With eight wins in 48 starts, trainer Kevin Rice is enjoying his best Tampa Bay Downs meet yet, already doubling his win total from the 2023-24 campaign.
Rice will have a chance to add to his success on Wednesday when he sends out Carroll’s Honor in a starter allowance/optional $32,500 claiming race for 3-year-old fillies that could be considered the feature on Tampa’s nine-race card.
When Belmont Park reopens in 2026, it will sport an all-weather Tapeta track alongside its existing courses, with the one-mile oval eventually becoming the exclusive winter racing surface on the New York Racing Association circuit. Planning ahead for the reimagined circuit, it’s a boon for New York breeders that the top synthetic-surface sire in the United States resides in New York.
Bucchero is preparing to stand the 2025 season at the new Ironhorse Stallions, which will be based out of the established Questroyal North in Stillwater.
Of the 15 West Coast stallions bred to 40 or more mares in 2024, 14 stood in California. The exception was Washington-based Alternation, who was bred to 43 mares, according to Jockey Club statistics.
“We were really pleased with that,” said Debbie Pabst of Blue Ribbon Farm in Buckley, Wash., where Alternation stands.
In one of the closest duels on any stallion list for 2024, Vekoma edged McKinzie and Tiz the Law to claim the freshman sire earnings title.
It’s a big deal for a regional farm to unveil a Kentucky Derby winner at stud, and the addition of 2022 upset victor Rich Strike would have been enough to bring headlines to Rich Miller’s Mountain Springs Farm in Palmyra, Pa.
The king is dead, long live the king!
This seemingly contradictory proclamation is often made following the accession of a new monarch. It simultaneously announces the death of the previous monarch while also saluting the newcomer to the throne.
Into Mischief continues to reign supreme among North American stallions as he claimed his sixth consecutive general sire earnings title in 2024.
Into Mischief, by Harlan’s Holiday, stands at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky. He easily outdistanced Gun Runner, who stands at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., by 2024 earnings at $35,406,575 – smashing his own single-season earnings record – to $22,488,544.
Into Mischief also led the nation by individual winners, individual stakes winners, and Grade 1 winners.
Coal Front is new to Louisiana for 2025 just as his son Coal Battle is making some noise on the Kentucky Derby trail and his daughter Haulin Ice is coming off a season in which she won stakes at Gulfstream Park and Oaklawn Park to contend for 2024 Arkansas-bred of the year.
“It’s been really some nice advertising from his babies here lately,” said Jay Adcock, who with a group of partners purchased Coal Front and brought him to his Red River Farms in Coushatta from Kentucky.
Gun Runner got better as he got older, becoming a Grade 1 winner in three consecutive calendar years in a career that spanned more than 28 months. Justify’s meteoric career lasted less than four months but included a sweep of the Triple Crown.
Yet the two have plenty in common now.
