With breeding sheds across North America set to open in the coming weeks, Ontario Racing's Thoroughbred Improvement Program has announced that its mare purchase program has ended for the season, with a strong response for the new programs designed to bolster the province's breeding and racing industry.
The races were on turf and dirt, won by horses born in different states, who went off as longshots and favorites. But the winners of the first three races on Saturday's card at Santa Anita were all bred by H. Allen Poindexter, giving the horseman a rare hat trick.
Last year's strong freshman sire class seems to have picked up right where it left off with the turn of the calendar, as 3-year-olds from their first crops won two of the three Kentucky Derby points races contested last Saturday, as well as two of the weekend's three Kentucky Oaks points races.
Undefeated Thousand Words has emerged as one of the West Coast's leading Kentucky Derby hopefuls. Meanwhile his dam, a multiple graded stakes winner herself, has landed in the hands of the connections of another unbeaten colt from this 3-year-old crop.
Daily Racing Form's annual special edition takes a look at the leading sires in the prominent regional markets of New York, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and other states in this Eastern region.
Perennial leading sire Tapit continues his emergence as a sire of sires, as, for the second year in a row, one of his sons was represented by an Eclipse Award champion.
The name of champion sprinter and 2020 freshman sire Runhappy was inescapable last week at Gulfstream Park, as owner Jim McIngvale continued his robust marketing campaign for his stable star.
Primal Force was a foundation broodmare for Frank Stronach's Adena Springs operation, producing two Grade 1 winners who went on to be prominent sires for the farm in Awesome Again and Macho Uno.
Gainesway’s Tapit, who has surpassed $150 million in career progeny earnings and who still holds the single-season North American earnings record, led all North American stallions with 13 graded stakes winners in the hemisphere for 2019, and also led by all black-type winners with 26. The quality of Tapit’s progeny was further borne out by the Beyer Sire Performance Standings.
More Than Ready scored his biggest victory in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes in 2000 at Saratoga. Two decades after his exploits on the track, the 23-year-old stallion hasn’t slowed down. Neither have his progeny.
