Ted Noffey retired from racing; Further Ado to remain in training in 2027

Ted Noffey, the 2-year-old champion of 2025 who finished a well-beaten fifth in last Saturday’s Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park, has been retired from racing and will stand at stud at his owner’s Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky in 2027, the farm announced Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Spendthrift officials also said that Further Ado, the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner, will remain in training in 2027. Prior to the Breeders’ Cup, Spendthrift had indicated Further Ado would stand at stud next year.

Ted Noffey, a son of Into Mischief trained by Todd Pletcher, won all four of his starts at 2, including a trio of Grade 1 stakes – the Hopeful at Saratoga, the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar – as part of his championship campaign.

Bone bruising sidelined Ted Noffey in early January, and he didn’t make it back to the races until last Saturday when he finished fifth, beaten 12 1/2 lengths by Stimulate, in the one-mile listed Dwyer Stakes. Though he came out of the race fine physically, there was uncertainty that he could return to the level he had shown as a 2-year-old, so the decision was made to retire him.

”We didn’t feel like he had to win, but we wanted to see something more reminiscent of what we saw of him at 2.” said Ned Toffey, chief operating officer and general manager of Spendthrift. “You’d like to maybe have another start, but it’s getting late in the year in terms of having access to the best mares and he’s a horse that deserves to have access to the very best mares.”

Ted Noffey, a $650,000 yearling purchase at the 2024 Keeneland September auction, retires with a 5-4-0-0 record and earnings of $1,665,963.

With Ted Noffey joining Spendthrift’s stallion roster, Further Ado will get to race as a 4-year-old, Toffey said.

Further Ado, a son of Gun Runner who won the Grade 1 Blue Grass and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile this year, will run next year with the goal being a return to the Breeders’ Cup, though potentially the $7 million Classic at 1 1/4 miles. The 2027 Breeders’ Cup will be held Oct. 29-30 at Belmont Park.

“I think that would certainly be something we have in mind,” Toffey said. “You have to be tickled with how he ran in the [Dirt] Mile; he was sitting on a good race, it would have been really interesting to see how he would have fared in the Classic. We’ll see how the year goes, but we think there are a lot of races next year that make a lot of sense for him. [The Classic] would certainly be a goal, but if we think the Dirt Mile make morse sense . . . we’ll just see how the year goes.”

Toffey said Further Ado, trained by Brad Cox, would get a freshening, which likely rules out a start in the Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 30 at Gulfstream Park.

In addition to his victories in the Blue Grass and Dirt Mile, at Keeneland, Further Ado has won the Kentucky Jockey Club and Matt Winn, both graded stakes at Churchill Downs. Further Ado finished 11th as the 5-1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby.