Better Than Honour will have no '08 foal

Better Than Honour, the Broodmare of the Year and the only mare to produce consecutive Belmont Stakes winners, will have no foal of 2008 and will be bred next in 2009.

John Sikura, who owns the mare in a partnership that also includes Southern Equine Stables principal Mike Moreno, said Tuesday that they have decided to give the 12-year-old Deputy Minister mare this year off. Distorted Humor covered Better Than Honour in May, but the mare did not conceive.

"She's not in foal, and we've decided not to breed her this year because we didn't want to be breeding her in June," Sikura said.

Better Than Honour is the dam of the 2006 Belmont winner, Jazil, and the 2007 Belmont winner, Rags to Riches.

Better Than Honour had been carrying an A. P. Indy foal earlier this year but lost that pregnancy late in the season, pushing her mating schedule into late spring.