2025 TOBA National Awards Program

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WELCOME

The changes within Thoroughbred racing over the past four decades have been dramatic. Some are positive, others troubling, but the passion and commitment of Thoroughbred owners and breeders remains constant and strong. The same holds true for the TOBA National Awards, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year as it spotlights the impressive accomplishments of those who reached new heights in 2024.

It is a great honor and privilege for TOBA to welcome you to the 40th anniversary of the TOBA National Awards. We cherish the many memories over the years, from the notable owners and breeders receiving their much-deserved recognition to remarkable horses to the incredible host venues to the world-class entertainment. Tonight’s theme of “bluegrass, blue jeans and bourbon” continues our tradition of honoring the best our sport has to offer.

We are excited to welcome our master of ceremonies Scott Hazelton of FanDuel to lead us through tonight’s awards ceremony and special musical performance from the Dan Tyminski Band. We are grateful to FasigTipton for their generosity in hosting the TOBA National Awards for the third consecutive year, as well as our sponsors for tonight’s festivities, including FanDuel Racing, Godolphin, BloodHorse, The Jockey Club, NTRA, Central Bank, WinStar Farm, Payson Park, White Birch Farm, Castle & Key Distillery, Fasig-Tipton, National HBPA, Sextant Wines and the Daily Racing Form. We would also like to extend our thanks to our corporate sponsors Claiborne Farm, FLAIR, Hallway Feeds and StableConnect.

TOBA’s programs and related subsidiaries, which include the American Graded Stakes Committee, Ownership Seminars, Thoroughbred Charities of America, Claiming Crown and BloodHorse, each serve a meaningful purpose to our mission of “improving the economics, integrity and pleasure of the sport on behalf of Thoroughbred owners and breeders.” We wish to thank all TOBA members for their support, and we pledge to continue our efforts as an advocate for all owners and breeders in Thoroughbred racing.

Best regards,

Dan Metzger President | Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association

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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.

© 2025 Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES & MANAGEMENT

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Joe Applebaum

Shannon Bishop Arvin

Jake Ballis

Michael Banahan

Ben Bernhard

Je rey Bloom

Tina Marie Bond

Carrie Brogden

Tim Cohen

Everett Dobson

Marette Farrell

Jonathan Green

Walker Hancock

Billy Koch

Brant Laue

Braxton Lynch

David O’Farrell

Garrett O’Rourke

TOBA MANAGEMENT & STAFF

Dan Metzger President

Andy Schweigardt Senior Director of Industry Relations & Development

THOROUGHBRED CHARITIES OF AMERICA

Mandy Pope

Dean Reeves

Stephen Screnci

R. Glenn Sikura

Brook Smith

Francis Vanlangendonck

Adrian Wallace

OFFICERS

David O’Farrell Chairman

Garrett O’Rourke Vice Chairman

Dan Metzger President

Brant Laue

Secretary

Jonathan Green

Treasurer

Cheser Accounting Administrator

Brooke Purcell Director of Membership

T oba B oard C ommitteeS

Executive Committee

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National Awards Committee

Finance & Investment Committee

Membership & Owners Committee

Nominating Committee

O ther I nvolvement

TOBA represents owners and breeders on the following national and international organizations and committees:

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International Thoroughbred Breeders’ Federation

National Thoroughbred Racing Association

North American International Cataloguing Standards Committee

Racing Medication & Testing Consortium

May 7

August 24

“My 24-year-old Thoroughbred, Dylan, broke his leg (Olecranon fracture) in May. 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! Thank you, Doc’s and OCD Pellets. YOU SAVED MY HORSE DYLAN’S LIFE.”

— Carolyn Hauck LMT, CMLDT

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ARIZONA THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS ASSOCIATION

Marvin Fleming, President

ARKANSAS THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS’ & HORSEMEN’S ASSOCIATION

Bill McDowell, President

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Doug Burge, President

Justin Oldfield, Chairperson

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2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER

2024 ARIZONA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Marvin Fleming and Gerald Fleming - Fleming Thoroughbred Farm LLC

Fleming Thoroughbred Farm was Arizona’s leading breeder in 2024 for the ninth consecutive year.

Brothers Marvin and Gerald Fleming own and operate the 320-acre, full-service facility near Wilcox, Ariz. Fleming Thoroughbred Farm features a five-eighthsmile training track, training barn, foaling barn, and a covered barn for mares.

“Next year I hope to be talking about it being 10 years in a row,” Marvin Fleming said.

The Fleming brothers stand four stallions including Arizona’s leading sire Lotsa Mischief, a stakes-winning son of six-time leading national sire Into Mischief.

Lotsa Mischief is working on an impressive streak of his own. He was Arizona’s leading stallion for the fourth consecutive year in 2024 when his progeny earnings surpassed the $1 million mark for the first time. Fleming credits his top stud for much of the farm’s recent breeding success.

“Breeder earnings can be a numbers game. We have a lot of runners out

By Pete Denk

there, and the Lotsa Mischief foals, they’ve been doing very well on the track,” Fleming said. “That’s what brought us to the top—the numbers and having a hot stud right now.”

Fleming said Lotsa Mischief has turned out to be a particularly good sire for Arizona racing.

“Here in the Southwest you need speed, and Lotsa Mischief produces the kind of horses we need to win here,” Fleming said.

Fleming said Lotsa Mischief, who stands for a private fee, bred about 40 mares during the 2025 breeding season.

“Forty mares is a lot in Arizona,” Fleming said. “It seemed like this year was the best book of mares quality-wise that he has bred, so hopefully that can keep him on top.”

The farm’s other three stallions are Arizona Moon, Ez Effort, and Distorted Reality.

“We were very impressed with Arizona Moon’s foals, and his first runners are hitting the track this year,” Fleming said. “We’re pretty excited about his possibilities as a stallion.”

Horses bred or co-bred by Fleming Thoroughbred Farm that won stakes in 2024 were Ez Iz Onzaway and Just Call Me Lucky. Others who won non-black-type races in 2024 included Causin Mischief, Desert Gal, Haynespun, and U Can Do U. ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 ARKANSAS BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Bill McDowell - McDowell Farm

The heartbeat of Arkansas racing runs through Oaklawn Park but the birthplace of many notable state-breds competing at the Hot Springs track is about 60 miles south, at McDowell Farm near Sparkman, Ark.

Owned by husband and wife Bill and Mary McDowell, the farm has been recognized for an 18th time as Arkansas breeder of the year by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

The McDowell enterprise is a family affair with Bill and Mary’s children, Kirk and Leslie, also working on the farm, which was founded in the early 1970s by Bill’s late father, Donald Dewitt McDowell.

As a breed-t0-sell operation, McDowell is home to four stallions owned by outside clients: Caddo River, Gentlemen’s Bet, The Big Beast, and Whelen Springs.

The Big Beast, a son of Yes It’s True, ranked second among Arkansas sires in 2024 progeny earnings while Gentlemen’s Bet also cracked the top 10.

The most accomplished runner bred by McDowell Farm in 2024 was Lochmoor, a son of Laurie’s Rocket who previously stood at the farm.

By Karen M. Johnson

Lochmoor earned $293,875 while producing a record of 4-1-1 in six starts for owner William Kennedy Jr. The highlight of the year for the gelding came in the $200,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship Stakes at Oaklawn Park which he won by 2 1/4 lengths over 11 rivals as the heavy favorite. Produced by the Elusive Quality mare Copperelle, who was bought privately by Bill McDowell, Lochmoor also finished third in the Nodouble Breeders’ Stakes.

Lochmoor’s solid campaign last year brought notoriety to the family, resulting in McDowell selling both a yearling and foal out of Copperelle in private sales this year.

Last year Midnight Taxes, a son of Midnight Lute, also did McDowell Farm proud as breeders. The gelding earned $244,266 with a record of 3-1-1 in seven starts. Two of Midnight Taxes’ triumphs came at Oaklawn Park, the other at Ellis Park. He is out of the Include mare Include Katherine, a graded stakes producer whom McDowell acquired for $5,000 from the 2019 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale when she was 15. Sadly, Midnight Taxes turned out to be the mare’s last foal as she lost her life to colic while carrying her next foal.

McDowell said regardless of the number of times he receives the honor of Arkansas breeder of the year, he never takes it for granted.

“I know it’s going to come to an end at some point, because there’s a couple of larger breeders around. I better enjoy this one,” he said. ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 CALIFORNIA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Richard Barton - Richard Barton Enterprises

Richard Barton Enterprises built upon its leading California breeder status of 2023 to lead the state again in 2024. For the second consecutive year, the Barton team was named the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s California breeder of the year, and in 2024 Barton-bred runners earned $3,672,009 and won 148 races.

It is a true team, one that encompasses actual family members as well as farm employees who are considered family. Richard and Beth Barton founded the business, while daughter Kate Barton Penner serves as executive vice president. Many of those who work at the farm—Barton Thoroughbreds near Santa Ynez, Calif.—have done so for years, headed by farm manager Kevin Dickson.

“We couldn’t have done it without our amazing team at the farm in Santa Ynez,” Penner said. “Kevin has done a great job overseeing all the daily operations, and he also plays a big role for us when consigning our horses at California sales.”

The farm is full service, standing several stallions and breeding mares for both Barton and its clients. But it is the sales prep operation that really propels Barton forward. They send all of their foals to market, usually via yearling sales, and as a result Barton-bred runners succeed for a wide

variety of owners, many in California.

By Tracy Gantz

“We are excited for sale season, with sending a large and impressive group to this year’s Fasig-Tipton California sale,” Penner said.

For 2025, Barton expanded to the Texas summer yearling sale at Lone Star Park, and for years they have also sent yearlings to the Arizona yearling sale. But even while only keeping horses that either weren’t ready for sale or didn’t bring their reserves, Barton’s racing stable has recently excelled.

A highlight in 2024 occurred when Hot Girl Walk scored in the $100,000 Generous Portion Stakes for California-bred or California-sired 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar. Initially, the daughter of Bodexpress—Awesome Mama, by Awesome Again, was slated to sell in the 2023 Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearlings and Horses of All Ages sale. But a superficial laceration led to her being withdrawn.

“While we of course love to watch any of our Barton-breds succeed on the track, it was extra special to race one of our own and win a Cal-bred stakes,” Penner said.

Barton-breds who won stakes for others in 2024 included Pushiness, Principe Carlo, and Roberta’s Love.

Barton continued to do well in 2025. During the May 24 card of Cal-bred stakes at Santa Anita Park, three Barton-breds won. Liberation broke his maiden early in the day, followed by No Cap winning an allowance optional claimer. Then Santa Barbarian, bred and raced by Barton, captured the $126,500 Snow Chief Stakes. ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 CANADA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Adena Springs

Led by Moira, the 2024 Eclipse Award-winning outstanding turf female, Adena Springs of Frank Stronach and his late wife Frieda was again leading breeder in Canada, taking home an unprecedented 15th Sovereign Award.

In 2024, horses bred by the Aurora, Ontario, nursery earned more than $1.6 million.

Moira, a daughter of Stronach’s perennial leading sire and 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper who was recently relocated to Adena after standing at Hill ’n’ Dale at Xalapa in Kentucky, already had a stellar career. After defeating males in track-record time in the prestigious Queen’s Plate Stakes in 2022, Moira was honored as Canadian Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly.

The mare’s 2024 campaign was highlighted by a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T), which she won in her third attempt on the heels of a third-place finish in 2023. With two wins and two seconds in four outings and earnings of $1.58 million in 2024, Moira was awarded a Special Sovereign Award.

Off the track, Moira was a winner in the sales arena. At Fasig-Tipton’s The November Sale in 2023 she was purchased for $3 million by DM Racing

2024 CANADA SMALL BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Jesse Korona

When the 3-year-old filly Catilinhergrtness defeated a field of accomplished males to win the King’s Plate at Woodbine Racetrack—the most prestigious race in Canada—it marked a bellwether moment for the small breeding program of Jesse Korona.

