal North (G2T) stakes.
Mendocino Beano would be honored with a Sovereign Award as outstanding broodmare of 2023 after previously producing 2019 Prince of Wales Stakes and Breeders’ Stakes winner Tone Broke and stakes winner Stallion Heiress.
Another Fitzhenry broodmare, Game, was a finalist in that category as the dam of Wickenheiser, who was second in the Woodbine Oaks and Wonder Where Stakes last year, and earlier stakes winners Belichick and Season Ticket.
The couple also bred the good 3-year-old colt Kaukokaipuu, by Mr Speaker, who won the 2023 Queenston Stakes and was second in the Prince of Wales, the second jewel of Canada’s Triple Crown, and the Marine Stakes (G3). Kaukokaipuu is a second-generation Fitzhenry bred from the mare Grey Pride.
Sean and Dorothy bred nine winners of nearly $1 million in 2023.
“We’re basically a mom-and-pop operation,” said Sean Fitzhenry. “We just try to do the best we can with our small broodmare band. We look for crosses that work.” ●
A three-time Florida breeder of the year, Marilyn Campbell— under Stonehedge–topped all Florida breeders by earnings in 2023 with $3,338,867.
In 1988, Marilyn, alongside her late husband Gilbert, purchased Stonehedge Farm South near Williston, Fla. Formerly Waldemar Farms, the birthplace of 1975 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Foolish Pleasure, the Campbells had history on their side.
Stonehedge quickly became a strong force in the Thoroughbred industry. Campbell ranked among the top 100 owners by wins in North America in 2001, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2013. In 2020, the farm finished 25th nationally, with earnings of $1,789,857.
The Campbells raised dozens of stakes winners. Their most notable homebreds include 2011 Tampa Bay Derby (G2) winner Watch Me Go, multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Blazing Sword, and graded stakes winner Ivanavinalot–best known as the dam of two-time Eclipse Award champion Songbird.
They sold their grade 2 winner Ivanavinalot privately after she RNA’d at the 2004 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale for $625,000, in foal to Mineshaft. She was later bred to Medaglia d’Oro in 2012, producing Songbird in 2013, and the rest is history.
By Olivia Newman
Dean Delivers, a gelding by Stonehedge’s Cajun Breeze, won the 2023 Smile Sprint Stakes (G3) and the Big Drama Stakes, both at Gulfstream Park. He was the breeder’s top horse in their racing contingent for 2023.
Me and Mr. C, a gelding by Khozan, was Stonehedge’s second stakes winner of 2023. He put together a trio of stakes wins–the Soldier’s Dancer Stakes, the Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial Stakes, and the KY Downs Preview Turf Cup Stakes at Ellis Park.
“It’s not an easy business. I’ve got good people working for me, we use our own stallions, and we have been very successful doing that,” said Campbell. A strong supporter of the Florida-bred program, Campbell continues to improve Florida racing by supporting programs such as the Florida Sire Stakes.
“We haven’t had our big horse yet,” said Campbell, but she remains optimistic.
Stonehedge homebred Fiona’s Magic (by St Patrick’s Day) broke her maiden impressively during the fall at Gulfstream. More recently, she won the March 2 Davona Dale Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream, keeping the dream alive. Fiona’s Magic was the first stakes winner for her sire, a full brother to 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.
Campbell owns about 130 horses, including 40 broodmares, 25 yearlings, 25 foals, one stallion, and 37 horses in training. She doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. ●
Greg Justice has been the owner and operator of Justice Farm for 40 years. While working at a Kentucky water company, he decided to go to a Keeneland sale and purchase a mare in foal to Woodman. A few years later when that foal won some money on the track, the Justice Farm breeding program was launched.
Justice has had quite a few successful years as a Thoroughbred racehorse breeder in Indiana–winning the Indiana breeder of the year award in 2015, 2021, 2022, and 2023, and the Indiana stallion owner of the year award for 2022 and 2023.
Justice says the key to his success is his numbers.
“It’s a numbers game,” Justice said. “The more horses you have in a race the better chance you have of winning a race.”
Currently, Justice has 110 horses in his program. These large numbers, which point to his belief in the industry in Indiana, allow him to find consistent performers such as Harry’s Holiday and Lantana Mob, who both sire solid and consistent runners.
Justice calls Rob ’n Gin the best horse he ever bred. Foaled in 1994, the dark bay/brown horse by Farma Way out of Windy Mindy, by Honey Jay,
By Ella Barnett
had just under $1 million in earnings in his 30-start career. In 1997 Rob ’n Gin had two major wins: the Jersey Derby (G2T) at Garden State Park in track record time, and two starts later the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (G2T).
While Justice did not own Rob ’n Gin, his success on the track gave him the confidence as a breeder to say, “I can do this,” and keep going in his journey.
As for 2023, Justice Farm saw great success with a “Justice Sweep” in the ITOBA Stallion Season Handicap at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Macho Justice and Doubledogjustice went 1-2 in the $100,000 race. Macho Justice, a bay gelding by Lantana Mob, fought for the win in the mileand-70-yard race. Doubledogjustice, another Lantana Mob offspring, was a neck back in second.
The most important race won for Justice Farm in 2023 was the Unreachable Star Handicap at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Doubledogjustice, owned and trained by Raymond J. Paquette III, took the $250,000 race easily. Several other Justice Farm horses also placed well in the race, including Backyard Justice and Macho Justice.
Justice Farm continues to invest in Indiana as it has a new stallion hitting the market next year in Prove Right (Justify–Joe’sgoldenholiday, by Harlan’s Holiday). ●
No matter where they run, horses bred by H. Allen Poindexter win with precision regularity, making him one of the top breeders in the Midwest as well as throughout North America.
Poindexter’s home track is Iowa’s Prairie Meadows, into whose Hall of Fame he was inducted in 2022. To drive that point home, the Poindexter-bred Giant Game brought home the trophy for the 2023 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap (G3) as the 4-year-old banked better than $378,000 for that season. Giant Game is also indicative of Poindexter’s knack for turning bargain-basement broodmare purchases into stakes producers. He landed Game for More, dam of Giant Game, for $8,000 from the Fasig-Tipton Heiligbrodt Dispersal sale in 2011. Game for More has produced not only Giant Game, but additional stakes performers Isotherm and Gio Game.
Poindexter maintains a large Thoroughbred operation on his farm near Springfield, Mo. He also boards mares with Tim and Nancy Hamlin at their Wynnstay Farm near Winchester, Ky. But he is a regular at Prairie Meadows, attending the races there three weekends every month during its season. He can also be found at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., during its meet.
Poindexter’s involvement in horses is fueled by his Allen’s Mechanical, a company that does plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning jobs for casinos, hospitals, and universities.
By Lenny Shulman
While much of his produce races locally at Prairie Meadows, Poindexter’s reach stretches across the nation. Brightwork, bred by Poindexter and Wynnstay, in 2023 won the Spinaway (G1) and Adirondack (G3) stakes at Saratoga Race Course and earned more than $500,000 for the year. She was produced by the unraced Malibu Moon mare Clarendon Fancy, whom Poindexter and Tim Hamlin bought at auction for $17,000. That same breeding partnership is also responsible for Can Group, who took the Bourbon Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland in 2023 and banked $357,013 for the season.
Poindexter additionally bred Skelly, a Practical Joke gelding who won six of seven starts in 2023 including the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) and $680,363 on the year; and Bluelightspecial, a 3-year-old filly of 2023 who took the Cardinal Handicap and Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Handicap in 2023. Poindexter also bred 2023 stakes-placed runners Miss Peach, Adria, and Kayla, and 22 other individual winners on the year.
Most of Poindexter’s broodmares today are graduates of his breeding and/ or racing programs, such as Blue Gallina, a homebred who never made it to the races, but has produced Can Group and 2020 Iowa Oaks (G3) winner Flat Out Speed.
“We’ve had big successes by having the best progeny by first-year stallions,” Poindexter noted. “Part of that may just be luck. For the regional markets, some of the older, proven stallions that may not be in fashion commercially, are perfect because they get racehorses.” ●
Signature races offering more than $3.4 Million in purses.
Breeder's Awards - payments are calculated at 20% of the total purse for eligible races.
Out of State Breeder's Awards - payments that are 10% of the winner's share of the purse for eligible races.
An additional 40% in purse money for Indiana bred horses that �inish 1st, 2nd or 3rd in eligible open races at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
Stallion Owner Awards - 10% of the total purse for eligible races.
Purchase a mare at auction, register with the Thoroughbred Breed Development Program to foal in 2025 and receive up to $2,000 in incentives.
Sheikh Mohammed’s mighty international Godolphin breeding and racing program continues to ride a wave of success that has delivered two consecutive titles as National Breeder of the Year from the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.
In 2023 Godolphin became the fourth breeder since 1998 to top the standings maintained by The Jockey Club for three consecutive years and earned the additional distinction of being the first individual breeder with more than $20 million in purses from the United States and Canada during a calendar year.
As with many breeders, partnerships have yielded good results for Godolphin. So much so that Godolphin actually crossed the $20 million earnings threshold in 2021 when horses it co-bred with others are considered. Horses bred by Godolphin and partners earned more than $20.7 million in 2021, more than $22.1 million in 2022, and more than $24.3 million in 2023.
Top horses from 2023 bred by Godolphin with a partner include multiple Japanese group 3 winner Jasper Krone (by Frosted) bred with Machmer Hall, grade 2 winner Main Event (by Bernardini) with Eric and Elizabeth Buckley, multiple graded stakes winner Loyalty (by Hard Spun) with Best
Thomas M. Galvin
When he was a teenager, Omaha, Neb., native Thomas Galvin would sneak into Ak-Sar-Ben Race Track to watch the horses run. “Watching those horses race inspired me to get into horse racing. I loved watching them run.”
As an adult in Dallas, he would find a path into racing through a partnership when he was introduced to Coast to Coast Racing.
“They were looking for investors, and I was looking for a way into the industry,” Galvin said of that first step which would lead to a life in racing.
At a 2005 sale in Texas, Galvin purchased three Thoroughbreds to officially start his breeding venture. Currently Galvin has two mares, one foal, and one yearling, and five horses in training. He typically races his horses and John Caulfield comes in as a partner.
One of the most important races in Galvin’s career came early. It was not with a horse he bred, but with a horse he purchased and campaigned—Su Casa G Casa, a gelding by During—Seda Fina, by Known Fact. Paced by seven wins from 19 starts, Su Casa G Casa earned $473,473. In 2010 that big moment arrived when Su Casa G Casa posted a front-end score in the Kip Deville Stakes at Remington Park, giving Galvin his first black-type score.
By Eric Mitchell
A Luck Farm, and grade 2-placed, grade 3 winner Never Explain (by Street Sense) bred with Hidden Brook Farm.
Unquestionably, homebreds are the core of Godolphin’s success in 2023. Godolphin campaigned 16 homebred stakes winners, which included 14 graded stakes winners and of these seven won grade 1 stakes.
Godolphin’s superstars for the year were multiple grade 1 winners Cody’s Wish, Pretty Mischievous, and Master of The Seas.
Cody’s Wish owned the limelight, as the namesake of the late Cody Dorman, a young man afflicted with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a genetic condition that left him unable to walk or talk. He made a connection with the colt during a trip to Gainsborough Farm arranged by the Make-A-Wish Foundation and together they inspired the racing community. Cody’s Wish won four of five starts in 2023, capping the year with a second consecutive win in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1)—his third grade 1 win for the year—that locked down honors as Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male.
Pretty Mischievous also had a championship season with three grade 1 wins that included the Kentucky Oaks (G1), Acorn (G1), and Test (G1) stakes. She was never worse than second in six graded stakes and was named champion 3-year-old filly for the year.
International traveler Master of The Seas also made an impact at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships where he won the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T) after earlier taking the Woodbine Mile Stakes (G1T). The 5-yearold son of Dubawi won graded/group stakes in the U.A.E., England, and North America. ●
By Ella Barnett
Success with one of his homebreds would arrive through A G’s Charlotte, a 2019 daughter of Mo Tom—Adrianne G, by Indygo Shiner. In her 3-yearold season of 2022 A G’s Charlotte would win a pair of stakes including the Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Distaff Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
In 2023 A G’s Charlotte would power Galvin to this award. While she failed to win a stakes race, A G’s Charlotte placed in seven stakes races at three different Louisiana tracks. From 10 starts she compiled a 2-6-1 record and earnings of $168,750 while racing from February to December. Those stakes placings included runner-up finishes in the Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Distaff, Louisiana Legends Turf Distaff, Shantel Lanerie Memorial, John Valene Memorial, EVD Distaff, and Red Camelia stakes.
For good measure A G’s Charlotte came back to win this year’s edition of the Red Camelia at Fair Grounds, a race Galvin believes was the best of her career. Unfortunately, A G’s Charlotte died in April after adding another stakes placing in March in the Shantel Lanerie Memorial.
“She was a remarkable horse,” Galvin said of the mare who won three stakes, placed in eight others, and earned $469,410 with a 9-8-4 mark from 26 starts in four seasons of racing. “She would have made an excellent broodmare.”
Mare Adrianne G continues to produce. Her current 4-year-old filly Olivia G, by Strong Mandate, and her 3-year-old filly Tommie G, by Court Vision, have both placed in multiple stakes. ●
to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s GODOLPHIN operation on being honored as the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s KENTUCKY BREEDER OF THE YEAR for the fourth consecutive year.
Eclipse Award-winning Outstanding Owner in 2009, 2012, and from 2020-’23, and Outstanding Breeder in 2021 and 2023, Godolphin was represented last season by Horse of the Year CODY’S WISH, Champion 3-Year-Old Filly PRETTY MISCHIEVOUS , and additional G1 winners WET PAINT and MATAREYA .
Dr. Thomas and Chris Bowman have plenty of accolades in their distinguished careers as Thoroughbred breeders in Maryland. The latest, the record-tying 11th time being honored by the Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association as their home state’s top breeder.
Dating back to 1992, the Bowmans have won 11 times, Robert Meyerhoff 10 times (Meyerhoff also won in 1986), and the other remaining 11 honors being split among five other winners.
That he’s tied with Meyerhoff is special.
“I’ve never stopped a count. … But he still is a close friend and one of my idols. So that stuck with me because of that,” Thomas Bowman said.
Even at 82, the accolades aren’t important to him.
“I’m not a big guy about honors. I think it reflects (that) this is a tough business to break into, and for someone from a fairly modest background to be able to be a part of something like this is quite flattering,” he said.
Among the 2023 runners bred by the Bowmans is Double Crown, then a 6-year-old Bourbon Courage gelding. He was heavily raced with 18 starts,
By Joe Perez
going 3-2-4 and earning $266,620. Another starter was Alwaysinahurry who finished in the top four in each of his six starts.
Then there is Post Time, a Frosted colt that Bowman is hesitant to say by name in fear of jinxing his fantastic 4-year-old season. But as a 3-yearold, he went 2-0-1 in three starts. He may be the apple of the Bowman family’s eye.
The Bowmans’ son, Dr. Brooke Bowman, and daughter Becky Davis, have carried the love of Thoroughbreds into other aspects of the industry. He is a veterinarian and she is a consignor.
It was Brooke’s love of Post Time’s dam, Vielsalm, and being impressed with the sire when he ran at Saratoga Race Course that led to that pairing.
“It was sort of like a storybook thing where he loved the mare, he saw the stallion, our close friend and partner, Milton (Higgins III), out of almost a clear blue sky, offered a foal share,” said Thomas Bowman.
There are no signs of slowing down for the Bowmans. He still has the passion for breeding the best horses he can.
“He just claimed a mare…in July in the hopes of breeding her next year,” Brooke Bowman said. “He is all in still. I think people know that about him, but he is just a freak about breeding horses, specifically in the state of Maryland. That’s it for him, that is the pinnacle—almost—of life for him, is doing that exact thing.” ●
Over a recent two-month span, trainers, owners, breeders and other horsemen downloaded more than 200,000 sets of DRF past performances
Book’em Danno is a jewel in the crown of New Jersey Thoroughbred racing. And rarely has this gem shone more brightly than in the June 8 Woody Stephen Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. In the June 8 edition, Book’em Danno—bred by Christine Connelly of Bright View Farm in Chesterfield, N.J., and Gregory Kilka—did his Jersey roots proud, winning the top-tier stakes by a half-length.
Kilka was part of Ironhorse Racing Stable, which campaigned multiple graded stakes winner Bucchero. Bright View has produced multiple statebred champions, including Exit Stage Left and Silent Appeal. Aiming to buy prospective mates for Bucchero, Kilka spent $14,000 for Adorabella, in foal to Fast Anna, at the 2020 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. The resultant foal was Girl Trouble—co-bred by Kilka and Connelly—a two-time stakes winner and New Jersey’s top juvenile filly of 2022. Sold
By Carly Silver
for $15,000 as a yearling, Girl Trouble recently commanded $235,000 at the Fasig-Tipton July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale. The day she sold was July 8—one month to the day after her half brother became a grade 1 winner.
In April 2021, Adorabella foaled a colt by Bucchero at Bright View, later named Book’em Danno. For eventual owner Atlantic Six Racing, comprised of six pals, Book’em Danno became nothing short of a sensation. After romping in a maiden special weight at Monmouth Park in August 2023, Book’em Danno won the Sept. 9 Smoke Glacken Stakes, also at Monmouth, before heading to Aqueduct Racetrack, where he captured the historic Futurity Stakes Oct. 8. Book’em Danno then finished second in Aqueduct’s Nov. 5 Nashua Stakes.
He won his 2024 season debut, the Jan. 13 Pasco Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. Sent a long way from New Jersey—to Saudi Arabia, to be exact—the gelding placed second in the Feb. 24 Saudi Derby (G3) at King Abdulaziz Racecourse. Then the dark bay/brown made his Saratoga debut this June, and it was a winning one.
New Jersey’s 2022 Broodmare of the Year, Adorabella is still yielding dividends, too. At the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling Sale, her Classic Empire yearling colt went under the hammer for $135,000. And Adorabella, in foal to perennial leading sire Medaglia d’Oro, for $550,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s The November Sale. Now that’s a Jersey classic. ●
The Thoroughbred Breeders Association of New Jersey salutes Gregory J. Kilka & Bright View Farm, recipients of the 2023 New Jersey Breeder of the Year Award.
Home to such outstanding competitors as stakes winner and New Jersey-bred Horse of the Year, BOOK’EM DANNO. Bright View Farm’s success extends beyond the racetrack, contributing to the growing recognition, nationwide, for the quality and rewards of racing in the Garden State.
BOOK’EM DANNO
We are proud to count Gregory J. Kilka & Bright View Farm among our very own.
Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association of New Jersey
265 Highway 36, Suite 1R, West Long Branch, NJ 07764
Tel: 732-542-8880
Email: njbreds@gmail.com www.njbreds.com
Fred A. Alexander
Fred and Linda Alexander’s A & A Ranch has been recognized as the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s New Mexico breeder of the year. The Alexanders stand some of the state’s top sires at their Anthony, N.M., farm, including 2023 New Mexico leading stallion Marking as well as the state’s 2023 leading first-crop sire Sporting Chance.
“We’ve been here 25 years and we’re proud to achieve this,” Fred Alexander said. “It’s been a lot of hard work but I owe most of it to my staff and my clients that have been with us over the years.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to have five of the state’s leading stallions over the last 20 years.”
