Imperial Hint was honored as the Florida-bred horse of the year and World of Trouble took home special recognition from Daily Racing Form as the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association recognized its champions at an annual awards banquet Monday night in Ocala, Fla.
While unbeaten Triple Crown winner Justify, the globe-trotting Grade 1 winner Mendelssohn, and other stakes competitors by the late Scat Daddy have entered stud this season, the well-traveled No Nay Never is already burnishing their sire's legacy.
Breeders have reported the first mares in foal to unbeaten Triple Crown winner Justify, who began his stud career last month at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
Ahead of a season of juvenile racing in which a strong class of freshman sires will be featured, B. Wayne Hughes’ Spendthrift Farm has introduced the “Safe Bet” program, designed to incentivize breeders to support the farm’s current freshmen in their fourth seasons at stud in 2019.
With the Kentucky Derby now less than nine weeks away, the picture is in constant motion, with prep races unfolding – the race against the calendar to acquire points getting added pressure from schedule changes in California – and hopefuls being asked to step up at longer distances. In this swirl of activity, one of those to take a major step up was Code of Honor, whose improved performance in winning the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes last weekend at Gulfstream Park drove his odds down to 12-1 from 30-1 on the latest edition of the Derby Watch line set by Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form's national handicapper.
Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Vekoma
World Approval, the Eclipse Award champion turf male of 2017, has been retired. The 7-year-old Northern Afleet gelding will reside at owner-breeder Charlotte Weber's Live Oak Stud in Ocala, Fla.
Spiced Perfection, winner of the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes on Dec. 26, was named the 2018 California-bred horse of the year in a ceremony Monday in San Gabriel, Calif.
Galilean is out to become the fifth Kentucky Derby winner born in California, joining Morvich (1922), Swaps (1955), Decidedly (1962), and California Chrome (2014).
The stallions are new, but the bloodlines aren't. Fittingly in its 40th anniversary season, Lane's End Farm has welcomed three newcomers from sirelines prominent in the farm's history.