In addition to her King’s Plate triumph for owners WinStar Farm and Siena Farm, the Omaha Beach filly named after WNBA basketball star Caitlin Clark finished third in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) and at year’s end was voted a Sovereign Award as champion 3-year-old filly.

Korona, who owns the Target Training personal training center in Etobicoke, Ontario, acquired Caitlinhergrtness in utero when he bought her dam Belatrix for $40,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale upon the advice of veteran Canadian trainer Reade Baker.

Caitlinhergrtness was sold as a weanling for $65,000 at the 2021 Keeneland November sale and fetched $160,000 when she went through the Keeneland September Yearling Sale ring. She was then bought by Siena and WinStar for $375,000 as a 2-year-old in training at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales.

Korona’s breeding program has evolved quickly since he acquired his first horse in 2018, but it’s the result of a lengthy, methodic plan put together by the breeder.

By Ron Mitchell

Ventures, a group that included many of her original owners who had paid $150,000 for the multiple champion as a yearling. Following her 2024 Breeders’ Cup triumph, Moira was bought by Australian-based Bayles for $4.3 million at the same auction.

“She’s just a great horse,” trainer Kevin Attard said. “She showed brilliance from the get-go.”

Although Moira was the leading turf star for the breeder, Adena Springs was well represented across the racing spectrum.

Gal in a Rush, another Ghostzapper mare who was bred by Adena Springs in partnership with Tom and Mary Lou Teal, won the Hendrie Stakes (G3) at Woodbine and placed in two other graded stakes last year. Adena Springs was also represented by additional 2024 stakes winners Brengungirl and Vitality and stakes-placed performers Asamatteroffactido, Awesome Beat, No Secret, Ole Crazy Bone, and Rafaroo.

Frank Stronach developed his first farm, Beechwood, into a leading racing and breeding entity before establishing Adena Springs on property purchased in 1989. Adena Springs has been honored with eight Eclipse Awards as outstanding breeder, including one in Frank Stronach’s name.

Since 1996, Adena Springs has bred individually or in partnership, 28 grade/group 1 stakes winners, 29 grade/group 2 stakes winners, and 42 grade/group 3 stakes winners, according to The Jockey Club Information Systems. ●

By Ron Mitchell

Korona first became interested in horses around age 9 when he followed the campaigns of Canadian Triple Crown winners With Approval and Izvestia and the U.S. classic rivalry between Easy Goer and Sunday Silence, the breeder told the Woodbine communications department following the King’s Plate. His interest in racing was further enhanced watching televised races with an uncle, an avid racing fan and bettor.

“I’ve been breeding horses for about six or seven years now, but I’ve put in over 30 years of time and research,” Korona said.

While Korona studied the breeding industry in preparation for his entrée, he credits Baker with helping put together his program, as well as Vera Simpson and Mike Dube of Curraghmore Farm, the Waterdown, Ontario, farm where his horses are boarded.

“People like Vera and Reade are essential to the industry,” Woodbine communications quoted the breeder. “While they have different roles they’re able to bridge the gap between book knowledge, horsemanship, and practical experience of someone like me who is newer to the industry and has more book knowledge.”

Korona was also represented as a breeder in 2024 by stakes-placed Dazzling Move and currently owns about a dozen horses, including four mares and two horses in training that are owned in partnership. Belatrix was sold at the 2023 Keeneland November sale. ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 FLORIDA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

By Olivia Newman

Marilyn Campbell, breeding as Stonehedge, secured her fourth award for the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association Florida breeder of the year in 2024.

Stonehedge Farm South near Williston, Fla., was purchased by Campbell and her late husband Gilbert, who was a former Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ & Owners’ Association director—in 1988, formerly known as Waldemar Farms. The 500-plus acre facility is rich in history, being the birthplace of 1975 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Foolish Pleasure. Their farm manager, Larry King, has been there for more than 50 years, following in the footsteps of his father, who managed Waldemar Farms.

Stonehedge has been consistently in the top three producers in Florida for more than two decades. They have raised dozens of stakes winners including 2011 Tampa Bay Derby (G2) winner Watch Me Go, multiple graded stakes winner Blazing Sword, graded stakes winner Dean Delivers, and perhaps the most influential in the sport—Ivanavinalot, best known as the dam of two-time Eclipse champion Songbird.

They sold their homebred Ivanavinalot 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 multiple grade 1 winner and earner of $4.6 million Songbird in 2013.

Dean Delivers, a gelding by Stonehedge stallion Cajun Breeze, put together another big year for his breeders in 2024. He won four stakes races in a row

including the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes at Laurel Park and the Rumson Stakes at Monmouth Park, and followed that with a third-place finish in the Vosburgh Stakes (G3). He has hit the board in 21 of his 29 career starts, earning $840,410.

Another impressive homebred for Stonehedge in 2024 was Fiona’s Magic, a filly out Mollie’s Magic by St Patrick’s Day. She won the Davona Dale Stakes (G2) after finishing a game second a month earlier in the Forward Gal Stakes (G3), earning enough points to make it into the 2024 Kentucky Oaks (G1) field.

“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,” Campbell said.

Campbell has a strong passion for Florida racing, and is instrumental in supporting programs such as the Florida Sire Stakes and Florida Thoroughbred Charities events.

Campbell now owns about 130 horses, including 40 broodmares, 30 yearlings, 25 foals, one stallion, and about 30 horses in training. ●

Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’& Owners’ Assn Congratulates

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 INDIANA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Greg Justice - Justice Farm, Inc.

A longtime participant in the equine industry, Greg Justice has been breeding Thoroughbred racehorses for more than 40 years. Based in Lexington, the 67-yearold Justice owns and operates Justice Farm.

Some of his success has come north of the Kentucky border. 2024 marks Justice’s fourth consecutive and fifth overall Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association breeding award for Indiana; he won his first in 2015.

“I stay on the highway a lot,” Justice said. “I stay up and down the road hauling horses, picking up and delivering.”

That drive to Central Indiana takes him three hours, heading north on I-75 from Lexington to Cincinnati, then west on I-74 to Shelbyville, Ind., just to the east of Indianapolis on the outskirts of the city. That’s where Justice primarily runs his homebred racehorses at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Justice attributes his longstanding ties to Indiana to the state’s breeder awards, which allocate 20% of the gross purse of races in the state to the breeders of Indiana-bred Thoroughbreds. That explains his involvement there despite being based in “horse farm country” Lexington.

By Ella Barnett

“They have an extremely good breeders program up there,” Justice said. “I mean, you can’t hardly beat it.”

In 2024, Justice campaigned three homebred stakes winners: Breezy Justice, Elegant Justice, Goodlookinjustice—and bred a fourth stakes winner in Under the Palms.

Elegant Justice won three races in 2024, including the Back Home Again Stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis, and Under the Palms captured the Cardinal Handicap for trainer Kenny McPeek and owner Tilted Shamrock Stables. She was named the 2024 champion 3-year-old Indiana-bred filly.

As a 3-year-old in 2024, Goodlookinjustice won three races, including the Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Handicap. The Street Boss colt was Justice’s top earner, earning $162,185 last year.

“I’m probably going to make a stallion out of (Goodlookinjustice); I like this horse, I like his attitude,” Justice said. “He’s full of himself, and he’s a handful.”

Currently, Justice keeps his two stallions at Breakway Farm, located near Dillsboro in Southern Indiana.

One of those is the 20-year-old Lantana Mob. Justice is preparing to retire him this year, with a new stallion lineup planned for 2026.

“I just bought a new one a few days ago,” Justice said. “So I got Harry’s Holiday, he’s up there (at Breakway Farm). I’m going to replace (Lantana Mob) with two new horses … so I’ll have three stallions next year.” ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 IOWA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Allen Poindexter

By Carly Silver

The phrase “Seventeen Black” commonly refers to a legendary roulette winning streak by actor Sean Connery. Last year a Thoroughbred named Seventeen Black, bred by leading Iowa horseman Allen Poindexter, delivered similarly remarkable performances throughout the year after the breeder moved back into an ownership role through a well-timed purchase.

Named the Hawkeye State’s 2024 Horse of the Year, Seventeen Black enjoyed most of his success racing for Poindexter Thoroughbreds, Kevin Eikleberry, and AG Racing Stables. He helped Allen Poindexter secure another title as the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association Iowa breeder of the year.

Poindexter bought the gelding’s dam, American Sugar (by Harlan’s Holiday), for $15,000 at the 2011 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She won multiple stakes before retiring to Poindexter’s broodmare band. In 2020 she produced a Seventeen Black, a son of grade 1 winner Mendelssohn. He hammered for $300,000 to Amerman Racing as a weanling at Fasig-Tipton’s The November Sale and at 3 started his career for that owner in California.

It was not until spring 2024 that Seventeen Black began to hit his stride. He won a May 11 claiming race at Santa Anita Park, then finished off the board in a starter allowance race before being purchased by the current owners and heading back to the Midwest. Racing at Prairie Meadows, the gelding proved unstoppable. In a June 23 starter allowance race he romped, coasting home 11 3/4 lengths clear of runner-up Pleaseusethepor-

tal. He reeled off five consecutive wins at the track, rounding out the season with his first local stakes victory, which came Sept. 28 in the non-black-type Governor Terry E. Branstad Stakes.

Other top runners for Poindexter include homebred Amorosa, who went undefeated in three 2024 starts. His win in the Sept. 28 Iowa Cradle Stakes helped him to state juvenile male honors. Lynn Chleborad and Poindexter co-bred Hanks Girl, who won or placed in six of seven 2024 starts. She was named the top Iowa-bred 3-year-old filly as a result. Bred by Poindexter and owned by Poindexter Thoroughbreds and Albaugh Family Stables, Miss Peach previously earned Iowa-bred champion 3-year-old filly honors and remained a stellar competitor in 2024, winning the Mamie Eisenhower Stakes at Prairie Meadows.

In 2025 Poindexter’s winning ways have continued. Poindexter-bred Chancheng Glory is a long way from his native Iowa, competing in top-flight events in Hong Kong. In January he triumphed in the Centenary Vase Handicap (G3) at Sha Tin. It would be no surprise if Poindexter, a member of the Prairie Meadows Racing Hall of Fame, had another banner year back on the home front. ●

Equineline Mare Produce Records

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 KENTUCKY BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Godolphin

Entering the year off three straight national breeder of the year titles, Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation kept the good times rolling in 2024 to claim the Kentucky breeder of the year honor while also being named a finalist by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association for both the national breeder of the year and the national owner of the year.

In terms of the Kentucky breeding accomplishments for Godolphin, which breeds and campaigns horses throughout the world, the 2024 racing season would be led by a pair of 2-year-olds in champion juvenile filly Immersive and grade 1-winning colt East Avenue.

Those horses helped Godolphin top the individual breeders list by North American earnings for a fourth straight year at $23,205,149 paced by 226 wins from 1,161 starts. Godolphin also topped the breeders list that includes partners at $25,912,067. Those statistics are tracked by TJC Innovations.

Godolphin also topped the individual breeders list in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Godolphin is the first breeder to top the earnings list four years in a row since Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs enjoyed a 10-year run from 2003-12.

By Frank Angst

Godolphin leadership acknowledges the commitment made by Sheikh Mohammed as well as the day-to-day efforts of staff.

“The biggest thank you goes to our team back home, who are ably led by (broodmare manager) Gary Harlow, (broodmare manager at Stonerside Farm) Ben Lynch, and (yearling manager) Paul Seitz,” said Godolphin USA farm manager Danny Mulvihill when earlier this year he accepted the breeder of the year Eclipse Award for Godolphin. “It is a team sport after all, and most other teams get to have their practice days, where they can sandbag a little bit, and then have their game days. These guys bring their game days every day of the week. That is what is required to get us to a position to be on this stage tonight.”