Besides standing their three stallions, the Alexanders’ operation focuses primarily on breeding and selling their yearlings through their own consignment each year at the Ruidoso Select New Mexico-Bred Yearling Sale.
A & A Ranch was the leading consignor the last two years at the New Mexico-Bred Yearling Sale and was responsible for the 2022 and 2023 sales toppers. In both years, the sale topper sold for six figures, a significant accomplishment in the Land of Enchantment.
By Molly Rollins
Marking, a grade 1-placed son of Bernardini, won New Mexico’s leading sires race by a landslide. The stallion boasted progeny earnings of $2,580,008 for 2023 with his closest competitor, the deceased and former A & A Ranch sire Attila’s Storm, finishing second in the standings with $1,740,673. The blue-blooded Marking, produced out of the multiple grade 1-winning mare Seventh Street, sired 46 winners from 73 foals to race. He sired two black-type winners, including New Mexico Classic Cup Lassie Championship Stakes victor Mark the Winner.
After beginning his stud career for a fee of $3,500 when first retiring to A & A Ranch, Marking commanded a fee of $7,500 for the 2024 breeding season. Seven months into 2024, he currently leads the stallion standings with progeny earnings of $1,108,776 and 17 winners through July 11.
“Marking had the ability on the racetrack. He was second to champion Runhappy the year that one was champion sprinter,” Alexander said. “And obviously he has the pedigree behind him. He has a very strong female family on his bottom side. … I’m very big on the female side as that’s where I believe a lot of it is coming from. And he’s also got the A.P. Indy on top.”
The sire’s best progeny to date is New Mexico-bred champion Slammed, who took her sire to the next level when rocketing to a 6 1/2-length score in the 2022 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2) at Keeneland. She retired with earnings of $557,030.
“(Marking has) been breeding to better and better mares and my biggest goal is for his offspring to run in open company and compete on that national level,” Alexander said. “And hopefully one day I’ll have a Slammed of my own. That’s the ultimate goal.” ●
By Bob Ehalt
Over the past 46 years owner/breeder Barry Schwartz has developed a thriving racing and breeding operation in New York that has provided him several grade 1 winners and now acclaim as the state’s leading breeder.
Schwartz has been named the top New York breeder for 2023 after a year in which horses bred at his Stonewall Farm earned nearly $2 million. Led by homebred El Grande O, Stonewall-bred runners had 237 starts in 2023 that produced 40 wins, 36 seconds, and 49 thirds and earnings of $1,933, 286.
A homebred son of Take Charge Indy, El Grande O was a multiple stakes winner for Schwartz as a 2-year-old in 2023. He won the Sleepy Hollow and Bertram F. Bongard stakes, both at Aqueduct Racetrack. Trained by Linda Rice, in eight 2023 starts El Grande O had three wins, three seconds, and a third and earnings of $319,000.
In 2024 El Grande O hit the Triple Crown trail and posted a pair of seconds in the Withers (G3) and Jerome stakes and a third in the Gotham Stakes (G3) to lift his career earnings to $435,000.
Stonewall also produced Stonewall Star, a 3-year-old filly who was a multiple stakes winner in 2023. She won the open Wine Country Stakes at Laurel Park and the Franklin Square Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct.
Schwartz has raced three grade 1 winners in his black and white colors, all of whom were bred at his Stonewall Farm, a 740-acre farm located in Granite Springs, N.Y. His best horse was 2018 Fourstardave Handicap
Barry K. Schwartz
(G1T) winner Voodoo Song, who won eight of 26 starts with four seconds and a third on his way to earnings of $954,350.
Princess Violet won the 2015 Madison Stakes (G1) in a career that featured 15 starts, five wins, and six seconds with earnings of $777,810. The Lumber Guy captured the 2012 Vosburgh Invitational Stakes (G1) during a career that saw him run 13 times with four wins, two seconds, and a third with $790,300 in earnings.
Now 82, Schwartz has 20 mares as well as 16 yearlings, 15 foals, 30 horses in training, and shares of two stallions. His racing operation, currently comprised of homebreds, has totaled 3,459 starts with 695 wins and earnings of $28,857,635 through July 15.
A former chairman and CEO of the New York Racing Association from 2000-04, Schwartz is a co-founder of Calvin Klein Inc., one of the world’s premier fashion manufacturers. Founded in 1968 by Schwartz and his childhood friend Calvin Klein with a $10,000 investment, the company had sales of $9.2 billion in 2022. ●
Art Bauer
What started as a Christmas wish from a daughter has turned into a decades-long pursuit in Thoroughbred racing and breeding for Art Bauer.
“My daughter is 40 now, but when she was 3 she wanted a horse for Christmas. We got her one and just never got out of it,” Bauer said.
It was Chestertown Farm manager Jeffery Raine who helped introduce Bauer to horse racing. “He taught me everything I know,” Bauer noted.
The pride and joy of Bauer farm, located near Waxhaw, N.C., is current 4-year-old mare Hartful Hope by Central Banker—She’s Stylish, by Posse. Before she raced, she was sold privately to a close friend of Bauer’s, Gerard Eckhardt, for the price of $1.50—Bauer still has the quarters!
In earning the 2023 North Carolina Breeder of the Year award, Bauer now credits this filly he sold for less than the typical minimum win bet.
Hartful Hope was the only horse to ever run under Eckhardt’s Jimmer Racing colors. In 2023 the then 3-year-old had four wins for Eckhardt.
By Ella Barnett
She broke her maiden May 22 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. The next two victories were registered at Belterra Park in Cincinnati. On Sept. 7, the daughter of Central Banker won a five-furlong allowance race at Belterra to earn $10,680. Later that same month at Belterra, she fought her way to the wire to win in a six-furlong allowance and earn $11,700.
Moving to Mahoning Valley Race Course, Hartful Hope secured her biggest win yet Dec. 18 and became the shining star of Bauer’s breeding program. The filly won a $27,500 allowance race. Bauer marks this race where Hartful Hope earned $16,500 as the highlight of his career.
Eckhardt, who died in February, faced physical challenges throughout his life tied to a car accident some 40 years ago.
“It was cathartic for me to give (Eckhardt) hope,” Bauer said. “I told him, ’If you’re fortunate enough to get to see this horse come out of the starting gate on a racetrack, you will not care if that horse turns around and runs backwards. It will be one of the best days of your life.’”
Bauer currently has two mares in foal, one by Engage and the other by Endorsed. He also has two yearlings, including an Irish War Cry filly out of She’s Stylish. Also on the track is the promising Stylish Girlfriend, a Friend or Foe half sister to Hartful Hope, bred by Bauer who earned placings in the first two starts of her career for owner NC Born and Bred. ●
By Tracy Gantz
Many have segued from riding show horses to owning racehorses. But Connie Erickson, the 2023 Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s Oregon breeder of the year, took it a step further. She originally bred and rode Lipizzans, the gorgeous white horses made famous by the Spanish Riding School of Vienna.
“I bred Lipizzans for 20 years,” Erickson said. “We used to have the director of the Spanish Riding School come and evaluate the breeding stock in America. I bred the highest-scoring mare and stallion in North America.”
A show called the Wonderful World of Horses featuring Lipizzans once toured the United States, and Erickson rode with that show as a young adult.
Connie and her husband, Lee, later established Ruah Ranch in Sublimity, Ore., “ruah” meaning the breath of God in Hebrew.
“We wanted it to be a place of peace,” Connie said.
They bred Lipizzans at first, coming in contact with racehorses only because a friend of Connie’s had one. During the economic downturn of 2008, a client of her friend’s trainer encountered financial problems, which led to Erickson taking one of that person’s in-foal mares “because I’m a sucker for baby horses.”
The Ericksons soon became enthralled with the excitement of racing, and they moved from Lipizzans to Thoroughbreds. They first stood the stallion Klinsman, a graded stakes-placed son of Danehill, and later acquired Rise Up through bloodstock agent George Adams. That millionaire son of
Rockport Harbor had won several stakes, including the 2013 Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes (G3).
Connie also serves as president of the Oregon Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. As such, she works hard to promote racing in a state that suffered a huge loss when its biggest track, Portland Meadows, closed in 2019.
Rise Up is siring runners for the Ericksons. They bred his son Whiskeyjack from the Victory Gallop mare Our Lindsay, and racing for them, Whiskeyjack won the 2023 OTOBA Juvenile Stakes at Grants Pass in his racing debut. He returned at 3 in 2024 at Emerald Downs in Washington, scoring in a July 3 allowance optional claimer.
The Ericksons also race Whiskey Harbor, a son of Rise Up—Ruby Romance, by Grindstone. The gelding won the 2023 King County Express Stakes by 4 1/4 lengths at Emerald.
Connie is looking forward to more runners by Rise Up. She and Lee have been acquiring mares they believe will cross well with him, and those foals will head to the races next year.
“The thing about racehorses is they all try their hearts out, even the ones that straggle home in last,” Connie said. “They’re out there doing what they can. I love that attitude, and I love the horses.” ●
Denmark native Christian Black has had an interest in horses since his childhood. After moving to America, he built up his first breeding business, Blackstone Farm, from scratch with just a few mares. Now Black owns and operates the entity with 18 broodmares in his barn.
Black has several breeder awards under his belt. Blackstone Farm has been the state’s leading overall breeder of Pennsylvania-breds for the past five years. Both Blackstone Farm and Forgotten Land Investment regularly rank among the top breeders in Pennsylvania. In 2023, Blackstone had $2,150,065 in earnings.
Black has produced a string of successful competitors in recent years. Most notable is Angel of Empire (Classic Empire–Armony’s Angel, by To Honor and Serve) in partnership with Black Diamond Equine. “He kind of came out of nowhere; he ended up being a really special horse,” said Black. Consigned by Warrendale Sales to the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Angel of Empire was sold to Albaugh Family Stables for $70,000. In 2023, the colt had outstanding performances in major graded races. He
By Ella Barnett
won the $1.25 million Arkansas Derby (G1) and the Risen Star Stakes (G2). Angel of Empire was the favorite going into the Kentucky Derby (G1). The colt placed third and earned $300,000. He also finished second in the Smarty Jones Stakes and third in the Jim Dandy Stakes (G2).
