Graded stakes-winning juvenile Not This Time was represented by his first winner on Thursday at Churchill Downs, with his daughter Hopeful Princess outdueling Mad Maddy to win the first 2-year-old race of the year at Churchill Downs by three-quarters of a length.
Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Maxfield
As more racing jurisdictions begin to emerge from their pandemic-forced shutdowns, there are more of the traditional early-season opportunities for juveniles – and therefore, more runners starting out for freshman sires. That’s obvious at Churchill Downs, where the second week of the track’s belated spring meeting features Kentucky’s first 2-year-old races, and the first entrants for several freshman sires, including Eclipse Award champion sprinter Runhappy.
Two foals with close connections to champions arrived over the weekend in Kentucky. Love the Chase, dam of 2014 and 2016 Horse of the Year California Chrome, delivered a colt from the first crop of Accelerate on Saturday at Atlas Farm in Nicholasville. One day later, 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta delivered a filly by leading sire Candy Ride at Lane’s End Farm in Versailles.
Triple Crown winner Justify was tied as the most active stallion in North America in his first season at stud in 2019. The young stallion covered 252 mares, many of them top-level winners or producers, according to The Jockey Club's Report of Mares Bred. Justify's first foals are arriving this season – but when his first sons enter stud some handful of years from now, the rules, competition, and market they face will be quite different.
Northview Stallion Station, a perennial leader in the Mid-Atlantic region, will sell its Pennsylvania property and consolidate its operations on its Maryland division, it announced Monday.
Tapit and War Front are both standout individuals in the North American sire ranks and have been rivals atop the commercial leaderboard on this continent. The two stallions are starting to combine for success together as well, with recent stakes winner Halladay one example of their lines being crossed.
The Jockey Club board of stewards has, for the first time, adopted a rule that limits the number of mares allowed to be bred to some Thoroughbred stallions in North America, it announced on Thursday. The rule puts a cap of 140 mares bred annually for stallions born in 2020 or after. The Jockey Club put no cap on stallions born before 2019.
Hill 'n' Dale Farm has acquired the future breeding rights to Kentucky Derby hopeful Charlatan, who remained unbeaten with a dominant victory in a division of the Arkansas Derby last Saturday.
Blame scored the biggest victory of his career going 1 1/4 miles beneath the twin spires of Churchill Downs. A decade later his son Nadal is in position to chase another major victory going that classic distance at Churchill, as he remained unbeaten by winning a division of the Arkansas Derby.
