During Friday’s New York Showcase Day at Saratoga – with six statebred stakes worth $1.25 million – the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., will honor five legendary New York-breds: Classic winners Funny Cide and Tiz the Law; fellow Grade 1 winners Commentator and Fio Rito; and Fourstardave, the “Sultan of Saratoga.” Meanwhile, less than 10 miles away, the five stallions of Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater will be relaxing and continuing to enjoy their summer vacation after completing the breeding season a few months ago. This quintet includes another New York-bred standout – although one who might be more familiar to the crowd at Saratoga Raceway than Saratoga Race Course. Coraggioso, the 2012 New York Sire Stakes trotting champion as a 3-year-old, still holds a track record at the local harness track. A decade later, he has just completed his first stallion season in his home state, alongside four Thoroughbreds. Mill Creek is thus in the unique position of standing both breeds, as Standardbreds are bred via artificial insemination, while The Jockey Club’s rules state that Thoroughbreds must be bred via live cover. Working with both breeds of horses isn’t new for Anne Morgan, who founded Mill Creek with her late husband Tim Little and continues to be a hands-on owner of the farm. One of Morgan’s first horses was an off-the-track Standardbred. :: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales “They’re the best,” Morgan said of the breed. “They have so much brains.” Still, as Morgan began her equine career, she worked with Thoroughbreds, including a decade-long stint with the late Hall of Fame trainer T.J. Kelly, before taking out her own training license. Meanwhile, Little had developed a business boarding and training Standardbreds, and Mill Creek’s stallion barn initially housed that breed. “When we got together, he used to tease me and say, ‘I’ll never have a Thoroughbred on my farm,’ ” Morgan laughed. However, in the late 1990s, with a local Thoroughbred farm winding down operations, its clients were looking for another Saratoga farm to board horses, including the young Storm Cat stallion Storm of Angels. “They contacted me and said, ‘Will you guys take these clients and these Thoroughbred stallions?’ ” Morgan said. “And that’s how we ended up with Storm of Angels. . . . At that time, the Standardbred business was really bad, so we still had our Standardbred racehorses that we were racing, but we didn’t stand any stallions.” Over the ensuing years, Mill Creek developed into a full-service Thoroughbred operation. The farm has been home to a number of noteworthy Thoroughbred stallions, including Group 1 winner Lycius, who became a New York stalwart; classic-placed Grade 1 winner Captain Bodgit; and graded stakes winners Mayakovsky and Simmard. The farm also partnered with the late Suzie O’Cain and Dr. Lynwood O’Cain when Highcliff Farm wound down operations, housing Highcliff stallions Congaree, Cosmonaut, Stonesider, and Maybry’s Boy. For the 2022 breeding season, a Standardbred stallion rejoined the ranks. Coraggioso raced as a homebred for Joseph Spadaro, who was the deputy executive director for the New York Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund and a harness trainer, and famed retired announcer Tom Durkin. The son of Conway Hall was an 11-time stakes winner and earned more than $600,000. He stood his first six seasons in Ohio, siring stakes winners Lima Gold and Panzano from limited crops. Spadaro and Durkin contacted Mill Creek last year to move the now 13-year-old to New York, hoping he would attract more mares. “They wanted him to go to a smaller, private farm,” Morgan said. “And they knew that I knew how to breed artificial and everything, because of the history.” And so Coraggioso stood his first New York season in 2022, alongside a young Thoroughbred roster. Mill Creek currently stands graded stakes winner Venezuelan Hug, who entered stud this year; graded winner Killybegs Captain, who stood his second season; stakes-placed Sakonnet, who entered stud in 2020; and Grade 1-placed Tencendur, who entered stud in 2017. :: DRF's Saratoga headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more Thoroughbred stallions are bred by live cover, with mares shipping to the farm based on the timing of their ovulation. In states with a large broodmare population, booking stallions requires juggling those schedules, some with later notice, to service mares as needed, and stallions may breed multiple times a day, many days a week. Meanwhile, Standardbreds work on a more regimented schedule. Morgan said that Coraggioso is collected Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday – with the assistance of a mare dummy nicknamed ‘Dolly’ – and that the semen can then be stored until it is shipped to mare owners or picked up. One collection may service a number of mares. Morgan said that the Thoroughbred stallions in the barn don’t seem to show much interest in Coraggioso’s activities with Dolly, which is situated in the center of the stallion barn. “They don’t care,” she said. Morgan also extolled the virtues of artificial insemination, which is allowed for Standardbreds, Quarter Horses, and other equestrian sport breeds, but not by The Jockey Club for racing Thoroughbreds. “It’s safer for the stallion, it’s safer for the handlers,” she said. Morgan, who also has several Standardbreds in training, says she doesn’t have a preference between the breeds. “I like them both,” she said. “I just like horses, period.”