Immersive hit the ground running under trainer Brad Cox as she won her six-furlong maiden special weight debut by two lengths in July at Saratoga Race Course and followed with three straight grade 1 wins. A daughter of 2016 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Nyquist and out of the Bernardini mare Gap Year, who won at 2, Immersive registered clear victories in the seven-furlong Spinaway Stakes (G1) in August at Saratoga, the 1 1/16mile Alcibiades Stakes (G1) in October at Keeneland, and the 1 1/16-mile Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Del Mar.

While East Avenue lost all chance in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) when he stumbled at the start of the race, the son of Medaglia d’Oro secured a grade 1 score in his start previous to that effort when he posted a 5 1/4-length score in the Breeders’ Futurity in October at Keeneland. East Avenue is trained by Brendan Walsh. ●

WE THRIVE WITH YOU.

At Central Bank, we live, work and play in the same communities you do. You’re our neighbor, friend, business partner down the street. We know and understand you because we build relationships with you – every day. That helps us serve you better, and that’s what makes “highly personal banking” more effective banking. We start with you.

KENTUCKY’S BREEDER OF THE YEAR,

Leading the Field

to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s GODOLPHIN on being honored as the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s KENTUCKY BREEDER OF THE YEAR for the FIFTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR and a finalist for Owner and Breeder of the Year.

Eclipse Award-winning Outstanding Owner in 2009, 2012, and consecutively from 2020-’24, and Outstanding Breeder from 2021-’24, Godolphin was represented last season by Eclipse Award Champion 2-Year-Old Filly IMMERSIVE and additional Grade 1-winning Kentucky-breds EAST AVENUE and HIGHLAND FALLS .

IMMERSIVE

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 LOUISIANA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Tony Doughtie

Tony Doughtie has established himself within the equine industry in Louisiana despite living a state away. The owner of Doughtie Construction in Huntsville, Texas, has showcased his homebred talent in Louisiana.

For 2024, Doughtie was named the state’s leading breeder by percentage of stakes winners at 40% from starters, according to the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association.

Most notably, Tdzshininluckystar, the then-3-year-old gelding, earned two black-type victories. Winning the June 1 Louisiana Legends Cheval Stakes and the Aug. 3 Louisiana Stallion Stakes, both of which were at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La., more than three hours from Huntsville.

Tdzshininluckystar was Doughtie’s highest-earning racehorse last year, with more than $180,000 in 2024 alone. Across 11 starts, Tdzshininluckystar, along with his two black-type wins, was twice runner-up and twice third.

Another stakes winner for Doughtie in 2024 was Tdz Hint of Power.

By Isaiah Pinto

Last year as a 2-year-old, the colt won the Aug. 31 Louisiana Cup Juvenile Stakes at Louisiana Downs, fresh off his maiden win a month prior. Tdz Hint of Power went on to finish third in the Dec. 14 Louisiana Champions Day Juvenile Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in New Orleans.

Louisiana has four primary tracks spread across the state: Fair Grounds, Evangeline, Delta Downs Racetrack, and Louisiana Downs. Louisiana will run races January through December every year, which allows for more entries.

Doughtie exclusively runs at these select tracks despite being three to six hours away in Huntsville. The nearest racetrack to Huntsville is Delta Downs in Vinton, La.

In 2024, Doughtie bred five starters, four of which ran exclusively as homebreds, in Louisiana. Those five runners compiled a 5-2-3 record in 24 starts.

Furthermore, Doughtie’s $273,678 in earnings and four wins as owner in 2024 were the highest in both categories of his career, which dates back to his debut in 2014, according to Equibase.

Thus far in 2025, Doughtie has earned two wins.

Tdz Dancinlilslew won a 3-year-old maiden race in February. Five days later, Tdz Hint of Power won an allowance race, both of which were at Delta Downs. ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 MARYLAND BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Larry Johnson, Legacy Farm

During his lifetime, R. Larry Johnson was a titan of Mid-Atlantic breeding and racing. After his death, his daughters, Tracy Mulroy and Kelly Caraballo, are keeping his aptly named Legacy Farm going. They are forging ahead with the help of Andrew Motion, Jonathan Smart (who runs the farm), and trainer Mike Trombetta.

In 2024, Johnson homebred Future Is Now won the Intercontinental Stakes (G2T) and Franklin Stakes (G2T). Johnson-bred Mindframe placed in the 2024 Belmont Stakes (G1) and Haskell Stakes (G1) for owners Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables. Mulroy noted that “last year, my dad had been sick. ... We thought he had time left, but I think my sister and I sort of decided we wanted to more consciously start really getting to these races. And so we did.”

Johnson bought Future Is Now’s fourth dam, the Maryland-bred filly Ran’s Chick, in the late 1970s. Mulroy said, “He bought three horses out of that auction—Ran’s Chick, Beltway Traffic, who was appropriately named and wouldn’t come out of the gate, and the third horse, who nobody can remember.” As it turns out, “Ran’s Chick never made it to the racetrack; she bowed. And so he famously said, ‘So I decided to compound my stupidity by breeding her.’”

By Carly Silver

Sent to Parfaitement, Ran’s Chick foaled Special Kell; owned and co-bred by Johnson, she captured the 1991 Very Subtle Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Laurel Park. Bred to Meadowlake, Special Kell yielded Magical Meadow, dam of grade 3 winner Street Magician. Magical Meadow also produced Past as Prelude (by Bernardini), dam of Future Is Now and 2024 Weber City Miss Stakes winner Call Another Play (by Audible).

A great-grandson of Special Kell through Star Kell, Mindframe was sold as a yearling for $600,000. Mulroy remembered of her father, “He put a reserve on him, but he thought if he got past that he would sell. ... He was a standout. And my sister said to him at the time, ‘What if, Dad, he’s the one?’ And my dad said, ‘Then I have money in the bank, and a million things could happen between now and even getting to the races, much less being good in races.’”

Johnson died Feb. 4, 2025, a month before Mindframe began his 4-yearold season. The Constitution colt is undefeated in three starts this year, winning the Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes (G2), Churchill Downs Stakes (G1), and Stephen Foster Stakes (G1). Other 2024 stakes winners bred by Johnson are Call Another Play and Whenigettoheaven.

Mulroy summarized, “In his eulogy, we said we hope he’s watching from the best racetrack up there in the sky with his vodka on the rocks and just enjoying telling stories of how it all started with Ran’s Chick, and now he’s bred a grade 1 winner. It’s just remarkable.” ●

Live Horse Racing

Salute to a great Maryland breeder

R. Larry Johnson

2024 Maryland Breeder of the Year

Breeder of THREE 2024 Maryland-bred champions MINDFRAME – Champion 3-Year-Old Male CALL ANOTHER PLAY – Champion 3-Year-Old Filly FUTURE IS NOW – Champion Older Female, Champion Turf Runner Plus 2024 Ben’s Cat Stakes winner WHENIGETTOHEAVEN

This year looks to be even better, with Johnson-bred MINDFRAME winning three consecutive graded races through June, FUTURE IS NOW winning and placing in graded company, plus CALL ANOTHER PLAY and WHENIGETTOHEAVEN both winning stakes. With 50 years of breeding racehorses, Larry Johnson leaves behind a legacy that will be felt for years to come. In addition, the Maryland and Virginia Thoroughbred industries owe a debt of gratitude for his deeply in uential contributions. His wisdom and whit will be greatly missed.

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 NEW JERSEY BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Vincent

Annarella - Holly Crest Farm

The New Jersey state motto is “Liberty and Prosperity,” two concepts embodied by Vincent Annarella. Named the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association New Jersey breeder of the year, the owner of Holly Crest Farm has nurtured generations of Thoroughbreds at his nursery, located near Middletown, N.J., and last year sent a standout to the Haskell Stakes (G1). Sea Streak didn’t hit the board in that race, but he did finish 2024 with wins in two Monmouth Park stakes: the May 11 Long Branch Stakes and Aug. 25 Charles Hesse III Handicap.

Sea Streak’s dam, the Silver Deputy mare High Noon Nellie, has produced three stakes winners so far. Her 6-year-old Mr Speaker gelding, Speaking, won this year’s John J. Reilly Handicap at Monmouth Park, his third consecutive victory in that race. He has won eight of 21 career starts and earned $515,770 through July 8. Back in 2015, a Stephen Got Even— High Noon Nellie filly named Stiffed won the Jersey Girl Handicap and Monmouth Beach Stakes, both at Monmouth Park. High Noon Nellie’s most recently recorded foal is a 2-year-old daughter of Sea Wizard named Noon Time Tide.

Named New Jersey-bred champion 3-year-old male in 2023, Holly Crest

2024 NEW MEXICO BREEDER OF THE YEAR

J. Kirk and Judy Robison

Longtime breeder/owners J. Kirk and Judy Robison, best known for their success with champion sprinter Jackie’s Warrior, have been voted the 2024 Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association New Mexico breeder of the year.

Residents of El Paso, Texas, the Robisons enjoyed success in the Southwest with their homebred New Mexico-bred stakes winners Community Leader and Higher Ed. Community Leader, a son of Diabolical, is the first foal out of Midnight Summer, a Midnight Lute mare the Robisons purchased for $32,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Under the care of trainer Todd Fincher, Community Leader would lose only one of seven starts as a 2-year-old. The gelding was named the 2023 New Mexico-bred champion 2-year-old male after capping his season with a three-length score in the $150,000 New Mexico Classic Cup Juvenile Championship Stakes. Community Leader returned for a brief but flawless campaign as a 3-yearold in 2024. The chestnut won stakes at distances from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles, and captured one of the state’s most lucrative prizes for state-breds in Sunland Park’s $250,000 New Mexico Breeders’ Derby. Although Community Leader would miss the remainder of the season, the gelding led all other New Mexico-bred 3-year-olds by earnings and was crowned the 2024 New Mexico-bred champion 3-year-old male at the year’s end.

By Carly Silver

homebred Great Navigator also continued to compete in black-type races throughout 2024. In 21 career starts, Great Navigator has won five contests and earned $433,192. Both Great Navigator and Sea Streak are sons of the winning stallion Sea Wizard; in 2025, he stood at Pegasus Stud near Colts Neck, N.J., for $5,000. The son of Uncle Mo topped the 2024 list of leading New Jersey stallions by progeny earnings, with Sea Streak clocking in as his top earner.

Another Sea Wizard son, the cleverly named Ship to Shore, started 2024 off in fine fashion. A Holly Crest homebred, the dark bay/brown gelding captured the Jan. 6 Limehouse Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Annarella’s involvement with this female family goes back decades. His 1977 homebred filly Countess B. B. produced two good ones to the cover of Crafty Prospector: stakes winner Capture the Gold and graded stakes-placed Capture the Crown.

Capture the Crown became the second dam of stakes winner Carrots Only and third dam of both Ship to Shore and Holly Crest-bred Horologist, winner of the 2019 Monmouth Oaks (G3) and 2020 Beldame (G2) and Molly Pitcher (G3) stakes. Capture the Crown is the fourth dam of J J Zo Zo, a son of Sea Wizard and the Holly Crest-homebred mare Lost Princess; J J Zo Zo won the 2024 Smoke Glacken Stakes for owner/breeder Jose Armando Garcia. ●

By Molly Rollins

The Sporting Chance gelding Higher Ed was there to carry the Robisons’ silks to the winner’s circle following Community Leader’s absence. Higher Ed won two outings and placed behind his stablemate in the Mountain Top New Mexico Bred Thoroughbred Futurity and Rio Grande Senor Thoroughbred Futurity at 2. However, the gelding scored his first stakes victory as a 3-year-old with a 4 1/2-length romp in the Kendrick Stakes at Sunray Park.

Higher Ed came back better than ever as a 4-year-old in 2025, netting a career-best 106 Equibase Speed Figure when taking a second-level state-bred allowance contest before recording a win in Sunray Park’s local stakes, the Jack Sole Stakes.

Also trained by Fincher, Higher Ed is one of two winners produced from the Robisons’ mare African Heat. The daughter of Southwestern Heat was a multiple New Mexico-bred stakes winner for the Robisons and retired with earnings of $153,629, a figure since exceeded by her son.