Angel of Empire was honored as the 2023 Pennsylvania Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association. In addition, he was awarded the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred/The Racing Biz Top Midlantic-bred of 2023.
Roses for Debra was another graded stakes winner for Black in 2023, bred by Blackstone Farm. The daughter of Liam’s Map, out of the Bernardini mare Essential Rose, won four of six starts last year for earnings of $320,650, led by wins in the Caress Stakes (G3T) and Smart N Fancy Stakes, both at Saratoga Race Course. The mare has already notched a graded win and placing in 2024 from two starts.
“He was quite the sprinter,” said Black about a Nyquist colt named New York Thunder which he bred in partnership with Gatewood Bell. In 2023, New York Thunder had three starts with two wins and earnings of $165,123. He won the Amsterdam Stakes (G2) and the Woodstock Stakes. Sadly, New York Thunder was euthanized after a fatal injury in the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes (G1). “It was incredibly tragic when New York Thunder died. He was a special horse.” ●
The longtime owner of the Elloree Training Center in Elloree, S.C., Franklin G. Smith Sr. got his first horse in 1972 and his work encompasses virtually all elements of the Thoroughbred racing industry, from foals, to horses in training, to breeding stock. A multiple winner of awards for South Carolina owners and breeders, Smith was represented in the winner’s circle in 2023 by 13 horses he bred.
Topping the list by earnings is Swayin to and Fro, a South Carolina-bred daughter of Straight Talking who stood at Smith’s Elloree Training Center. Smith campaigned the mare for her first three starts before Baxter Racing Stable claimed her in May 2022. Swayin to and Fro placed in the What A Summer Stakes in January 2023 before winning the Barbara Fritchie Stakes (G3) in her only other start of the year, amassing earnings of $170,000 for the season and career earnings of $476,537.
Another daughter of Straight Talking bred by Smith, Performanceanxiety, notched four wins for earnings of $81,540 in 2023 while her half sister, Haint Blue, won twice and earned $77,320. Smith has bred four winners from five starters out of their dam Theatricality, all by Smith’s stallions Straight Talking and Done Talking.
By Teresa Genaro
Done Talking stands at Smith’s Elloree Training Center for $1,500. A son of Broken Vow, Done Talking won the 2012 Illinois Derby (G3) and ran in the Kentucky Derby (G1) that year, finishing 14th. Out of a full sister to Straight Talking, Done Talking sired eight of the 13 winners Smith bred in 2023, including Haint Blue and Miss Fussy Pants, who notched three wins and earnings of $75,155 in 2023.
Maryland-based stallions Irish War Cry and Divining Rod sired three of the winners Smith bred in 2023, including Porch Swing (by Irish War Cry), and half sisters Looking for Water (Divining Rod) and Spencerian (Irish War Cry). The latter two are the only foals to date out of Smith’s homebred Cursive, by Straight Talking, who earned more than $180,000 on the track with a 6-6-2 record in 30 starts. As is the case with most of Smith’s horses, Cursive was trained by Smith’s brother Hamilton, who is based at Laurel Park.
Smith counts among the best horses he bred stakes-winning Intelligent Male (by Ride the Storm–Likearone), who earned nearly $340,000.
In 2006, Smith purchased Hugo (by Stormy Atlantic) out of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearling Sale, paying $16,000 for the son of stakesplaced Go Baby Go. Hugo won five races, including the 2009 John D. Marsh Stakes at Colonial Downs and upon his retirement stood at the Elloree Training Center. ●
Carolyn R. Barnett
It all started in 1977, when Carolyn Barnett picked out a chestnut filly with a blaze face. Her friend, an attorney, had just bought a group of horses. He talked her into buying one and told her to pick the one she liked from a pasture of five yearlings. She picked the “pretty” one, who turned out to be stakesplaced and stakes-producing My Sunlit.
Sunlit Song, 2023 Horse of the Year and champion older male in Texas, is the fifth generation of a line that started with My Sunlit.
Barnett’s Sunlit Song had a banner year in 2023. The then 8-year-old gelding, by My Golden Song, earned $227,192 to mark his best year to date. He won five of his six starts; three of those wins came in black-type stakes races. His lifetime earnings record is 18-13-6 from 45 starts with earnings of $757,520 through July 12.
Barnett has downsized a lot since the last time she won the Texas breeder of the year, in 1989. She has just one broodmare on Blueblood Ridge Thoroughbred Farm near Pollok, Texas—Sunlit Song’s dam Fly So True. She was named 2023 Texas broodmare of the year. She has four “pasture ornaments,” one of them being Sunlit Song’s second dam Truly Sunlit.
When the Secretariat Stakes (G2T) moved to Colonial Downs in Virginia last summer, it was appropriate that a Virginia-bred, Gigante, would prove successful. Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner and remembered as one of the best racehorses of modern Thoroughbred racing, was himself a Virginia-bred.
So it is also fitting that 91-year-old Ann Mudge Backer, who bred Gigante at Smitten Farm in The Plains, Va., now receives an honor—named by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders’ Association as its Virginia breeder of the year.
Last year, Ann Mudge Backer and Smitten Farm took third place among Virginia breeder bonus earners with $122,027. Among their 15 awards were six wins, with Gigante responsible for four of those. This year, a couple of fillies they retained for racing—an Arrogate 3-yearold named Nancy Forde and a 2-year-old Not This Time named Marital Trust—could potentially generate 2024 awards. The duo are unraced through July 4 but have recorded promising works at Saratoga Race Course for trainer Barclay Tagg.
Gigante, Spanish for giant, stood tallest for his breeder in 2023, winning not only the Secretariat Stakes but also three other stakes for owners
“She’s 25 and still going strong,” said Barnett.
By Olivia Newman
Barnett currently has four horses in training, three of those in a partnership with Becky Harding. Two of them include a half brother to Sunlit Song, Truly Danzig, and a half sister, Suddenly Sunlit, both by Etesaal.
“I’ve had a lot of horses, 20-30 at some point. I ran My Sunlit, I ran all of her fillies, four generations, and just kept keeping the mares. Many of them were just really nice. And then here comes this boy (Sunlit Song). Six years we have been on a cloud,” she said.
Barnett’s care for her horses has made a huge impact on her success in the industry. She credited her trainer Mindy J. Willis for her patience. She said they agree on everything.
“They start when they’re ready. I like having them around longer,” she said. Sunlit Song did not start until he was 3, and it has certainly paid off. Barnett said Sunlit Song and mare Mineisthesunit have been her “oncein-a-lifetime” horses. Mineisthesunit won 20 races for Barnett racing from 1985-90.
As a small breeder, the accomplishments of one blue-blooded family have been incredible. Barnett quickly got addicted to the Thoroughbred business after her keen eye picked out My Sunlit as a yearling.
“If you like a roller coaster, jump right in,” she said. ●
By Byron King
Diamond T Racing and Iapetus Racing and Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.
A $120,000 purchase from the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Gigante is by Not This Time out of the Empire Maker mare Summertime Green. He hails from a Backer family that goes back three generations to 1992, when Backer’s late husband, William Backer, acquired Gigante’s third dam, Deep Enough.
Gigante has “been a really special horse for us because he’s out of one of our last remaining homebreds,” said Hunter Lee Marek, equine manager at Smitten Farm.
An advertising executive by trade, the late William Backer created the iconic Coke advertisement of the 1970s that with the still-remembered catchy tune, “I’d like to teach the world to sing.”
After he died in 2016, Ann Mudge Backer scaled back their operation. She currently has eight broodmares, selling the vast majority of their produce.
“I think Mr. Backer loved the Thoroughbred industry. He loved the racing; he loved the social aspect of it,” Marek said. “Mrs. Backer is a breeder. She loves her mares, and she loves her foals, and if that’s all she had and she could just go out and give her horses carrots every evening, she would be happy.
“So even though we do not own Gigante and we sold him as a yearling, she knows that she will always be recognized as the breeder. So I think at the end of the day, she is just thankful for these horses that she brings into the world and sends off to go on and be successful.” ●
Sheridan Jones and Ken W. Miles
Driven by a passion for seeing their horses run, Ken Miles and Sheridan Jones have carved a name for themselves on the West Coast as Thoroughbred breeders.
Partnering on the breeding of horses such as Old Pal, the partners put an emphasis on every horse being special. “I’m a little guy, I don’t have a big stable of broodmares and horses. To me, every one of them is special and it means a lot watching them run,” Miles said.
Miles got into racing through his family. “I went to a racetrack with my sister and her then-boyfriend and found my way down to the paddock and started looking at these beautiful athletes and fell in love with it.”
Miles was solidified in the horse world when his youngest sister got a horse. He has owned and bred horses for more than 20 years.
Miles’ first significant step was racing a filly named Time for Magic, who later became the cornerstone of his breeding program. From Time for Magic, Miles bred Athina Lee, a daughter of English Channel. “I fell in love with her the minute she was born, she was so beautiful.”
By Ella Barnett
In 2010 Athina Lee was the sale topper at the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association Yearling and Mixed sale. With a winning bid of $80,000, the filly remained the poster horse for the sale for seven years. The Washington-bred saw some success on the track, but her real value has been back as a broodmare for Miles and Jones’ operation.
Sheridan Jones was introduced to Miles through the purchase of a filly named Starrian. This partnership would prove pivotal as the two worked together to repurchase Athina Lee and make her the operation’s main broodmare.
Athina Lee has produced two stakes performers for the partnership, stakes-placed Ferrariano (by Mshawish) and 2023 stakes winner Old Pal. Named in honor of Miles’ parents, Old Pal was a $160,000 yearling at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton California Yearling Sale. The Grazen colt won the 2023 Snow Chief Stakes at Santa Anita Park to cap a 2-1-1 record from four starts and earnings of $151,160 in 2023.
