Honor A. P. was named in homage to his grandsire, Hall of Famer and breed-shaping sire A.P. Indy. He also bears a striking resemblance to his own sire, champion Honor Code. As Honor A. P. enters the stallion ranks at the Farish family’s Lane’s End Farm, sharing a wing with Honor Code and with the presence of the late A.P. Indy looming over all, he has big shoes to fill. And he’s not alone. Lane’s End will introduce three new stallions for the 2021 season – Eclipse Award champion Game Winner, plus Grade 1 winners Gift Box and Honor A. P. All three are by current Lane’s End sires, as the farm continues the familiar strategy of reinvesting in its marquee sirelines. Lane’s End will stand 21 stallions for 2021, and 16 of those are direct male-line descendants of its current or former stallions. Leading the roster are Quality Road, at an advertised fee of $150,000, and Candy Ride, at $75,000. Both are perennial leading sires, with Candy Ride again poised to finish in the top 10 general leading sires for 2020. Lane’s End introduced Quality Road’s multiple Grade 1-winning son City of Light last year. The consistent sire Twirling Candy and the young stallion Unified are both by Candy Ride. Doubling down on that line, Game Winner is by Candy Ride, while Gift Box is by Twirling Candy. Young Lane’s End stallions Accelerate and Connect are both grandsons of the late leading sire Smart Strike, one of the cornerstones of the stallion program. Lemon Drop Kid is by another former stalwart, Kingmambo. Lane’s End stands Union Rags, by its late Dixie Union, and this year added Union Rags’s son Catalina Cruiser. And then, there’s A.P. Indy, who continues to rule the roost, even after his death in February at age 31. Few stallions have made his impact on the breed, and few stallions will ever have such an impact on Lane’s End. The farm stands his sons Honor Code, the Eclipse champion older male of 2015, and Mineshaft, Horse of the Year in 2003. Also residing at the farm are his Grade 1-winning grandsons Honor A. P., Mr Speaker, and West Coast as well as A.P. Indy’s great-grandson Tonalist, who emulated his great-grandsire by winning the Belmont Stakes. Furthermore, Game Winner is out of an A.P. Indy mare, while Catalina Cruiser is out of a Mineshaft mare. Considering Honor A. P.’s connections to the farm’s foundations, Lane’s End’s Bill Farish said that the farm had had its eyes on the striking colt since its associate David Ingordo purchased him for $850,000 on behalf of Lee and Susan Searing, who race as CRK Stables, at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. The farm announced that it had acquired his stallion rights earlier this year. “We are very excited to secure another prospect from the A.P. Indy line,” Farish said. “As is the case with most of our stallions, having a strong syndicate behind them is very important to their success. We are emboldened by the quality of the syndicate that has come together to support him.” This season, the colt finished second in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes to eventual Kentucky Derby winner Authentic before turning the tables on that foe for his signature victory in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. Honor A. P. then finished second in the Shared Belief Stakes, and was fourth in the Kentucky Derby, emerging with a career-ending injury. Lane’s End later announced the official retirements of Game Winner and Gift Box, both of whom had last raced in 2019. Game Winner, who raced for Gary and Mary West, won all four of his starts as a juvenile, with successive Grade 1 triumphs in the Del Mar Futurity, American Pharoah Stakes, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to lock up his divisional Eclipse At 3, Game Winner was second in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes and Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. He was officially fifth in the Kentucky Derby, moved up to that position on the disqualification of Maximum Security, also owned by the Wests. He returned to win the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby in his final start in the summer of 2019 “Champion 2-year-olds make great sires,” Farish said in a release. “Street Sense, Uncle Mo, American Pharoah, and now Nyquist looks very promising. All were the very best of their generation and now are among the elite stallions in America. “Game Winner dominated in his championship year and was a graded stakes winner at 3. He is a champion from the immediate family of [champion Fleet Indian], so we are honored that Gary and Mary West have entrusted Lane’s End with his stallion career.” Gary West, in a release, said that he plans to support Game Winner with his own mares, and noted that the young stallion’s shareholders include prominent breeders such as Alpha Delta, Mt. Brilliant Farm, SF Bloodstock, St. Elias, and Summer Wind Farm. “They are among the best breeders in America and undoubtedly will support him and contribute greatly to his chances to be a successful stallion,” West said. Millionaire Gift Box scored his biggest victory in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in 2019, nosing out multiple Grade 1 winner McKinzie. In his subsequent start, he was beaten less than a length by eventual champion Vino Rosso in the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita. Gift Box also won consecutive editions of the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes, including in December 2019 in his final start. Gift Box raced for William S. Farish early in his career and then for Hronis Racing. “Gift Box represents so much of what we’re about at Lane’s End,” Bill Farish said. “A Grade 1 winner at a mile and a quarter on the dirt, speed, out of a tremendous mare from a sire line we believe in. That’s what we’ve been successful with and I’m appreciative of the opportunity Hronis Racing has given us.”