Successful entrepreneurs in the restaurant and real estate businesses, the Robisons purchased their first racehorse in 1995. The couple currently own 28 mares that they breed in California, Kentucky, and New Mexico and count 50 horses in training. They race several horses in partnership with Stonestreet Stables.

The Robisons reached new heights and landed a coveted Eclipse Award with Jackie’s Warrior in 2021 when the son of Maclean’s Music was crowned champion male sprinter. Jackie’s Warrior, a $95,000 buy for the Robisons, retired with more than $2.9 million in earnings and five grade 1 victories. ●

The Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association of New Jersey salutes Holly Crest Farm, recipient of the 2024 New Jersey Breeder of the Year Award.

Home to such outstanding competitors as stakes winners SEA STREAK, SPEAKING, and RIDING PRETTY, Holly Crest Farm’s success extends beyond the racetrack, contributing to the growing recognition, nationwide, for the quality and rewards of racing in the Garden State.

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 SPEAKING RIDING PRETTY SEA STREAK

We are proud to count Holly Crest Farm among our very own...

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 NEW YORK BREEDER OF THE YEAR

William “Buck” Butler

When William “Buck” Butler began breeding horses at the end of the first decade of this century, he never imagined that he’d win trophies and titles, but that is exactly what’s happened to a man who credits New York’s breeding and racing program with providing opportunities to achieve success beyond his wildest dreams. He was named the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s New York breeder of the year.

Butler earned his first breeder of the year award at New York Thoroughbred Breeders’ annual awards ceremony in May, thanks to half siblings My Mane Squeeze and Rotknee. My Mane Squeeze was voted New York-bred Horse of the Year, champion 3-year-old filly, and champion female sprinter, while Rotknee took home the trophy for champion male sprinter. Their dam In Spite of Mama earned Broodmare of the Year honors.

In 2005, Butler purchased a 2-year-old filly by Carson City at the Ocala Breeders

Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training for $65,000. He named her Mama Theresa, and she would become the foundation of his breeding operation.

A self-proclaimed “Haynesfield nut,” Butler loved that the mare was a half sister to that New York-bred millionaire and multiple graded stakes winner,

2024 NORTH CAROLINA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Nancy Shuford

For more than 50 years, Nancy Shuford has immersed herself in the equine industry. Starting in the early 1970s, Shuford was primarily interested in show horses but eventually pivoted to Thoroughbred breeding by the end of the decade.

Today, Shuford has owned and managed Rock House Farm near Hickory, N.C., roughly an hour from Charlotte, since returning to her home state in 1971 after spending time away with her husband, who served in the United States Navy and pursued an education at Columbia University.

“It’s fun,” Shuford said. “We love it. It’s an old dairy farm, so we got it when we moved back from New York City out here, which was a culture shock; but I love it, you don’t have to deal with people in town unless you want to.”

Currently, Rock House Farm has 26 mares, all but one of which are broodmares, and 15 foals. Additionally, Shuford boards for her friends Jody and Michelle Huckabay, owners of Elm Tree Farm near Georgetown, Ky. “(Michelle) used to work for me,” Shuford said. “So, they’re a great couple, and they’ve done a great job, and they love what they do too. I think that’s the name of the game.”

Out of her 26 mares, Bashful Bertie is her favorite.

The 18-year-old broodmare was purchased by Jody Huckabay for $90,000 at the 2010 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Shuford was responsible for breeding the mare. Bashful Bertie is the dam of three-time grade

By Teresa Genaro

including the 2010 Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1). Twice stakes-placed, Mama Theresa earned $240,898 before becoming Butler’s foundation broodmare.

In 2012, she produced In Spite of Mama (by Speightstown), one of her eight foals to make it to the races, seven of them winners, six of them six-figure earners. After a 17-race career that netted $164,024 in earnings, In Spite of Mama joined her dam at Keane Stud near Amenia, N.Y., and started immediately replicating her mother’s reproductive success. To date, all five of her offspring have been racers, four of them winners with earnings ranging from $170,220 to more than $1.1 million.

That millionaire is My Mane Squeeze (by Audible) who in 2024 topped the leaderboard of New York-bred earners with $860,750 in money won from a record of 4-2-1 from nine starts. She’s a two-time graded stakes winner, taking the Eight Belles Stakes (G2) and Dogwood Stakes (G3), both at Churchill Downs, and she posted runner-up finishes in the Charles Town Oaks and Raven Run Stakes (both G2). She was third in the Test Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.

Her half brother by Runhappy, Rotknee, is a multiple stakes winner who finished third in the 2023 Fall Highweight Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack. His lifetime earnings of $742,050 put him second behind My Mane Squeeze on Butler’s personal purse-winning leaderboard.

In Spite of Mama has a yearling filly by Honest Mischief, who stands at New York’s Sequel Stallions, and is in foal to Life Is Good. Now pensioned at age 22, Mama Theresa is at Gary and Sue Lundy’s Cedar Ridge Farm near Pine Plains, N.Y. ●

By Isaiah Pinto

1 winner Beach Patrol, who earned more than $2.5 million in his racing career.

“He’s a stud now in Japan,” Shuford said. “Chad Brown had him. He could run. (We’ve) been very, very fortunate … she’s the queen of the farm.”

Another prominent horse bred by Shuford is Speed King (by Volatile), a son of Shuford’s broodmare Athenian Beauty. After breaking his maiden last year at Churchill Downs and placing second in the Remington Springboard Mile Stakes, he won the $1 million Southwest Stakes (G3) Jan. 25 at Oaklawn Park.

“A damn surprise,” Shuford said with a laugh. “But it was fun. I’m just glad they had some luck … I think he’s a decent horse, and I think he’ll, you know, he’s a mile (runner) … he’s sound, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Speed King entered with 14-1 odds and pulled off the upset win. The 1 1/16-mile race was won last year by 2024 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystik Dan.

Shuford has seen great recent success over the last 15 years. However, she’s one of few North Carolina Thoroughbred breeders.

“We were too spread out, and everybody has their own interests,” Shuford said. “I’m surprised that the North Carolina Thoroughbred organization is still alive and running, but they do, the people do a great job. I had them up here for lunch and cocktails. I mean, you want to do what you can to promote it … there’s not that much interest, and then there’s not that much knowledge.”

Despite the unpopularity within the state, Shuford hopes to keep a community of future breeders in the Carolinas alive. ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 OREGON BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Connie and Lee Erickson

By Tracy Gantz

Connie Erickson works hard to prove her stallion Rise Up, and it is paying off.

She has upgraded her broodmare band for Rise Up, a grade 3 winner at 2, and those runners have earned her leading breeder honors in her home state of Oregon as well as the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s Oregon breeder of the year, the latter for the second consecutive time.

Erickson and her husband, Lee, run Ruah Ranch near Sublimity, Ore., and Connie is hands-on. It comes from her long experience with horses, which has included breeding and riding Lipizzans.

Rise Up “is a nice guy,” said Erickson, who handles the stallion herself. Acquired through bloodstock agent George Adams, Rise Up is a millionaire son of Rockport Harbor. The horse won six stakes during his seven seasons of racing, a career that encompassed 49 starts.

Rise Up’s runners include Whiskeyjack, an Erickson homebred who won the non-black-type 2023 OTOBA Juvenile Stakes and in 2024 placed in the Irish Day Stakes and Muckleshoot Derby at Emerald Downs in Washington.

Rise Up also was indirectly responsible for Connie’s homebred Kiss the Tiger, who in 2024 at Grants Pass won the non-black-type Josephine County Juvenile Stakes and finished second in the OTOBA Juvenile Stakes. Erickson purchased the Swiss Yodeler mare Grand Yodeler in foal to Smiling Tiger at the 2021 Washington Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association

Yearling and Mixed Sale, and the following year the mare foaled Kiss the Tiger in Oregon for the Ericksons.

“I was collecting better broodmares for Rise Up—the best I could afford,” Connie said.

Grand Yodeler has a 2-year-old gelding by Rise Up named Oregonian and a weanling filly by the stallion.

Connie also serves as president of the Oregon Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

After the 2019 closing of the state’s biggest track, Portland Meadows, local racing coalesced around Grants Pass and fall racing. Thus, that is when the OTOBA honors champions from the previous season. In 2023, Connie was named breeder of the year, and the Ericksons won the champion 2-year-old colt or gelding title with Whiskey Harbor and champion 2-year-old filly with Tres Vite, both by Rise Up.

“We bred quite a few mares to Rise Up last year,” Connie said. Those who have bred mares to the stallion tell Connie that the foals look exceptional, making Rise Up’s future looking even brighter. ●

LED Displays

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 PENNSYLVANIA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Donny Brown and Tom McClay

First-time Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association winners Donny Brown and Tom McClay have been in the Thoroughbred breeding industry for almost 20 years. Together, Brown and McClay share Warrior’s Reward LLC, named after their longtime stallion.

They are based in Carlisle, 30 minutes west of Harrisburg, Pa., at Sapphire Equine. A hemp farm turned horse farm has become a home base for Brown and McClay with the help of farm manager Susan Grove.

“Tom has a very good and watchful eye over the development of the babies and the ability to move them forward and pick the tracks and surfaces and trainers they should go to, and he’s good at it,” Brown said. “I focus on repairing the bumps, bruises, and timelines needed, maybe some of them, because an injury shouldn’t be started, and the injury needs (to be) repaired, or some of them just need time for something to grow up and mature.”

In 2024, Brown and McClay retired their stallion Warrior’s Reward. He was relocated to Kentucky, where he now resides at Old Friends Equine near Georgetown.

During Warrior’s Reward’s racing days, he won the 2010 Carter Handicap

2024 SOUTH CAROLINA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Franklin G. Smith Sr.

Franklin G. Smith again is the leading breeder in South Carolina, an honor he has held for 13 out of the past 15 years.

Part of the Smith family that has been involved in racing and breeding in the Palmetto State since the 1940s, Franklin Smith acquired his first horse in 1972. He has since built the Elloree Training Center near Elloree, S.C., into a vast enterprise that includes breeding, foaling, and training.

Smith was represented as a breeder by 19 winners in 2024, including stakes winner Spencerian, a daughter of Irish War Cry who won four of six starts and placed third twice. The mare, whose 2024 purses totaled $144,075 and to date has earned in excess of $230,000, won the Politely Stakes and finished third in the Maryland Million Distaff Stakes last season, and finished third in the What A Summer Stakes in her first 2025 start for owner Larry E. Rabold and trainer Hugh I. McMahon. A Maryland-bred, Spencerian began her career racing for Smith under the tutelage of Smith’s brother, Hamilton Smith, who is based at Laurel Park.

Ten of the 2024 winners bred by Smith were sons or daughters of the Elloree Training Center stallion Done Talking, the 2012 Illinois Derby (G3)

By Isaiah Pinto

(G1) as a 4-year-old. Later that year, Warrior’s Reward finished second in the Churchill Downs Stakes (G2) and finished fifth in his final career start, the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1).

Initially retired to Spendthrift Farm, Warrior’s Reward was relocated to WynOaks Farm in Pennsylvania for the 2019 breeding season. He is the sire of 23 stakes winners, including three graded winners.

“Warrior’s Reward was a working stallion, we would have to have a reason not to take a mare to him,” Brown said. “We preferred to go to him, and that was always what was best, but sometimes it makes sense to go to a different thing, and we would agree together to change that up.”

Currently, Brown and McClay have no stallions but continue to nurture their mares and foals at Sapphire Farms alongside Grove.

“We think the secret to this thing is really maximizing your assets, which are the horses, by really great care,” Brown said. “No sense of bringing something into the racing world if you’re not gonna care for it, be protective and give it every good opportunity.”

In 2024, Brown and McClay had three homebreds win stakes races: Candy Reward and The Boy’s Warrior, both by Warrior’s Reward, and Twilight Dancer, by Tapiture. Overall, Warrior’s Reward LLC was the breeder of 64 starters in 2024, with 84 wins from 449 starts and earnings of more than $2.4 million. ●

By Ron Mitchell

winner who stands for a $1,500 fee. Among the group were full siblings Walk Away Joe and Haint Blue, both produced from the mare Theatricality. The mare also produced a third Smith-bred winner of 2024 in Performanceanxiety, a daughter of former Elloree stallion Straight Talking. All three of those runners are South Carolina-breds.