Athina Lee also produced 2023 winners Amanda Rose (by Shaman Ghost) and Zabracadabra for the partnership. Zabracadabra holds $367,348 in earnings from 26 starts. Named by Sheridan, the 2017 chestnut gelding is the top-earning horse from the partners’ breeding program.
Miles and Jones credit their success to keeping up to date on studbooks, and in Miles’ words, “If you don’t have lady luck on your shoulder, you could have all the money in the world and it wouldn’t matter.” ●
Sat., October 12, 2024 Post Time 7:00 pm
Time for Trouble became the first horse in the Claiming Crown’s 25-year history to win the same Claiming Crown starter race backto-back when he captured the Kent Stirling Memorial Iron Horse in 2023 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots after capturing the race a year earlier at Churchill Downs.
Now Time for Trouble has a title befitting that unique accomplishment, named the 2023 Claiming Crown Horse of the Year.
The English Channel gelding gamely won two of seven starts in 2023 and earned $186,970, faring best in dirt routes. He prevailed in a photo finish over 2022 Preakness Stakes (G1) show finisher and Belmont Stakes (G1) competitor Creative Minister in an allowance optional claiming race at Keeneland in April 2023, and he concluded the season by running down Proverb by a head in the Iron Horse over a sloppy track at Fair Grounds in his final start of the season.
Also in 2023, he ran second to dirt marathon specialist Next in the 1 ¾-mile Birdstone Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
By Byron King
Only four starts on the turf last year resulted in performances less than his best for Louisville, Ky.-based trainer Jeff Hiles, who co-owns him with Thorndale Stable’s Paul Parker of Paducah, Ky.
Time for Trouble was bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm out of the Galileo mare Starstruck.
In a National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association press release announcing Time for Trouble as the Claiming Crown Horse of the Year, Hiles said of the Claiming Crown, “We’re going back in it this year, if he stays healthy.”
These are noteworthy achievements for a horse claimed for only $8,000 just over three years ago. Hiles and Parker won a 12-way shake, or random draw, when 11 others submitted a claim for Time for Trouble.
“I think it’s wonderful that they give an award like this, anything you can do for guys like me," Parker said in the National HBPA release. "It’s great to get any kind of accolade at the level I play at. I’ve got one mare I breed. I’ve got a shot of getting a good horse one day. But am I ever going to win the Breeders’ Cup? Am I able to even think about getting a Horse of the Year? I doubt it. But to get Claiming Crown Horse of the Year, that’s something.” ●
In 2023, the Thoroughbred mare A Lil Evil showed that she’s more than a “lil” bit talented.
A non-winner from six starts on the track, A Lil Evil found her athletic calling off the track…and in the show ring. At the Sept. 24 Kentucky National Horse Show, the flashy but petite chestnut won the Jumper Division at the TAKE2 Finals. Last year’s edition of the contest was her fourth time competing; A Lil Evil finished second in the Jumper Division in 2020.
TAKE2 Second Career Thoroughbred Program is a non-profit started in 2012—the year A Lil Evil was foaled. The organization celebrates the many ways Thoroughbreds can thrive in second careers after leaving the racetrack, including as show horses. TAKE2 teams up with horse shows rated by the United States Equestrian Federation to offer lucrative shows for members of the TAKE2 Thoroughbred League. These shows are highlighted by the annual $20,000 TAKE2 Hunter and Jumper Finals. The 2024 Hunter and Jumper divisions each had prizes of $10,000, so with her win, A Lil Evil and her connections are now more than a “lil” richer. And who are those connections? Kathryn Currey trains and rides the now
By Carly Silver
12-year-old mare, owned by her husband, Christian. Kathryn purchased A Lil Evil a few years back, in 2016. At the time, she was headed to Thistledown in North Randall, Ohio, to pick up another horse; at her request, Currey, who has been deeply involved in rehoming horses, was shown other Thoroughbreds. She brought home A Lil Evil for just $400, and the rest is history.
During their years as a team, Currey and A Lil Evil have become familiar faces in high-stakes arenas. In addition to being runners-up in the 2020 Jumper Division at the TAKE2 Finals, they won the 1.10-meter amateur jumper competition at the 2019 Hampton Classic Horse Show in New York. Perhaps it’s not surprising that A Lil Evil is building on a deep-rooted class. After all, she’s by hard-knocking Florida-bred Hear No Evil, a son of Carson City who won six of 37 starts and earned $599,415.
One of the reasons A Lil Evil stood out to Currey is because her dam, Lil McTee, is a daughter of 1992 Kentucky Derby (G1) victor Lil E. Tee. She previously rode a son of that classic winner. Lil McTee’s fifth dam, Real Delight, garnered championship honors as both top 3-year-old filly and older mare in 1952.
In her day job, Tennessee-based Currey is involved in equine-related activities. On social media, Etalon Equine Genetics, which offers DNA tests for horses to reveal your equine’s genetic heritage, praised team member Currey. The company congratulated Currey and A Lil Evil—nicknamed “Evie”—praising “their unstoppable bond.” ●
There comes a point for many farm owners where they have to make the difficult decision on the future of their land. Peter Giangiulio and his sister Barbara Geraghty of Castle Rock Farm in Unionville, Pa., recently made that tough decision and hope their decision sets an example.
As an attorney, Giangiulio considered and researched all avenues regarding the future of their farm. Along with his wife, Stephanie, and brother-in-law Bill, Giangiulio and Geraghty decided to preserve their 113-acre farm in 2022 with Natural Lands, a nonprofit organization that saves open space, cares for nature, and connects people to the outdoors in eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.
“You have a responsibility to the land, to the animals,” Giangiulio said. “You’re not losing anything by doing this, you’re gaining so much.”
Using a land protection tool known as conservation easement, Natural Lands has ensured the property is never developed, preserving the pastoral, scenic views of the Brandywine Creek Valley. Castle Rock Farm can still be sold, but cannot be developed.
“You’ve grown very fond of the land and your neighbors, and everything that goes into it, that ultimately has a greater value than whatever money difference,” Giangiulio said.
By Sean Collins
The Brandywine runs through a portion of the property and is a popular place for locals to enjoy outdoor activities like kayaking and fishing.
“There’s a value to that and you can’t replace it,” Giangiulio said. “We did it for the right reasons. I am very proud of my family and my wife for seeing the best avenue for green space, for the neighborhood, for the people that enjoy it.”
In addition to his connection to the land that Giangiulio started working on with the horses when he was 8 years old, he also feels a responsibility to his horses.
Giangiulio and Geraghty have both followed their father’s passion for horses through owning and breeding Thoroughbreds. Giangiulio is a former president of the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association and currently serves on their board. In addition, he is the vice president of Ryerss Farm for Aged Equines in Pottstown, Pa., a retirement farm for horses of all breeds. Having recently completed his 54th foaling season, Giangiulio has a deep connection to his horses and uses his farm as a sanctuary in their old age.
“What do you do with your friends?” he asked about developing the land. “That was part of the matter of trust that we accepted.”
In addition to his family, Giangiulio also thanked his farm manager June Hillman for her support over her 29 years of service at the farm.
“This is a team,” Giangiulio said. “Everyone is just as important as everyone else.” ●
Boasting the Horse of the Year as well as an additional graded stakes winner in 2023 helped Godolphin’s Dance Card land the national Broodmare of the Year award from the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.
Leading the way for the winning broodmare of 2023 would be Cody’s Wish, who posted grade 1 wins in the Metropolitan Handicap (G1), Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1), and Churchill Downs Stakes (G1), as well as a grade 2 score in the Vosburgh Stakes (G2) to secure Eclipse Awards as Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male.
“She’s very special to us,” said Godolphin USA director of bloodstock Michael Banahan. “This of course is an award that means a lot to us and it’s the first time we’ve had a broodmare honored like this since Cara Rafaela (dam of classic winner Bernardini).”
A homebred for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin, Cody’s Wish, a son of Curlin, has begun his stallion career at Darley near Lexington, where he stood the 2024 season for $75,000. Before his 2023 Horse of the Year campaign, he won the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) and Forego Stakes (G1). He finished with five grade 1 wins in his career.
By Frank Angst
Also lifting Dance Card in 2023 was Mark Breen’s 7-year-old Endorsed, by Medaglia d’Oro, who captured the Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes (G2). Bred in Kentucky by Godolphin, Endorsed initially raced as a homebred before being sold privately to Breen. He showed durability on the track in posting a 7-8-5 record and $970,133 in earnings from 36 career starts. The two-time stakes winner stood the 2024 season for $5,000 at Northview Stallion Station near Chesapeake City, Md.
On the track, Dance Card delivered an impressive 3-year-old season in 2012 for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin topped by a victory in the Gazelle Stakes (G1) and the Belle Cherie Stakes. At age 4 the daughter of Tapit would add placings in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) and the Gallant Bloom Handicap (G2).
While it was not an extensive racing career, Dance Card showed her superior talent in her biggest races. Banahan said as a broodmare her conformation is a good fit with a number of stallions and that after a bit of a slow start, she hit her stride and then went to the very top level with Cody’s Wish.
Bred in Kentucky by Bruce McMillin, Dance Card is out of the stakesplaced Editor’s Note mare Tempting Note, who also has produced Tempted to Tapit, a full brother to Dance Card who placed in a pair of graded stakes. Currently Dance Card has a 2-year-old filly by Street Sense named Spirit of Hope, a yearling filly by Gun Runner, as well as a weanling filly by Curlin. ●
By Molly Rollins
This year’s Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s Dr. J. David Richardson Industry Service Award recognizes Frank Taylor, the founder of the trailblazing nonprofit organization Stable Recovery.
