The Jockey Club announced in December that it is continuing consideration of its proposed rule to limit the annual breeding of individual stallions, a move that would have a major commercial impact on leading stallions.
Cowtown Cat finished as Ohio's leading stallion with state-sired progeny in 2019 – but a recent influx of Grade 1/Group 1 winners into the state, all of whom sired stakes horses while standing in larger markets, means that position may not be secure in coming years.
City of Light kicked off the year in style for his sire, Quality Road, by winning the Pegasus World Cup Invitational by 5 3/4 lengths, continuing the momentum from his win in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile the previous fall. However, the Pegasus was the career finale for City of Light, as he immediately shipped to Lane's End Farm in Kentucky to join his sire in time for the 2019 breeding season. There were still more than 11 months remaining in the racing season.
Since an impressive coming-out party on the national stage in 2013, Into Mischief, who stands at B. Wayne Hughes's Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, has made a deadly serious rise through the North American sire ranks. Already established as a perennial leading juvenile sire, he claimed his first general sire title in 2019, leading the way by both earnings and individual winners.
As America's Thoroughbred industry goes, so go our regional breeding centers. Iowa's Thoroughbred business certainly reflects the larger whole, only with more dire numbers. It is currently in a state of painful contraction – and has been for years.
After finishing in the top 10 on Indiana's general sire list each of the last two years, the third time was the charm for Unbridled Express, who broke through to take the Hoosier State's sire title for the first time in 2019.
Horse racing has a long and storied history in the Illinois, where it has enthralled the sporting public since the 1830s. But times have changed in recent decades, and not for the better.
American Pharoah has bucked trends at every turn of his racing and breeding careers and has proven worth the risk. The long-awaited Triple Crown hero prevailed atop an outstanding freshman sire class of 2019, ranking among North America's leading overall juvenile sires.
Regally bred Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker, an influential stallion who is the grandsire of Triple Crown winner and leading freshman sire American Pharoah, has died at Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Ky.
Perennial leading sire Tapit led all North American stallions with 13 graded stakes winners in 2019. He is already off to a strong start toward defending his title in 2020, siring three stakes winners, two of those graded stakes winners at Fair Grounds, last Saturday.