Among the best horses bred by Smith to date is Intelligent Male, a stakes-winning earner of nearly $340,000. As an owner, Smith campaigned Hugo, a $16,000 purchase at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearling Sale. Trained by Hamilton Smith, Hugo won the 2009 John D. Marsh Stakes at Colonial Downs and stood at stud at Elloree.

As a training facility, one of Elloree’s most famous graduates has been Puca, a graded stakes-placed runner who has gained greater prominence as the dam of classic winners Mage and Dornoch as well as classic-placed Baeza. Mage won the 2023 Kentucky Derby (G1) while Dornoch took home the top prize in the 2024 Belmont (G1) and Haskell (G1) stakes. Another one of Puca’s foals, Baeza, was a factor in this year’s Triple Crown races, finishing third in the Derby and Belmont.

Puca, who was purchased by John Stewart of Resolute Racing for $2.9 million at the 2023 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, was named 2024 Broodmare of the Year by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association. ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 TEXAS BREEDER OF THE YEAR

Danele

Durham

Danele Durham was always drawn to Thoroughbreds, acquiring her first riding horse in 1972, when she began riding and showing hunters at the age of 10. Her parents had dabbled in Thoroughbred ownership throughout her childhood, and Durham said no truer statement has been made than “It’s in your blood.”

In 2007, when her children were out of their infant years, she left the real estate development business to return to her true love—the Thoroughbred.

Durham is a dedicated horsewoman; not only is she a successful breeder, but also a multiple stakes-winning trainer. Texas Bling, by Too Much Bling, owned by Hall’s Family Trust, put her on the map as a trainer when he won the 2012 Remington Springboard Mile Stakes.

Durham of Durham Farms had a banner year in 2024, leading all Texas breeders—highlighted by Too Much Kiki winning Texas Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly. Her dam Soft Music, owned by Durham, was crowned Texas Broodmare of the Year.

Durham purchased Soft Music in foal to Too Much Bling for a bargain price

By Olivia Newman

of $1,700 from Lane’s End Texas at the 2015 Heritage Place Thoroughbred Mixed Sale.

“I knew Soft Music from Lane’s End Texas, and was shocked I stole her for that price,” Durham said. “I had been breeding my client’s mares to Too Much Bling and had met her (Soft Music) at the farm. She had a very nice yearling at the time that I liked who went on to become Bling On the Music (2016 Texas champion 2-year-old filly), who was graded stakes-placed and a multiple stakes winner.

“In 2012, I won the Springboard Mile with Texas Bling, catapulting us onto the 3-year-old trail at Oaklawn (Park), so I was very fond of mares in foal to Too Much Bling.”

Soft Music produced a colt in 2016 that Durham sold for $100,000 at the 2017 Texas Thoroughbred Association Yearling and Mixed Sale. He went on to become the multiple stakes-placed Lullaby Bling.

In 2021, Soft Music produced a filly by Too Much Bling who Durham sold as a yearling at the 2022 TTA sale to Mansfield Racing for $100,000—Too Much Kiki.

She is now a multiple Texas stakes winner of more than $418,994.

Soft Music, now 19, is in foal to multiple grade 1 winner Jack Christopher, whose first foals are yearlings of 2025. Durham hopes the stars can align once again. ●

CONGRATULATES

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 VIRGINIA BREEDER OF THE YEAR

With Thoroughbred racing and breeding on the upswing in Virginia, more chapters are being written into the rich history of Audley Farm on the northernmost edge of the Shenandoah Valley. For its accomplishments in 2024, Audley Farm was named Virginia breeder of the year by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

“We’re not a huge breeder. We only have 14 mares, but we are a big breeder in Virginia, and that’s important to us,” said Turner Kobayashi, the farm’s general manager and president of the Virginia Thoroughbred Association.

Audley Farm’s achievements as a breeder in 2024 were led by Virginia-bred Horse of the Year Determined Kingdom, a stakes winner who made $285,988 last year with a 4-0-1 record in six outings for trainer Phil Schoenthal and owners Determined Stables and Kingdom Bloodstock.

Last fall, Determined Kingdom was sold for $190,000 to R. Larry Johnson at the Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age Sale. The now-6-year-old gelded son of Animal Kingdom, bred by Audley Farm Equine out of the Fastnet Rock mare Filia, currently races for trainer Mike Trombetta and Johnson’s estate following the owner’s death.

Determined Kingdom, like most of the horses Audley Farm breeds and

raises, was sold as a younger horse by the farm.

By Byron King

Audley also had success with other winners in 2024, including Quadra, a homebred daughter of Frosted out of the War Front mare Quargent. She broke her maiden in her second career start as a juvenile at Laurel Park this past November for trainer Arnaud Delacour.

Audley Farm, bought by pharmaceutical executive and horse owner Hubertus Liebrecht in 1978 and now owned by the Boehringer and von Baumbach families of German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, benefits from a loyal staff.

Kobayashi has been with Audley for 28 years, and his wife, Audley business manager Mary Kay Kobayashi, for 33. Other longtime Audley staffers include equine manager Jamie McDiarmid, a 26-year employee, and yearling manager Delmas Huff, who has been with them for 42 years. The farm’s yearling barn is named after Huff in tribute to his long service.

Other trusted staff include Matt Allanson and Daniel Johnson, as well as those involved in its Angus cattle farm operations.

This year, Audley representatives are excited to have entered two Justify yearlings selling with Denali Stud at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale—a colt out of the Exchange Rate mare Foreign Affair and a filly out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Smiling Causeway.

“It sounds kind of obvious—we try and breed to have a racehorse, but we try and have a sales horse, too,” McDiarmid said. ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 WASHINGTON BREEDER OF THE YEAR

By Isaiah Pinto

Nina and Ron Hagen have enjoyed more than 40 years of working together in the equine industry. In 1983, the couple bought the property that would become their mainstay, El Dorado Farms near Enumclaw, Wash.

One year later, Nina and Ron got married in a Western horseback-themed wedding ceremony outside Seattle. Their hearts were set on each other and their love for horses. Since 1984, the Hagens have owned and managed El Dorado Farms.

“We grow very, very sound horses, and they race for many years,” Nina said. “Just the way that we have grown them with a balanced nutrition and hands-on all of it. Tons of research goes into producing what we have, and it pays off because of their performance and speaking for itself.”

Prior to marriage, Ron grew up in North Dakota and Wyoming, and his father was a horse dealer. As young as 5 years old, Ron remembers attending many horse sales where his dad flipped horses.

Meanwhile, Nina grew up in Seattle, and she wasn’t involved with horses until age 22. She began handling Quarter Horse and Arabian stallions that led her to meeting Ron when he moved to Washington in 1969.

Since establishing El Dorado Farms, the Hagens have led Washington in breeding eight times.

“Number one is gaining (a horse’s) respect, but you’ve got to treat them with respect, and they know when they’re being disrespected,” Nina said. “We’ve been told by veterinarians and farriers that they do not fear coming to this

farm because they know they’re gonna be safe because the animals truly are well behaved by choice. We make it fun for them.”

For their efforts, the Hagens were named the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s breeder of the year for Washington for the first time.

“This is the first time, and it was quite a surprise,” Nina said. “(We’ve) got six farms … there’s a lot of horses and farms to manage … my husband (and I), we’re happy.”

Additionally, in February, Emerald Downs announced the Hagens as members of the 2025 class of the Washington Racing Hall of Fame.

“I think it’s more recognition for our effort and hard labor, and I tell my guys, ‘It’s all of us that did this,’” Nina said. “‘Everyone, pat yourselves on the back, look where you got the farm to’ … you’ve got to put things in perspective and give credit where credit is due.”

Currently, El Dorado Farms stands four stallions: Barkley, Coast Guard, Raise the Bluff, and Private Gold. In addition to breeding Thoroughbreds, El Dorado Farms helps neighboring farms with foaling, foal nurturing, and breeding around the state. ●

“Breeders are the backbone of our industry.”

-B. Wayne Hughes

2024 NATIONAL AWARDS

2024 CLAIMING CROWN HORSE OF THE YEAR

Like a Saltshaker

Like a Saltshaker spiced up the 2024 Claiming Crown last fall at Churchill Downs by gamely winning the $130,957 Claiming Crown Rapid Transit for Marsico Brothers Racing and trainer Brittany Vanden Berg.

Now, Like a Saltshaker has another prize to go along with his Claiming Crown trophy: the honor of being the 2024 Claiming Crown Horse of the Year. He will be formally honored during the annual Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association Awards Dinner Sept. 6 at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington.

TOBA and the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association co-founded the Claiming Crown in 1999 to recognize former claiming racehorses with a series of rich starter allowance races on one card. As it approaches its 27th renewal, it continues to be a popular event.

Like a Saltshaker won five races from 12 starts in 2024, none richer than the Rapid Transit, when he earned $72,075 for outkicking Keen Cat by a head in the seven-furlong race at Churchill Downs under Vanden Berg’s husband, veteran rider Chris Emigh.

From the time he was claimed for $10,000 on May 14, 2023, until when the Marsico Brothers sold him to Staton Flurry of Flurry Racing Stables

By Byron King

late last year, Like a Saltshaker earned them more than $277,000. As of June 2025, Flurry had him in training with trainer Tom Clark in the northeast, in part to take advantage of state-bred incentives when the gelding competes in Pennsylvania.

"It’s hard to find horses such as Like a Saltshaker, who can win eight or nine races over two years,” Like a Saltshaker co-owner Mike Marsico told the National HBPA in late May. “When you find one of those, they’re really special, because every time they get out on the track, you know they’ll give their all."

Bred by Glenn Brok in Pennsylvania out of the Harlan’s Holiday mare With Sprinkles, Like a Saltshaker won the 2020 Fitz Dixon Jr. Memorial Juvenile Stakes as a 2-year-old at Presque Isle Downs. He also had allowance optional claiming success at multiple tracks in 2021 and 2022.

But after struggling at Turfway Park in early 2023, he dropped that spring into the $10,000 claiming ranks at Churchill Downs–when Marsico Brothers Racing and Vanden Berg submitted a successful claim for him. He romped by 5 3/4 lengths.

Reflecting on his Claiming Crown victory, Vanden Berg praised Like a Saltshaker’s desire to win in her comments to the National HBPA, saying his fight “summed up his entire career of just being one of the most tryingest horses we’ve ever trained. He really knows he’s in a race, and he really knows he’s supposed to win, and he knows he gets his picture taken at the end." ●

2024 NATIONAL AWARDS

2024 ROOD & RIDDLE THOROUGHBRED SPORT HORSE OF THE YEAR

Zealand - Our Prince Charlie

While many college students are working to find a balance between social life and academics, Grace Walker is adding yet another component to the mix. A student at the University of Alabama, working towards a double major in finance and marketing, Walker is also a competitive equestrian. And with her horse Zealand—formerly known as Our Prince Charlie— Walker’s reign is showing no signs of letting up.

From 11 starts, Our Prince Charlie—a gelded son of Domestic Dispute— failed to win on the racetrack. He did manage three third-place finishes during his career, but the Maryland-bred bay’s talents clearly lay elsewhere. When Walker acquired him, Zealand embarked on a second career, and he thrived, showing everyone the athleticism and class that Thoroughbreds can possess.

He logged numerous firsts at the 2024 Ocala Winter Finals with Brittany Shutt aboard, and his success continued all year long. At the 121st Annual Keswick Horse Show, held in May 2025, Zealand was even named the 2024 $500 TAKE2 Thoroughbred Hunter champion, bringing home the “I Know Why” Perpetual Trophy. He received that prestigious championship honor in 2023, as well. For 2024, Zealand finished third in the Virginia Horse

By Carly Silver

Shows Association Thoroughbred Hunter Division; he won the Large Junior Hunter 3’6” Division; he came in first, bringing home the Younger Green Hill Challenge Perpetual Trophy for his owner. Now 17, Zealand is showing that age for a racehorse is very different from age for a sport horse. Walker is a versatile athlete; she shows in western reining, hunters, and horsemanship in the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association. She is involved in amateur owner hunters, achieving great success on the mare Caleesi and Zealand, among others.