Taylor, the director of new business development at his family’s Taylor Made Farm near Nicholasville, Ky., launched the program in 2021 with 10 recovering addicts. Three and a half years later, the organization has expanded and grown exponentially, and currently houses 52 men in facilities across the Bluegrass State.
“I really think the program could be all over the country and even all over the world in 10 years,” Taylor said. “We’ve got the model pretty much perfected at this point. My vision is that we could get a dormitory on the back of one of these racetracks soon.”
Stable Recovery was inspired by Taylor’s mentor, Rob Perez, who runs DV8 Kitchen in downtown Lexington. Inspired by the workers in Perez’s kitchen, all recovering addicts, Taylor implemented Stable Recovery with the help of Perez. The nationally accredited 501(c)(3) program, which takes in men from across the country, requires its participants to adhere to a strict military-like regime on their quest for sobriety. Taylor explained that the men must wake up at 5 a.m. every day, attend an AA meeting, work from 7-4 p.m. on the farm or learn their lessons at the School of Horsemanship, and then attend another AA meeting upon returning to the dormitory. Although the schedule is grueling, men come out of the program with not just new skills, but a new lease on life.
“It’s a big key to have purposeful work for them and teach them the skills where they have a shot to move forward,” Taylor said. “These guys come here, they get exposed to horses, and some of them have never touched
a horse before. So they get that experience but then we start talking to them in their first 30 days about what direction they would want to go.”
After completing the Stable Recovery program, many of the men find employment with the organization’s network of partners.
Frank Taylor
“The first two years, we hired everyone who came out of the program at Taylor Made. And then we got fully staffed,” Taylor said. “We didn’t reach out to other farms, other farms reached out to us and said they were looking for help. So we built these strategic alliances with about 10 major farms, veterinary clinics, and transportation businesses in the industry. We have people at 10 different places now. And we’re still taking on more strategic partners.”
One of the most fulfilling aspects of Stable Recovery to Taylor is not just the statistics—the program boasts a sobriety rate three times the national average—but that the organization has reunited 802 family members over a 3 ½-year span.
“I feel confident we’ve saved some lives,” Taylor said. “It’s been good for the industry, it’s been good for them, it’s been great for society. You’re turning nontaxpayers into taxpayers. You’re giving people hope and purpose and that’s what they need. It’s very effective and it’s amazing how good it works. It amazes me that someone hasn’t been doing this earlier.” ●
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners
Established in 2011 by Aron Wellman, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners merged in 2013 with Cot Campbell’s Dogwood Stable. In 2023, the partnership set a new record for earnings with $2,477,236, primarily as a result of the success of their multiple grade 1 winner Anisette. (That total includes only horses owned solely by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, not those owned in partnership with other entities.)
Eclipse purchased the filly privately after she began her career in England, selling as a yearling for $37,776 at the 2021 Tattersalls Somerville Sale to Avenue Bloodstock. By Awtaad, a group 1-winning Shadwell stallion, she is out of the Teofilo mare Tutti Frutti. Anisette made her first United States start in May of last year, and she won four of six races in 2023, including the San Clemente Stakes (G2T) and the Del Mar Oaks and American Oaks (both G1T). She ran second in two other races, both graded stakes.
By Teresa Genaro
Eclipse celebrated another grade 1 win with Candied, winner of the Alcibiades Stakes (G1), and they teamed up with Walmac Farm to win the Breeders’ Futurity (G1) with Locked, purchased for $425,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
In 2020 at that sale, Eclipse and Repole Stable purchased Nest, a daughter of Curlin, for $350,000. Joined by Michael House, they campaigned her to an Eclipse-winning season in 2022, and Nest returned last year to win the Shuvee Stakes (G2).
In 2015, Eclipse joined Bridlewood Farm and Robert LaPenta to pay $1.2 million for a Tapit colt at Fasig-Tipton’s The Saratoga Sale. Two years later, Eclipse and their partners accepted the 2017 Belmont Stakes (G1) trophy when that colt, Tapwrit, won the third leg of the Triple Crown.
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners compiled a record, as sole owner, of 22-1724 from 133 starters. The partnership currently boasts a roster of more than 100 horses. ●
With a history of campaigning turf stars such as Singletary, Egg Drop and Mirth, it came as no surprise when Billy Koch’s Little Red Feather Racing delivered more top grass runners in 2023. Coming in atop a talented bunch is Gold Phoenix (IRE), whom LRF campaigns with Marsha Naify and Sterling Stables. A multiple graded stakes winner last year, the Irish-bred gelding triumphed at the sport’s top tier by capturing the Frank E. Kilroe Mile Stakes (G1T) at Santa Anita Park.
After finishing 10th in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T), Gold Phoenix glittered in his 2023 debut. In the Kilroe, Gold Phoenix’s first start of the year, the chestnut posted a victory at odds of 10-1. Next time out, he ran
By Carly Silver
fourth in the April 8 Charles Whittingham Stakes (G2T), then he ran seventh in the Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1T), all at Santa Anita. Heading to Del Mar, the son of Belardo scored in the July 30 Eddie Read Stakes (G2T) and Sept. 2 Del Mar Handicap (G2T). Back at “the Great Race Place,” Gold Phoenix ran fifth in the Oct. 1 John Henry Turf Championship Stakes (G2T) and fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. In 2023, he won three of seven starts and earned $846,500.
With Madaket Stables and The Estate of Brereton C. Jones, the partnership races the chestnut colt Conclude, who won three consecutive stakes in 2023. A son of 2012 Kentucky Oaks (G1) victress Believe You Can, he captured the Sept. 3 Del Mar Derby (G2T) at Del Mar.
LRF also sent out Elm Drive, who annexed the April 8 Monrovia Stakes (G3) and May 20 Mizdirection Stakes in 2023, both at Santa Anita. In seven 2023 starts, the daughter of Mohaymen won or placed in five starts and earned $288,500. ●
By Teresa Genaro
Michael E. Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman have been a winning partnership since 2007, and over the last 17 years, they’ve won some of the biggest races in the United States, including the 2019 Whitney Stakes (G1) with McKinzie; the 2016 Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes and 2014 Clark Handicap (both G1) with Hoppertunity; the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) with Secret Circle; and the 2010 Preakness Stakes (G1) with Lookin At Lucky.
In 2023, their success was concentrated on the West Coast, where they won five graded stakes races. Topped by Defunded’s win in the Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes (G1), the partnership earned $2,668,326, falling just $33,695 short of equaling their 2022 prize money, the highest in the partnership.
“The Three Amigos,” the name in which they purchase horses, bought Defunded as a yearling for $210,000 from the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and the Dialed In gelding earned more than $1.6 million for them before being sold privately at the end of 2023 for an undisclosed price to Dr. Muhaideb Abdullah Almuhaideb’s HDB Racing Stable.
Other 2023 highlights included Speed Boat Beach’s year-ending win in the Malibu Stakes (G1), the first victory at that level for the son of
Bayern. The dark bay or brown colt also finished second in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes (G2) for earnings of $320,000 for the year. In January 2023, Havnameltdown captured the San Vicente Stakes (G2) and in March he was runner-up in the Saudi Derby (G3) at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh. The 3-year-old’s promising career was cut short when he was fatally injured during the running of the Chick Lang Stakes (G3) on the Preakness Stakes (G1) undercard.
Though known more for owning than breeding, Pegram, Watson, and Weitman also got a homebred stakes win when their Midnight Memories won the Bayakoa Stakes (G3) at Los Alamitos Race Course. Watson and Weitman also bred her graded stakes-winning dam Tiz Midnight. ●
By Bob Ehalt
The frequent partnership of Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables has turned two successful operations into one dynamic unit.
In 2023, for a second straight year, Mike Repole and Vinnie and Teresa Viola of St. Elias Stables teamed to campaign an Eclipse Award winner as their 4-year-old Up to the Mark was voted champion turf male.
A son of Not This Time, Up to the Mark won five of seven 2023 starts, including a trio of grade 1 grass stakes, the Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland, Manhattan Stakes (G1T) at Belmont Park, and Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) at Churchill Downs.
He also came within three-quarters of a length of adding the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T) to that dazzling list of wins but had to settle for a runner-up finish behind dual European classic winner Auguste Rodin.
Now a stallion at Lane’s End, Up to the Mark earned $2,427,650 in his championship season.
The partners’ 2022 champion, 2-year-old male Forte, also provided the Repole-St. Elias partnership with a 2023 grade 1 win, capturing the Florida Derby (G1). In addition, the Violence 3-year-old won the Jim Dandy
(G2) and Fountain of Youth (G2) stakes and was second in his lone Triple Crown start, the Belmont Stakes (G1).
The partners campaigned a third grade 1 winner in Bright Future, who captured the Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. Rounding out the list of 2023 graded stakes winners was 2-year-old Agate Road in the Pilgrim Stakes (G2T).
In 2023, Repole and the Violas were represented by 136 starts, who posted 41 wins, 22 seconds, and 23 thirds and earnings of $6,840,790.
Partners since 2016, they also campaigned Vino Rosso, winner of the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) and that year’s Eclipse champion older dirt male. ●
2023 Cot Campbell
SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Robert E. Masterson, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Jay A. Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital LLC, and Catherine Donovan
When your partnership largely comes together to campaign a Triple Crown winner, it’s not surprising that several years later the venture is still going strong.
For the group commonly referred to as “The Avengers,” it all began in 2018 when SF Bloodstock sold its racing rights share to eventual Triple Crown winner Justify to Starlight Racing and Sol Kumin’s Head of Plains Partners.
Later in the year, SF and Starlight joined forces with Kumin’s Madaket Stables to purchase about two dozen colts at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale and one of them turned out to be the Bob Baffert-trained Authentic, the 2020 Horse of the Year and Kentucky Derby (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner.
The group, with Tom Ryan of SF serving as managing partner, added partners since then and continues to enjoy success in grade 1 stakes and the Triple Crown.
