First foal by Cody's Wish arrives

Jan. 1 marked the official start of foaling season in the Northern Hemisphere, and among the notable arrivals this year will be the first foals for a quintet of Eclipse Award winners standing in Kentucky. The first of those represented was 2023 Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish, whose first reported foal is a colt born Jan. 6 in Kentucky.

The colt, foaled at Ramiro Salazar’s Phoenix Farm and Racing in Georgetown, is out of the Trappe Shot mare Hotshot Anna, who won seven stakes and earned $975,010. Her career was highlighted by back-to-back triumphs in the Grade 2 Presque Isle Masters and a win in the Grade 3 Chicago Handicap. Hotshot Anna, whose first foal just turned 2, was purchased for $400,000 out of the 2022 Keeneland November breeding stock sale by Frederick and May Construction, who bred this colt.

Cody’s Wish, who raced as a homebred for Godolphin, won five Grade 1 races, highlighted by back-to-back editions of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. He now stands under the operation’s Darley stallions banner in Kentucky, and was the most expensive incoming stallion in North America for 2024, with an advertised fee of $75,000. Behind him were fellow Eclipse Award champions Elite Power (Juddmonte) and Forte (Spendthrift Farm), tied at $50,000. Two other Eclipse Award champions entered stud last year, in Arcangelo (Lane’s End) at $35,000 and Up to the Mark (Lane’s End) at $25,000. None have first foals officially reported as of yet.

Cody’s Wish covered 165 mares in his first season, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. Those included African Jade, dam of multiple Grade 1 winner Lord Nelson, and Grade 1-winning mares Hard Not to Like and Noted and Quoted.

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