With Kirsty Welch aboard, Zealand performed in a stellar fashion at numerous events last year, including the legendary Middleburg Classic Horse Show; he came in first in a TAKE2 Thoroughbred Hunters 3’ event, finishing a solid second in several others, including a TAKE2 Thoroughbred Hunters 3’, $500 TAKE2 Thoroughbred Classic, and Adult Amateur Hunters 36-49 3’. Welch and Zealand were named the Washington International Horse Show Regional Hunter champions.

Zealand is boarded at Pam Baker’s Hillcrest Farms near Bealeton, Va. Baker is a prominent figure in her own right, mentoring and training young and talented riders; she is listed as Zealand’s trainer.

Outside of her equestrian endeavors and her academics, Walker stays busy with plenty of other activities. She closely follows the University of Alabama’s legendary football team, the Crimson Tide—“Roll Tide!”—and is also involved in boating. ●

2024 NATIONAL AWARDS

2024 DR. J. DAVID RICHARDSON INDUSTRY SERVICE AWARD

Alan Foreman

Most fortunately for racing, Alan Foreman always has been willing to take the deep dive.

As racing has crafted paths forward on important issues such as marketing, advocacy, safety, and medication rules, Foreman often has been at the forefront in offering ideas, considering options, and providing thought on long-term outcomes.

He is among the racing leaders paving a way forward in Maryland behind a new Pimlico Race Course that will bring both a modern home for the Preakness Stakes (G1) as well as a training center to benefit everyday racing. It’s the kind of plan Foreman can support as it considers both the biggest days and the everyday horsemen, who he has been closely aligned with during his 45 years in racing.

That commitment saw TOBA choose Foreman as its 2024 Dr. J. David Richardson Industry Service Award winner.

“When I was told about it, you could have knocked me over with a feather. It means a lot to be receiving an award like this from TOBA,” Foreman said. “I was blown away; you just don’t expect something like this.”

By Frank Angst

Foreman said the award is extra special because it carries Richardson’s name. Richardson died in 2021 after leading many industry initiatives.

“Doc was a friend of mine and we crossed paths on many fronts in the business,” Foreman said. “So that makes this award double-meaningful.”

A leading equine attorney, Foreman is chairman and CEO of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which represents more than 20,000 owners and trainers.

In terms of marketing and advocacy, Foreman is a National Thoroughbred Racing Association founder who continues to serve on its board.

On safety, Foreman was the driving force in creating the nation’s first workers’ compensation program for jockeys in 1984 in Maryland. He helped guide the Racing Medication & Testing Consortium, has chaired the Mid-Atlantic Strategic Plan to Reduce Equine Fatalities, and co-authored the New York Task Force Report on Racehorse Health and Safety. He serves as ombudsman for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.

He’s shaping Maryland’s racing future through the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority.

“I’m not someone who had skin in the game as a breeder or an owner when I started in racing. My first involvement was as counsel for the Maryland Racing Commission in the (1980) Codex-Genuine Risk interference case,” Foreman said. “I feel like I’ve moved the needle on some things.” ●

2024 NATIONAL AWARDS

2024 BROODMARE OF THE YEAR

Sataves

Ten year-old Sataves, the 2024 Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association Broodmare of the Year, was a mare born six weeks early and crippled and was not supposed to survive. The daughter of Uncle Mo was severely underdeveloped—only 60 pounds and stood 40 inches tall at birth.

Despite the insurmountable odds stacked against her, when Brookstown Farm owner Judy Hicks first saw Sataves, the young filly was “running around and hollering” in the stall next to her dam. What the filly lacked in body composition, she made up for in heart.

Shortly after Sataves’ birth, when it was determined that she would likely never be a racehorse and even the possibility of her becoming a broodmare was uncertain, the filly’s breeder Sanford Robertson gave her to Hicks.

“She had a crushed hock that was broken in about fifteen places and she toed in severely,” Hicks said. “She also had a few breathing problems. We didn’t know if she had ovaries at the time. And so (Sanford) gave her to me and wished me luck.”

Slowly but surely, Sataves braved through her health obstacles into adulthood. The 10-year-old mare is still small, standing 14.2 hands tall.

“She’s a legal pony size,” Hicks said. “But she’s got Uncle Mo’s body. If you look at her body from her knees up she looks normal.”

In her second trip to the breeding shed, Hicks bred Sataves to the stakes-winning sprinter Fast Anna, who stood for a $10,000 stud fee.

By Molly Rollins

The resulting foal, a filly named Thorpedo Anna, inherited every bit of her mother’s resilience and raced her way into history. Capturing six of her seven starts, including five grade 1 victories, Thorpedo Anna was crowned the 2024 Horse of the Year, becoming only the second 3-year-old filly and the seventh female to ever receive racing’s highest honor.

Following her daughter’s remarkable accomplishments, Sataves was also voted the 2024 Broodmare of the Year.

“She only produced one good horse and to be able to get the Broodmare of the Year for one horse is telling of how important to the industry Thorpedo Anna really is,” Hicks said.

Thorpedo Anna, under the eyes of trainer Kenny McPeek, returned in 2025 as a 4-year-old and resumed her winning ways. She has won three of her four outings this year, highlighted by an emphatic romp in the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1).

In addition to Thorpedo Anna, Sataves’ 3-year-old colt, McAfee, is also beginning to make a name for himself. The son of Cloud Computing has twice placed at the graded stakes level for trainer Rick Dutrow.

“She’s the little horse that keeps giving,” Hicks said.

Hicks remained a partner on both Thorpedo Anna and McAfee when they passed through the ring as yearlings. However, she is intent on keeping Sataves’ youngest offspring for herself, a yearling Known Agenda filly named After the Storm.

“Kenny (McPeek) feels she’s Thorpedo Anna in a chestnut version,” Hicks said of the Known Agenda filly. “I don’t know if we’ll ever have another Thorpedo Anna but it’s certainly exciting to have her half sister.” ●

2024 COT CAMPBELL PARTNERSHIP OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Lance Gasaway, 4G Racing LLC, Daniel Hamby III and Valley View Farm LLC

Partnership is the name of the game for Arkansas-based owner/ breeder Lance Gasaway. Along with his cousin Brent and wife Sharilyn’s 4G Racing and friend Daniel “Banks” Hamby III, Gasaway bred 2024 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystik Dan. The three parties above race the son of Goldencents with Valley View Farm. Gasaway appreciates the chance to share the experience with those close to him. “I guess it means a lot more when it’s just us. There’s nobody in it that we don’t know,” he explained. That means having friends and family by your side through the many peaks and valleys the industry inevitably serves up. He recalled with a chuckle, “Oh yeah, we’ve definitely been through that. When we first started, we bought three Arky-breds and I think it was like $15,000, and two of ’em never made it to the track. One of ’em, I think, ran one time and didn’t do nothing. So we’ve been through the ups and downs and even the year before ’24; ’23, I don’t think I won a race.”

By Carly Silver

With Brent, Gasaway co-owns broodmare Southern Grace, boarded at Brookdale Farm near Versailles, Ky. 4G, Gasaway, and Hamby also have Ma’am, who slipped a foal by Into Mischief last fall but is back in foal to that champion sire, boarded at Magdalena Farm near Lexington.

Ma’am also has the distinction of being the dam of a 2-year-old by Wells Bayou, that stallion’s only living foal to date. Gasaway bought the son of Lookin At Lucky at the March 2019 Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training for $105,000. Wells Bayou ran second in the 2020 Southwest Stakes (G3) before winning the Louisiana Derby (G2); by the Louisiana Derby, he was racing for a partnership consisting of father and son Lance and Clint Gasaway, plus Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables and Wonder Stables.

“But then after he retired, we sent him out to Oklahoma,” Gasaway said. “We couldn’t get a stud deal in Kentucky, so we sent him out to Oklahoma and bred him. He bred 38 mares and only three became pregnant, so he ended up being sterile. And of the three, one of them slipped, kind of like Ma’am did, and lost the baby. The other one, the baby was born, like, two days or two weeks early, and it was out in the field and they went out there that night and they lost that baby. So we have the only live foal of Wells Bayou.”

Gasaway has other horses in partnerships, such as promising juvenile colt Blackout Time. McPeek and Gasaway were drawn in by the Not This Time youngster at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling sale, and Gasaway became a partner on the horse; Blackout Time ran second in a June 29 maiden special weight at Churchill Downs. ●

2025 FALL

Premier Sales.

One Destination for Success.

September Yearling Sale

The World’s Yearling Sale was the site of 2024’s record $428 million auction Begins Monday, September 8

Keeneland

Championship Sale

Unique sales event for select offerings returns to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar Wednesday, October 29

November

Breeding Stock Sale

Vibrant global market for world-class mares and weanlings set a new record median last year Begins Tuesday, November 4

November Horses of Racing Age Sale

Premier live racehorse sale saw double-digit gains in average and median Thursday, November 13

2024 NATIONAL AWARDS

2024 COT CAMPBELL PARTNERSHIP OF THE YEAR FINALIST

My Racehorse

Authentic’s victories in the 2020 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), and the titles of Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male that would follow, put MyRacehorse on the map as a microshare syndicate.

The company, founded in 2018 by its CEO Michael Behrens, has not been a one-hit wonder. Its stable continues to collect classic victories and championship titles. MyRacehorse’s spectacular 2024 earned them the title of finalist for the Cot Campbell Partnership of the Year award.

Last year the ownership group enjoyed success with Seize the Grey, the winner of the Preakness Stakes (G1) and Pennsylvania Derby (G1). To cap the season, Straight No Chaser carried MyRacehorse’s white-and-black silks to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), which yielded the then-5year-old an Eclipse Award as champion male sprinter.

Those achievements were particularly gratifying because both horses were solely owned by MyRacehorse and sourced by its bloodstock team. While there is nothing quite like winning the Kentucky Derby as MyRacehorse did with Authentic, particularly so early in its existence, the circumstances differed with Seize the Grey and Straight No Chaser. MyRacehorse bought into Authentic when his 3-year-old campaign was already underway and was one of several partnership entities owning a stake in the son of Into Mischief.

By Karen M. Johnson

The D. Wayne Lukas-trained Seize the Grey, a son of Arrogate, was acquired as a yearling in 2022 at Fasig-Tipton’s The Saratoga Sale for $300,000. Straight No Chaser, a son of Speightster, was procured at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale for $110,000. The owners of these horses were able to experience the ownership journey every step of the way.

Seize the Grey, using his early turn of foot to capture the Preakness by 2 1/4 lengths, and employing the same tactics in the Pennsylvania Derby for his 3 3/4-length score, also won the Pat Day Mile Stakes (G2) by 1 1/4 lengths.

Following a 12-month layoff, the Dan Blacker-trained Straight No Chaser returned to action in May 2024 to finish fourth in the Runhappy Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack. He didn’t run again until the Sept. 29 Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes (G2) where his flashy speed led him home a 6 1/4-length winner.

He then sparked more joy for his ownership group in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar while prevailing by a half-length after a fierce battle in deep stretch with Bentornato.

“There’s a lot of pride in the fact that both horses are 100% owned by (our partners),” Behrens said. “It was great for us to be able to have that moment where our bloodstock team went out there and was able to do due diligence and find these fast horses.

“It was definitely a game-changing moment. The product, the business, achieved new heights. I think people have appreciated what’s possible (with MyRacehorse) when seeing what Seize the Grey and Straight No Chaser did.” ●

2024 COT CAMPBELL PARTNERSHIP OF THE YEAR FINALIST

SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Robert Masterson, Catherine Donovan and Waves Edge Capital LLC

For the ownership group with the nickname of “The Avengers,” it’s all about quality over quantity.