By Eric Mitchell
In 2023 National Treasure brought the partnership of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Robert Masterson, and Catherine Donovan, along with Jay Schoenfarber and Waves Edge Capital, into the national spotlight when he captured the Preakness Stakes (G1) and lost by a nose to Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1).
As a 4-year-old in 2024, National Treasure has continued to land grade 1 wins, taking the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) and Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1).
Other 2023 graded stakes winners for the partners included Newgate in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G3), Fort Bragg in the Dwyer Stakes (G3), and Reincarnate in the Sham Stakes (G3). As a group, the partners saw 65 starts for 15 wins, 13 seconds, and eight thirds and earnings of $2,745,638.
“When you consider the success we’ve had, with the number of horses we’ve had, it’s a testament to what can happen when good people come together with a common purpose,” said Jack Wolf, founder and managing partner of Starlight Racing.
The partnership has numerous other entities involved in the group. ●
By Carly Silver
Triumph and tragedy went hand-in-hand for Joe Fafone in 2023.
Fafone is the breeder of New York-bred filly Maple Leaf Mel, who went from state-bred star to multiple graded stakes winner. Sadly, she suffered a catastrophic injury a few feet from the wire in the Aug. 5 Test Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.
Fafone got Maple Leaf Mel as the result of a mating between Cross Traffic and the City Place mare City Gift. Paul Neatherlin purchased the gray/ roan filly at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $18,000. The next year, at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training sale, August Dawn Farm—owned by legendary NFL coach Bill Parcells—bought her for $150,000.
Named for cancer survivor Melanie Giddings, the former assistant trainer to Jeremiah Englehart who eventually became the filly’s sole conditioner, Maple Leaf Mel was undefeated in two starts at 2. She continued her winning ways in 2023 as her record remained spotless in every race she finished. The 3-year-old filly kicked off the year in fine fashion, romping by
7 ¾ lengths in the March 24 East View Stakes at Aqueduct. Next time out, she headed to Pimlico, where she posted a 1 ½-length victory in the Miss Preakness Stakes (G3) May 19, the day before the Preakness Stakes (G1).
On the Belmont Park undercard, Maple Leaf Mel annexed the June 8 Victory Ride Stakes (G3), named for the 2001 Test Stakes victress.
Maple Leaf Mel received posthumous honors as New York-bred Horse of the Year and the top 3-year-old filly and female sprinter bred in the Empire State.
Fafone also is the breeder of Luna Loca, a daughter of Malibu Moon–Sweet Love, by Any Given Saturday, who won a starter allowance race in 2023. ●
By Carly Silver
For breeder Elizabeth Merryman, the broodmare Zeezee Zoomzoom has been nothing short of a gold mine. The 12-year-old daughter of Congrats has produced two standout stakes winners, highlighted by turf superstar Caravel, for Pennsylvania-based Merryman. In 2017, Zeezee Zoomzoom foaled a gray filly to the cover of Mizzen Mast. Eventually named Caravel, she RNA’ed for $330,000 at the Wanamaker’s October Online Auction in 2020, then sold for $500,000 to horseman Fergus Galvin at Fasig-Tipton’s The November Sale in 2021. Already at the top of the fleet-footed grass runner game by winning the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1T), Caravel didn’t let up in 2023 for owners Qatar Racing, Marc Detampel, and Madaket Stables. Caravel kicked off the year with a win in the April 8 Shakertown Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland, heading over to Churchill Downs to annex the May 5 Unbridled Sidney Stakes. On June 10, she registered her fifth straight win in the Jaipur Stakes (G1T) at Belmont Park, beating the boys by three-quarters of a length. Caravel finished fourth in the Aug. 5 Troy Stakes (G3T) at Saratoga Race Course, second in Keeneland’s Franklin Stakes (G2T) Oct.
15, and 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. She RNA’ed for $2.4 million at the 2023 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Retired to stud, Caravel was bred to Triple Crown winner and leading sire Justify for 2025.
Elizabeth M. Merryman
But Caravel isn’t the limit for Zeezee Zoomzoom and Merryman. To the cover of Great Notion, Zeezee Zoomzoom yielded a colt in 2019, eventually named Witty. Racing for Merryman, Witty hit his stride in 2023, winning or placing in eight of 11 starts and earning $229,360. His top races came in the Ben’s Cat Stakes and Maryland Million Turf Sprint Stakes. In 2024, Witty has already won the King T. Leatherbury Stakes and placed in a grade 2 stakes for Merryman and partners Qatar Racing and Detampel. ●
The first time’s the charm for breeder Amy Moore. The first Thoroughbred she bought turned into a multiple stakes winner. Then, that multiple stakes winner turned into a blue-chip broodmare, yielding a champion for the retired lawyer.
At the 2014 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Moore purchased a filly by 2010 champion older horse Blame, out of stakes winner Queens Plaza, for $170,000. Named Queen Caroline, the mare won multiple stakes in 2016 and 2017 and earned $401,608 in a 20-start career. Retired to Moore’s fledgling broodmare band at South Gate Farm in Millwood, Va., Queen Caroline managed to outdo herself in the breeding shed.
Bred to the speedy Violence, she produced a dark bay/brown colt in 2020. Named Forte, he sold to Silver Hill Farm for $80,000 at that year’s
By Corrie McCroskey
Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale; he was pinhooked for $110,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale to ultimate owners Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables. In the fall of 2022, Forte posted three consecutive grade 1 wins—in the Hopeful Stakes, Breeders’ Futurity, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile—which earned him an Eclipse Award as top juvenile male. Forte remained among the best of his crop in 2023. He sprang onto the Kentucky Derby (G1) trail with wins in the March 4 Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) and April 1 Florida Derby (G1), both at Gulfstream Park. Scratched from the Run for the Roses, Forte finished second in the June 10 Belmont Stakes (G1), won the July 29 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2), and ran fourth in the Aug. 26 Travers Stakes (G1). Retired to stud, he held court at Spendthrift Farm near Lexington for $50,000 in 2024.
For her part, Queen Caroline, in foal to 2022 Horse of the Year Flightline, sold for $3 million at Fasig-Tipton’s The November Sale in 2023. Moore currently serves as president of the Virginia Thoroughbred Association. ●
By Eric Mitchell
Sheikh Mohammed’s mighty international Godolphin breeding and racing program continues to ride a wave of success that has delivered two consecutive titles as National Breeder of the Year from the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.
In 2023 Godolphin became the fourth breeder since 1998 to top the standings maintained by The Jockey Club for three consecutive years and earned the additional distinction of being the first individual breeder with more than $20 million in purses from the United States and Canada during a calendar year.
In 2023 Godolphin campaigned 16 homebred stakes winners, which included 14 graded stakes winners and of these seven won grade 1 stakes. Godolphin’s superstars for the year were multiple grade 1 winners Cody’s Wish, Pretty Mischievous, and Master of The Seas.
Cody’s Wish owned the limelight, as the namesake of the late Cody Dorman, a young man afflicted with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a genetic condition that left him unable to walk or talk. He made a connection with the colt during a trip to Gainsborough Farm arranged by the Make-A-Wish Foundation and together they inspired the racing community. Cody’s Wish won
four of five starts in 2023, capping the year with a second consecutive win in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1)—his third grade 1 win for the year—that locked down honors as Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male.
Pretty Mischievous also had a championship season with three grade 1 wins that included the Kentucky Oaks (G1), Acorn (G1), and Test (G1) stakes. She was never worse than second in six graded stakes and was named champion 3-year-old filly for the year.
International traveler Master of The Seas also made an impact at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships where he won the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T) after earlier taking the Woodbine Mile Stakes (G1T). The 5-yearold son of Dubawi won graded/group stakes in the U.A.E., England, and North America. ●
By Sean Collins
Horses bred by Juddmonte had another sensational year in 2023, leading to their nomination for National Breeder of the Year. With 66 winners, 58 second-place finishes, and 58 thirds from 425 starters, horses bred across the world by Juddmonte took home $5,012,726 in purse earnings in North American races.
Juddmonte-bred runners took home 12 stakes, including nine graded and five grade 1s, in North America during the 2023 season. Among their highlights were champion Idiomatic, Set Piece, and Whitebeam, all out of Juddmonte homebred mares.
A daughter of Curlin, Idiomatic led the way with $2,400,280 in earnings in a stellar season that saw her win eight of nine starts. Among her five graded stakes wins were the Personal Ensign Stakes (G1), Spinster Stakes (G1), and Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1). The Brad Cox trainee was undeniably named the Eclipse champion older dirt female and was a finalist for Horse of the Year.
While Idiomatic was bred in Kentucky and experienced her success on dirt, Juddmonte’s success in producing North American grade 1 winners extended to their England operations as British-bred Set Piece and White-
beam each earned top-level accolades on the grass.
In 2023, the 7-year-old Dansili gelding Set Piece broke through with his first top-level victory in the historic Arlington Million Stakes (G1T) at Colonial Downs. Adding a victory in Churchill Downs’ Arlington Stakes (G3T) and placings in the Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) and Wise Dan Stakes (G2T), Set Piece completed his season with $925,660 in purse earnings.
Moving to the United States after starting her career in Europe, Whitebeam made an immediate splash with victories in the Diana Stakes (G1T) and Gallorette Stakes (G3T). With earnings of $404,281 and trained by Chad Brown, the daughter of Caravaggio set herself up as a major player in the female turf division for the 2024 season. ●
The perennial goal for Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings is to produce elite racehorses and whether they compete in her silks or not is secondary.
Banke again met that goal in 2023 as the breeder of three grade 1 winners and multiple graded stakes winners.
These accomplishments put Stonestreet squarely in the running for a National Breeder title from the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.
“Barbara takes amazing pride in every breeding aspect of our business. So to be in a position where you can win these awards is something we really strive for,” said John Moynihan, bloodstock adviser for Stonestreet.
