Fun House honored as Broodmare of the Year

Multiple Grade 1 producer Fun House has been named 2014 Broodmare of the Year by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association (KTA) and Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders (KTOB).

The 16-year-old Prized mare was honored with the award – presented since 1946 – as part of the Kentucky-bred champions program, presented at an annual awards luncheon in Lexington, Ky., on Thursday. Her Eclipse Award-winning daughter Untapable was named Kentucky’s Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly, while Winchell Thoroughbreds – which bred and owns Fun House and bred and campaigns Untapable – was honored with the P.A.B. Widener Award.

Fun House, herself a Grade 2 winner, was bred by the late Verne Winchell and campaigned in the name of his family’s Winchell Thoroughbreds. The mare is now the dam of four winners from five foals to race, highlighted by Untapable, who recently won the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap. It was the fifth Grade 1 triumph of the Tapit filly’s career, to go along with four from last season, highlighted by scores in the Kentucky Oaks and Breeders' Cup Distaff.

Fun House is also the dam of Paddy O'Prado, whose five graded stakes wins were highlighted by the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes. The versatile El Prado horse also finished third in the Kentucky Derby.

Fun House could continue to be an influence in coming years, with four younger full siblings to Untapable in the pipeline: the unraced 3-year-old filly Time to Tap; unraced juvenile colt Taprize; a yearling filly; and a new filly born last weekend.

Out of the winning Classic Go Go mare Bistra, Fun House is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Early Flyer and to stakes-placed winners Rush Around and Roundabout. It is the immediate family of Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Tapizar, and Grade 1 winners and sires Olympio, Pyro, and Cuvee.

A complete listing of the Kentucky-bred champions for 2014:
Broodmare of the Year: Fun House
Horse of the Year, champion 3-year-old filly: Untapable
2-year-old male: American Pharoah
2-year-old filly: Take Charge Brandi
3-year-old male: Shared Belief
Older male: Wise Dan
Older female: Close Hatches
Turf male: Main Sequence
Turf female: Stephanie's Kitten
Sprinter: Goldencents
Kentucky-bred racing abroad: Toast of New York
Steeplechase horse: Demonstrative
Merit awards:
P.A.B. Widener Award: Winchell Thoroughbreds
Hardboot Breeders' Award: Helen Alexander
William T. Young Humanitarian Award: G. Watts and Sally Humphrey
Charles W. Englehard Award: Gregory A. Hall
Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund leaders:
Owner and breeder of the year: Ramsey Farm
Sire of the year: Kitten's Joy
Earner of the year: My Afleet
Trainer of the year: Mike Maker