Started by SF Racing, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables, with Stonestreet Stables joining soon thereafter, the group also features Robert Masterson and Catherine Donovan. They bought their first yearlings in 2018 and are up for tonight’s award.

In time, the group has expanded to feature as many as 10 different ownership entities.

The large partnership, which adopted the name of Marvel superheroes, generally buys about 22-24 yearling colts each season. Of that group, maybe 18 make it to the races.

Yet with those small numbers, through the help of a top team of bloodstock agents, veterinarians, and Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, they have achieved a level of success that would make stables 10 times their size jealous.

They already have won the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) with 2020 Horse of the Year Authentic and the 2023 Preakness Stakes (G1) with National Treasure.

By Bob Ehalt

The wave of success continued in 2024, highlighted by two champions. National Treasure, also owned by Jay Schoenfarber, started the year with a victory in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) at Gulfstream Park and later added a win in the prestigious Metropolitan Handicap (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. At year’s end, the 4-year-old was named the champion older dirt male.

The same group also owned Santa Anita Handicap (G1) winner Newgate.

At the Breeders’ Cup, they celebrated a victory by Citizen Bull in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at Del Mar that wrapped up the Eclipse Award as the champion 2-year-old male. Previously, the son of Into Mischief triumphed in the American Pharoah Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park for a partnership that also includes Dianne Bashor, Determined Stables, and Tom Ryan.

The latter group also won the Best Pal Stakes (G3) with Getaway Car, who was fourth in the Juvenile.

“This is something we are very proud of,” said SF Racing’s Ryan, the managing partner of the group. “Our success is largely attributed to our trainer, Bob Baffert. But with everyone involved in the selection process, preparing the horses for the racetrack, the training, the medical and daily care, there are too many people to mention. But they all do a fantastic job. It takes an outstanding team to be successful. We have owners who are passionate about the game and understand the ups and downs and that’s what drives our success. The key is to never get complacent. You want to keep the magic rolling, which isn’t easy in a tough game.” ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 NATIONAL SMALL BREEDER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

William “Buck” Butler

William “Buck” Butler earned his first breeder of the year award at the New York Thoroughbred Breeders’ annual awards ceremony in May, thanks to half siblings My Mane Squeeze and Rotknee. My Mane Squeeze was voted New York-bred Horse of the Year, champion 3-year-old filly, and champion female sprinter, while Rotknee took home the trophy for champion male sprinter. Their dam In Spite of Mama earned Broodmare of the Year honors.

Butler was also named the 2024 New York breeder of the year by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

In 2024, My Mane Squeeze topped the leaderboard of New York-bred earners with $860,750 in money won from a record of 4-2-1 from nine starts.. Butler started racing horses in the early 2000s, initially going the auction route. When that strategy didn’t work out, he decided to breed to race, and he hit the jackpot in 2005 when he purchased a 2-year-old filly by Carson City at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training for $65,000. He named her Mama Theresa, and she would become the foundation of Butler’s breeding operation.

A half sister to New York-bred millionaire Haynesfield, Mama Theresa earned $240,898, placing twice in New York-bred stakes races. As a broodmare, she produced eight foals to make it to the races, seven of them

By Teresa Genaro

winners, and in 2012, she produced In Spite of Mama (by Speightstown), who earned $164,024 on the track before joining Butler’s modest broodmare band at the now-closed Keane Stud near Amenia, N.Y.

Like her dam, In Spite of Mama throws runners: of five foals to make it to the races, four are winners, all of which have earned at least $170,000. In 2018, Butler bred her to Runhappy, resulting in a dark bay or brown colt that he named Rotknee. With lifetime earnings of $742,050, he’s a multiple stakes winner and finished third in the 2023 Fall Highweight Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Foaled two years after Rotknee, My Mane Squeeze (by Audible) has earned more than $1.1 million in her 16-race career and is a two-time graded stakes winner, taking the 2024 Eight Belles Stakes (G2) and the Dogwood Stakes (G3), both at Churchill Downs. She posted runner-up finishes in the Charles Town Oaks and Raven Run Stakes (both G2) and finished third in the Test Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.

In February 2024, WinStar Farm joined Butler in ownership, purchasing a 50% interest in My Mane Squeeze.

Rotknee won three stakes races in 2024 and placed in a fourth for a record of 3-0-1 from seven starts and earnings of $185,375.

In Spite of Mama has a yearling filly by Honest Mischief, who stands at New York’s Sequel Stallions, and is in foal to Life Is Good. Now pensioned at age 22, Mama Theresa is at Gary and Sue Lundy’s Cedar Ridge Farm near Pine Plains, N.Y., to which Butler transferred his broodmares after Keane Stud closed. ●

2024 NATIONAL SMALL BREEDER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Cuyathy, LLC (Joseph Patrick McCloskey)

The meaning behind Joe and Debby McCloskey’s “Cuyathy” is very close to home. Named after a pivotal horse in their operation, Cuyathy also is an acronym that stands for “Call Upon Your Angels to Help You.”

For the McCloskeys, finalists for the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s 2024 national small breeder of the year, several highlights were provided by their homebred grade 1-winning colt Johannes.

“2024 was, on one side of the equation, a fantastic year for us in 12 years of racing. On another side of the equation, it was a very difficult time for us too,” Joe McCloskey said. “So the positive side, we’ve had tremendous success with Johannes; he led the way. But we also had good success with other horses that were bred by or out of our mare Cuyathy in Sea Dancer and Sea Runner. So they all had good racing years.

“Unfortunately on the negative side, Cuyathy had a stillborn foal at full term. So that takes the wind out of your sails; just as you think everything’s going great.”

In 2024 Johannes reeled off consecutive victories in the American Stakes (G3T) and Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1T), both on the Santa Anita Park turf, before annexing the Eddie Read Stakes (G2T) at Del Mar. Next, Johannes

By Carly Silver

returned to the Great Race Place to capture the City of Hope Mile Stakes (G2T). After a close second to More Than Looks in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T) at Del Mar, Johannes ended the year by winning the San Gabriel Stakes (G2T) at Santa Anita. He was a finalist for the 2024 Eclipse Award as top turf male.

Of his Breeders’ Cup race where More Than Looks rallied five wide to pass seven rivals in the stretch, including Johannes late, Joe recalled, “I think it was a tough one because if you go back and you play it through, we had the horse in the right spot; we were beating the people we thought of, and Johannes is the type of horse that he needs to see the horses around him. He knew he didn’t have anybody around him so if you’re going to get beat, that was the worst way to get beat–on the way outside. He never saw that horse coming.”

The McCloskeys board their broodmares at Brookdale Farm near Versailles, Ky. Their broodmare band includes Cuyathy, whose other foals include Sea Dancer (by Mastery), a stakes winner last year at 3 and again in 2025 at 4 in Maryland for owner SF Racing; and Sea Runner (by Gun Runner), third in the 2024 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf Stakes. Besides Cuyathy, they also own Reiki Baby (by Curlin), who foaled Cuyathy-bred Mendelssohn Bay (by Mendelssohn). Owned by Suited and Booted Racing Syndicate, Mendelssohn Bay won the U.A.E. Two Thousand Guineas (G3) at Meydan Racecourse. ●

2024 STATE & CANADIAN BREEDER AWARDS

2024 NATIONAL SMALL BREEDER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

4G Racing LLC, Lance Gasaway, and Daniel Hamby III

The journey Mystik Dan has been on is nothing short of magical. Lance Gasaway, Daniel Hamby III, and Sharilyn and Brent Gasaway’s 4G Racing bred the colt (whom they race with Valley View Farm) from comparatively humble beginnings; in fact, Mystik Dan’s dam, Ma’am, once RNA’ed for $9,500. But in 2024, the son of Goldencents won the Kentucky Derby (G1) and ran second in the Preakness Stakes (G1). In 2025, he added a Blame Stakes (G3) triumph to his résumé, and upon retirement, Mystik Dan will stand at Airdrie Stud near Midway, Ky.

His owners even received last year’s Jack Van Berg Horse Racing Award of Excellence, and they work with the best in the business. Lance Gasaway has blood and professional ties with co-owners Brent (his cousin) and Sharilyn (Brent’s wife); the Gasaways board their mares and youngsters at trainer Kenny McPeek’s Magdalena Farm near Lexington and Brookdale Farm near Versailles, Ky. Fellow Arkansas resident Hamby boards at Magdalena.

The magic began with Ma’am, a Colonel John filly.

By Carly Silver

“So when we bought Ma’am, it was myself, my dad Clint Gasaway, my brother Greg Gasaway, and Daniel Hamby, and we ran her,” Lance said. “And then when we retired her, my brother decided he did not want to be involved in making a broodmare out of her. And then my dad had said he was getting older in age then, and then he said he didn’t think he would be—odds are he wasn’t going to be alive when the baby ran, so he did not want to be a part of it. So at that point it was just me and Daniel left with Ma’am, and we just asked Brent and Sharilyn ... if they wanted to be involved in it and they said yes.”

Hamby (nicknamed “Banks”) is also a pal.

Of four-time winner Ma’am, Lance recalled, “She was our first big purchase and she was pretty successful; she had a pretty good little run. I mean, she wasn’t nothing great, but we really kinda got attached to her. She was a real, very loving horse, and we’d like to feed her peppermints and all that kind of stuff, and so really kind of got a bond with her.”

When Ma’am got injured, McPeek suggested they breed her; when she was sent to Goldencents, the resulting foal was none other than Mystik Dan.

The team still has Ma’am, who slipped an Into Mischief foal last fall but is back in foal to that top sire. Long may the magic (and the mystique) continue. ●

2024 NATIONAL BREEDER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Godolphin

With a powerful band of broodmares in Kentucky, and throughout the world, Godolphin is consistently topping the charts as a leading breeder.

Sheikh Mohammed’s operation is a finalist for the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s National Breeder of the Year award, an honor it has secured the past three years.

Homebred horses accounted for 26 of Godolphin’s graded stakes victories in 2024. Horses bred by Godolphin amassed more than $23 million in North American earnings in 2024, winning 226 races.

Leading the way were a pair of Kentucky-bred 2-year-olds in Immersive, who secured champion 2-year-old filly honors, and grade 1 winner East Avenue. Irish-bred Rebel’s Romance secured champion male turf horse honors behind his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T).

Immersive won her six-furlong maiden special weight debut by two lengths in July at Saratoga Race Course and followed with three straight grade 1 wins for trainer Brad Cox. A daughter of 2016 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Nyquist and out of the Bernardini mare Gap Year, who won at 2, Immersive registered clear victories in the seven-furlong Spinaway Stakes (G1) in August at Saratoga, the 1 1/16-mile Alcibiades Stakes (G1) in October at Keeneland, and the 1 1/16-mile Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Del Mar.

By Frank Angst

While East Avenue lost all chance in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) when he stumbled at the start, the son of Medaglia d’Oro secured a grade 1 score in his start previous to that effort when he posted a 5 1/4-length score in the Breeders’ Futurity (G1) in October at Keeneland. East Avenue is trained by Brendan Walsh.

East Avenue is the first foal out of the unraced Ghostzapper mare Dance Music, who is a half sister of 2023 Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish, who now stands at Godolphin’s farm near Lexington. Dance Music is a daughter of grade 1 winner Dance Card.

Rebel’s Romance won races in five different countries in 2024.

“Team Godolphin is a privilege to be a member of. But, most importantly, it’s a privilege to work around the Thoroughbred racehorse,” said Godolphin head of pre-training and rehabilitation in Kentucky Johnny Burke earlier this year in accepting an Eclipse Award for Godolphin. “These are our lives and we are fortunate to be involved with them from their upbringing to watch them grow and mature. This is who we are, and this is what we do.”