By Eric Mitchell
Stonestreet bred 14 black-type winners in 2023, which included eight graded stakes winners. The brightest stars of the year were grade 1 winners Goodnight Olive, Clairiere, and Prince of Monaco.
Goodnight Olive, a daughter of Ghostzapper out of Salty Strike (by Smart Strike) earned her second straight Eclipse Award as champion female sprinter for owners First Row Partners and Team Hanley. Trained by Chad Brown, Goodnight Olive won three of her five 2023 starts capped by a second straight win in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1).
Clairiere, trained by Steve Asmussen, raced as a homebred for Stonestreet. In her 5-year-old season of 2023 Clairiere a daughter of Curlin—Cavorting, by Bernardini, captured the Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) for a second straight year and also won the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1). She retires with at least one grade 1 victory in three straight seasons.
Campaigned by a large partnership including SF Racing and Starlight Racing, Prince of Monaco captured the Del Mar Futurity in 2023. He’s a son of Speightstown—Rainier, by Medaglia d’Oro. ●
A new racing season must feel more promising when the stable is already rich in proven winners and stakes winners. The team behind Godolphin then must have felt optimistic going into 2023 and now grateful to see those hopeful expectations realized.
Sheikh Mohammed’s racing juggernaut collected $17,297,973 in North American purses in 2023, of which more than $12.7 million came in graded stakes. For comparison, the second-leading owner by purses—Klaravich Stables—earned a still robust $9,503,875 from all racing. Juddmonte ranked second in graded stakes earnings among owners at $5,207,319.
Godolphin won 32 black-type stakes in the United States and Canada, of which 27 were graded. All of the operation’s graded stakes winners in 2023 that were 4 and older came into the year with black-type credentials from 2022.
By Eric Mitchell
One of the stable’s stars, Cody’s Wish, carried his grade 1-winning form from 2022 into 2023 and landed three more grade 1 wins—including a repeat score in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1)—as well as honors as Horse of the Year and champion dirt male. Previously a grade 2-placed winner in 2022, Pretty Mischievous became a three-time grade 1 winner in 2023, including taking the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and earning honors as champion 3-year-old filly.
Godolphin’s other grade 1 winners for 2023 include Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T) winner Master of The Seas, Derby City Distaff Stakes (G1) winner Matareya, Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) winner Mawj, Canadian International Stakes (G1T) winner Nations Pride, and Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) winner Wet Paint.
Godolphin was previously named Owner of the Year by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association for the 2022 and 2021 racing years. The international stable also won its sixth Eclipse Award as outstanding owner for 2023. It previously won this award in 2009, 2012, and 2020-22. ●
The green and pink silks of Juddmonte were a frequent sight in the winner’s circle at racetracks across North America in 2023.
With 33 winners, 15 second-place finishes, and 22 thirds from 128 starts, Juddmonte runners took home $6,904,508 in purse money and earned their nomination for National Owner of the Year.
Among the accolades in North America for the international campaign were two champions, two Breeders’ Cup winners, and 14 stakes victories, 12 of which were graded and seven came at the grade 1 level.
Homebred Idiomatic was the star of the season as she improved with every start throughout the year. A winner in eight of nine starts, the daughter of Curlin tallied three grade 1 wins in the Personal Ensign Stakes (G1),
By Sean Collins
Spinster Stakes (G1), and Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) to the tune of more than $2.4 million in earnings. A force within her division, the 4-year-old filly was a near-unanimous choice for Eclipse champion older dirt female and was a finalist for Horse of the Year.
Eclipse champion sprinter in 2022, Elite Power entered the year with high expectations and did not disappoint. A $900,000 purchase by Juddmonte at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, the son of Curlin started his 5-year-old season with a victory in Saudi Arabia before returning home for impressive wins in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1), and True North Stakes (G2). His purse earnings accumulated to a total of $2.37 million and a repeat honor as the country’s top sprinter.
Juddmonte also experienced top level success with homebreds Set Piece in the historic Arlington Million Stakes (G1T) at Colonial Downs and Whitebeam in the Diana Stakes (G1T) at Saratoga Race Course. Both also tallied grade 3 wins during the season for the owner. ●
Breeding a racehorse is an act of faith. Faith in the future, faith that good fortune might come our way.
Cody’s Wish is a stallion to believe in. All those G1 wins – such talent, such tenacity. His first foals will be born next spring. Just imagine.
Proud to support TOBA
For the second consecutive year, Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables finished second in the year-end owners’ standings, and for the second consecutive year, Klarman’s runners set a record for purse earnings by the stable.
Klaravich horses earned $9,503,875 in 2023, besting the prior year by $65,293. Last year Klarman’s horses compiled an impressive 26% win rate, and his silks went to the winner’s circle in 15 graded stakes thanks to eight horses. Among his standout horses in 2023 were Randomized and Program Trading, both purchased as yearlings in 2021.
Program Trading won four of five starts—his lone loss a runner-up finish in the Virginia Derby (G3T). He eked out a head victory in his stakes debut, the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T), and closed the year by winning the Hollywood Derby (G1T), another narrow win, this one by
By Teresa Genaro
a neck. Program Trading ended his sophomore campaign with seasonal earnings of $695,250.
Randomized made her mark with a four-length romp in the Alabama Stakes (G1), which Klarman identifies as the most important race he won in 2023. Randomized’s performance in the Beldame Stakes (G2) was similarly impressive, as was her close second-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1). For the season she fell just shy of $1 million, with earnings of $930,750.
In addition to those successes, Klarman celebrated grade 1 wins with Marketsegmentation in the New York Stakes (G1T) and with Surge Capacity in the Matriarch Stakes (G1T).
Klarman races primarily in New York, and has won 27 owners’ titles at New York Racing Association meets, including several as New York’s year-end leading owner.
CEO and portfolio manager of the Baupost Group, Klarman has brought the lexicon of both investment banking and politics into Thoroughbred racing with his horses’ names, campaigning among others Currency Swap, Takeover Target, Public Sector, and Separationofpowers, all graded stakes winners. ●
In 2023 movie theater empresario George Krikorian reached a new milestone with his equine enterprises. His homebred filly Just F Y I became his first Breeders’ Cup winner and brought home an Eclipse Award as champion juvenile filly.
Krikorian has been involved with Just F Y I’s family for three generations. He spent $35,000 for Just F Y I’s maternal granddam, the Dynaformer filly Starrer, at the 1999 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale. In a 20-start career, Starrer won the 2003 Santa Maria (G1) and Santa Margarita Invitational (G1) handicaps, earning more than a million dollars.
Bred to Street Cry, Starrer produced stakes-placed Star Act (who sold for
By Carly Silver
$1.2 million, in foal to Life Is Good at the 2024 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale). Sent to Triple Crown hero Justify, Star Act foaled Just FYI April 13, 2021. In a three-start 2-year-old season, Just F Y I remained undefeated, topped by wins in the Frizette Stakes (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) while earning more than $1.3 million.
In the race prior to the Frizette, Krikorian-owned War Like Goddess tallied another grade 1 victory. Talk about a picture-perfect ending to a day. Already winner of the 2022 Turf Classic Stakes (G1T), the English Channel mare repeated in that top-flight stake in 2023. Last season, the Calumet Farm-bred mare won or placed in three of five starts, earning $563,000.
In 2023, Mr. Big, a winning son of Dynaformer raced by Krikorian, again ranked among the leading California sires. Mr. Big’s top runners last year included Cotillion Stakes (G1) winner Ceiling Crusher. With progeny earnings clocking in at just over $3.3 million, he ranked fourth on the state’s year-end sire list. Another daughter of Mr. Big, stakes-winning Krikorian homebred Big Switch, hit the board in the 2023 Santa Maria Stakes (G2). ●
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As the world’s leading Thoroughbred auction house, Keeneland is proud of the role we play in the industry. We recognize that racing and sales are intertwined, each reinforcing the other to sustain and grow the sport we love.
Keeneland’s commitment to excellence is deeply rooted in our connection to the Thoroughbred and our responsibility to the future of racing. As a purpose-driven, not profitdriven organization, proceeds from Keeneland’s auctions are reinvested in the industry and community by way of racing purses, safety initiatives, fan development and more. Every decision we make is guided by our mission and our dedication to the sport’s longevity.
Amr Zedan’s Zedan Racing Stables might not have as many runners as some peers, but what it lacks in numbers it makes up with quality.
With 29 starts from 10 horses, Zedan Racing Stables had three grade 1 winners and overall earnings of $2,923,712. Zedan Racing Stables led North America in 2023 in its rate of top-three finishes at 79%.
Leading the charge was Arabian Knight, who after ranking as Amr Zedan’s second-leading earner in 2022, moved to the top spot in 2023. Trained by Bob Baffert, the son of Uncle Mo had won the Southwest Stakes (G3) and Pacific Classic Stakes (G1). That’s in addition to a third in the Haskell Stakes (G1) and a fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).
By Joe Perez
Muth, who as a 2-year-old posted two firsts and two seconds, teased immense potential in winning the American Pharoah Stakes (G1).
In partnership with Commonwealth Thoroughbreds and WinStar Farm, Zedan sent out Country Grammer to a runner-up finish in the 2023 Saudi Cup (G1). A year earlier Country Grammer captured the Dubai World Cup (G1). (Country Grammer’s $3,644,000 in purse winnings are not counted in Zedan’s numbers listed above.)
Zedan, who works in the energy sector in the Middle East and is an investor in biotechnology, has seen his racing earnings rise each of the last four years. During that time, it has had three top-three Breeders’ Cup finishes and a third in the Preakness Stakes (G1).
That Preakness third was turned in by Medina Spirit in the 2021 edition of that classic. Behind a victory in the Awesome Again Stakes (G1) and runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), Medina Spirit would be named Florida Horse of the Year for 2021. ●