Godolphin’s farm near Lexington stood a pair of stallions who landed in the top 20 on the 2024 general sires list in Nyquist and grade 1 winner and 2007 Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun. Nyquist was led by Immersive while Sycamore Stakes (G3T) winner Highway Robber finished as Hard Spun’s leading earner. Medaglia d’Oro, sire of East Avenue, also stands there. ●

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2024 NATIONAL AWARDS

2024 NATIONAL BREEDER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Town & Country

Twenty-one years have passed since Town & Country Horse Farms bought its first horse. Since then, the Courtelis family has built a dynasty of its own. It was founded by late patriarch Alec—a foundational figure in the Arabian Jockey Club of America—and his wife Louise (“Lulu”). The operation, located in Georgetown, Ky., is currently overseen by farm president—and their daughter—Kiki Courtelis.

In 2024, Town & Country bred a slew of top-flight runners. The broodmare Majestic Presence, a daughter of Majestic Warrior, has proven to be a gold mine, in particular. Town & Country purchased her, in foal to champion male sprinter Runhappy, for $360,000 at the 2017 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

In 2020, Majestic Presence foaled an Into Mischief colt; he sold for $850,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling sale. Eventually named Newgate, he captured the 2024 Santa Anita Handicap (G1) before being retired to stud at Three Chimneys Farm; he held court at that nursery in 2025 for $20,000.

Sent back to Into Mischief, Majestic Presence yielded a filly in 2021; she hammered for $500,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s The Saratoga Sale in 2022. Named Denim and Pearls, she won the 2024 Beaumont Stakes (G2) before selling for $2.8 million at Fasig-Tipton’s The November Sale last fall.

By Carly Silver

Majestic Presence’s next foal, a 2022 Authentic filly named Adeera, sold for $300,000 at the 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale; she has won one of eight starts so far. Majestic Presence also has a yearling filly by Life Is Good.

Another T&C-bred who achieved grade 1 success was Formidable Man. The turf star lived up to his name by annexing the Hollywood Derby (G1T) after triumphing in the Del Mar Derby (G2T). He has continued his successful ways in 2025 for owners William K. Warren Jr. and Suzanne Warren, winning the March 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile Stakes (G1T).

Amazingly, these horses may not even be the best produced by Town & Country in recent years, as the farm also produced $2 million earner Adare Manor. Her dam, Brooklynsway (by Giant Gizmo), was a graded stakes-winning finalist for the 2014 Sovereign Award for top 2-year-old filly. T&C co-bred her 2019 Uncle Mo filly with Gary Broad; named Adare Manor, she sold for $180,000 to Walmac Farms/Gary Broad at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February Mixed Sale.

Eventually, she ended up with owner Michael Lund Petersen. In 2024 alone, Adare Manor placed in the Beholder Mile Stakes (G1), then reeled off three straight victories: first, romping home by 5 1/2 lengths in the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1), then outclassing three other rivals in the Santa Margarita Stakes (G2), and finally, adding the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1). Adare Manor sold for $2.8 million at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton November sale, bought by Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm. And 2025 looks to be another banner year, as T&C-co-bred Public Assembly has already won the April 26 Royal Heroine Stakes (G3T). ●

2024 NATIONAL BREEDER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Judy Hicks entered the 2024 racing season as a small Kentucky breeder unknown to the general public. By the time she exited the season, she was a household name for racing fans across the country and finalist for the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s national breeder of the year. Hicks experienced the true beauty of what racing offers, how one horse can take you on an incredible journey and, ultimately, change your life. That horse is Thorpedo Anna.

The daughter of Fast Anna is out of a very special mare to Hicks, Sataves. The Uncle Mo filly was born premature with her hocks crushed and deformed and would never make it as a racehorse. However, Hicks volunteered to take the horse, to which breeder Sanford Robertson graciously agreed. The filly survived thanks to Hicks’ tender loving care, and in 2021 gave birth to a future superstar.

In 2024, Thorpedo Anna took the racing world by storm as she toyed with the 3-year-old filly division. Her five grade 1 wins included the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) against older runners. However, her greatest performance may have been in her lone defeat of the season when she faced the boys in the Travers Stakes (G1). A heart-filled

By Sean Collins

stretch rally saw the beloved filly just miss victory by a head to champion Fierceness, with champion Sierra Leone and classic winner Dornoch in the rearview mirror.

For those accolades, Thorpedo Anna was crowned Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly. Hicks herself was a finalist for the Eclipse Award for the country’s top breeder.

Hicks was often seen along for the ride, joining Thorpedo Anna in the paddock and the winner’s circle on several occasions. However, she still had a duty to the owners who boarded their mares at her Brookstown Farm, choosing to miss races when needed to fulfill her daily obligations.

“I never imagined having a filly would mean so much to me,” Hicks said. “My day in, day out, I race horses, I have fillies. All of a sudden, a filly became important. I don’t change my daily routine. She has just added a dimension to my life that I never thought possible. I’m trying to just take it in day by day.”

Thorpedo Anna’s five grade 1 wins ranked Hicks second among North American breeders in the 2024 season and the six total graded stakes wins tied her for third. Her totals were further boosted by a pair of non-blacktype stakes wins at Fort Erie by Victory March and a maiden victory by McAfee, Thorpedo Anna’s half brother.

In total, the six starters bred by Hicks took home $3,828,367 while winning nine races. ●

Over a recent two-month span, trainers, owners, breeders and other horsemen downloaded more than 200,000 sets of DRF past performances

2024 NATIONAL AWARDS

2024 NATIONAL OWNER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Considering its success, when Godolphin establishes a new standard it’s something to celebrate.

Sheikh Mohammed’s operation did just that in 2024 as it became the first owner to surpass the $20 million mark in single-season North American purse earnings.

The record earnings mark puts a cherry on top of Godolphin finishing as the leading earner in North American earnings for a fourth straight year.

The record year was paced by 22 North American graded stakes winners, including Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) winner Immersive and Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T) winner Rebel’s Romance. Immersive, trained by Brad Cox, and Rebel’s Romance, conditioned by Charlie Appleby, each placed in the top 10 on the earnings list.

Rebel’s Romance became the first horse to win the Breeders’ Cup Turf in nonconsecutive years while Immersive closed out a perfect four-start season with wins in three straight grade 1 races.

Other grade 1 winners campaigned by Godolphin in 2024 include: Highland Falls, Nations Pride, Measured Time, East Avenue, Master of The Seas, and Cinderella’s Dream.

Godolphin will be looking for its fourth straight Owner of the Year honor from the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. The interna-

2024 NATIONAL OWNER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Juddmonte

Seeing the green, pink, and white silks of Juddmonte entering the winner’s circle is not a rarity anywhere in the world, but in 2024 it was a more common occurrence in North America than ever before.

The international Thoroughbred racing and breeding enterprise founded by the late Prince Khalid bin Abdullah had a banner year worthy of being a finalist for the 2024 Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s National Owner of the Year.

In total, those green, pink, and white colors made 42 appearances in North American winner’s circles, the most in a single season for the farm since Equibase records for owners began in 2000. Juddmonte won at a remarkable 30% rate while an additional 28 seconds and 22 thirds saw them in the money 65% of the time.

The year was highlighted by the continued success of champion homebred Idiomatic. Following an incredible 2023 season, the Brad Cox-trained daughter of Curlin tallied victories in the La Troienne Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs, Spinster Stakes (G1) at Keeneland, and Molly Pitcher Stakes (G3) at Monmouth Park en route to a second consecutive champion older

By Frank Angst

tional stable also won its seventh Eclipse Award as outstanding owner for 2024. It previously won this award in 2009, 2012, and 2020-23.

Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock Michael Banahan said horses such as recent champions Immersive and Essential Quality along with 2023 Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish are the icing on the cake but noted that awards honoring leading owner or leading breeder are especially meaningful because they point to overall success of an operation.

“It’s beyond one horse,” Banahan told the BH Monday podcast. “We have a multitude of very nice horses, so that means the world to us.

“We understand how difficult it is to do this so we appreciate it when it happens. We don’t take it for granted; that’s for sure.”

With 104 North American wins from 460 starts good for $20,234,455, Godolphin had more than twice the earnings of any other owner in 2024. Godolphin’s previous mark of $17.5 million was set in 2021. When including earnings from the Dubai and Saudi Cup days, Godolphin’s 2024 earnings for the year were $24,414,455.

Banahan said such overall honors mean a lot to everyone associated with Godolphin, from the trainers on the track to the workers on the farms.

“It’s great that Sheikh Mohammed has put us in this position with a great broodmare band and a great stallion roster; and opportunities to pair those mares with other top stallions as well,” Banahan said. “It puts these horses in position on the racetrack for him to enjoy, which is what he loves to do whether they’re racing in America, Europe, Dubai, or wherever they might be.” ●

By Sean Collins

dirt female title at the Eclipse Awards. Even in defeat, she was resilient as she was defeated by just a head in the Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) and Personal Ensign Stakes (G1), both at Saratoga Race Course.

Juddmonte earned a third top-level win as Chad Brown-trained Whitebeam scored a repeat victory in the Diana Stakes (G1T) over the Saratoga turf a month after placing in the Just a Game Stakes (G1T).

Other graded winners in the green and pink included Scylla in the Fleur de Lis Stakes (G2) and Shawnee Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs, Accede in the Bed o’ Roses Stakes (G2), and Segesta in the Wonder Again Stakes (G2T) at Aqueduct Racetrack, Batten Down in the Ohio Derby (G3) at Thistledown, and Dragoon Guard in the Indiana Derby (G3) at Horseshoe Indianapolis and West Virginia Derby (G3) at Mountaineer. All seven individual graded stakes winners were homebreds.

In addition, Scylla added a pair of grade 1 placings, Segesta was runner-up in the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T), Dragoon Guard was third in the Pennsylvania Derby (G1), and Pleasant finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1). Sidamara, Coppice, and Dazzling Blue also picked up placings at the graded level.

In total, Juddmonte ended the year with $7,086,728 in purse money earned by their runners, the fourth-highest in their North American history and third-most among all owners in North America. ●

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2024 NATIONAL AWARDS

2024 NATIONAL OWNER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

For the third consecutive year, Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables finished second in the year-end owners’ standings by earnings with nearly $8.4 million in 2024, and his silks went to the winner’s circle in 13 graded stakes races with nine horses. Among Klaravich’s standouts in 2024 were Domestic Product, Ways and Means, and Program Trading, the first two of which were also bred by Klaravich.

A dark bay or brown colt by the Klaravich-owned millionaire Practical Joke, Domestic Product topped the list of Klarman’s earners in 2024, banking $764,000. He began the year on the Kentucky Derby (G1) trail, finishing second in the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park and winning the Tampa Bay Derby (G3), earning enough points to qualify for the Derby, in which he finished 13th. He made two starts last summer at route distances, winning the listed Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park and winning the Dwyer Stakes (G3) during the Belmont at the Big A spring/ summer meeting.

Despite that success, owner Seth Klarman and trainer Chad Brown elected to cut Domestic Product back in distance for the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, where he eked out a neck victory for his first and only grade 1 win. Domestic Product now stands at Coolmore for $30,000.

By Teresa Genaro

Also by Practical Joke, the filly Ways and Means started her season with a runner-up performance in the Gulfstream Parks Oaks (G2), earning a trip to the Kentucky Oaks (G1), in which she finished fourth over a sloppy track. She went on to win the Test Stakes (G1) at Saratoga and the Gallant Bloom Stakes (G2) at the Belmont at the Big A fall meet, and her 2024 earnings came in just shy of $620,000.

Klarman purchased Program Trading at the 2021 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. The son of Lope de Vega won four of his first five races as a 3-year-old in 2023 and returned to the track last year to win the Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) at Churchill Downs. Program Trading has earned $1.3 million lifetime.

In addition to these successes, Klarman celebrated graded stakes wins with McKulick, Dynamic Pricing, Idea Generation, Royalty Interest, Tax Implications, and Randomized, who won the Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) on the Belmont Stakes (G1) undercard at Saratoga Race Course.

Klarman races primarily in New York, and has won more than two dozen 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 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 2019, he and former partner William Lawrence were voted Eclipse Award winners as outstanding owners. ●

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