The Malibu Moon mare Come Dancing earned the top Beyer Speed Figure of 2019 when she won the Grade 3 Distaff Handicap on Saturday at Aqueduct.
Come Dancing coasted by 7 ¾ lengths, stopping the clock in 1:22.31 for the seven furlongs. The effort earned a Beyer of 114 – topping the 112 City of Light earned when he won the Pegasus World Cup in January.
Quality Road got a head start in this year’s sire race when his son City of Light won North America’s richest race, the Pegasus World Cup. But despite City of Light’s immediate retirement to Lane’s End Farm, where he stands alongside his sire, Quality Road has continued to strengthen his hand for the season.
No decision has yet been made on who the Australian superstar mare Winx will visit for her first mating after the expected conclusion of her racing career this Saturday.
Winx, an 8-year-old daughter of Street Cry, has won 32 consecutive races dating back to May 2015, including a staggering 24 Group 1 events. She is expected to make her final start in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes on April 13 at Randwick. The Southern Hemisphere breeding season begins Sept. 1, and Winx’s ownership group will consult with various bloodstock advisers before making a decision.
Undefeated Triple Crown winner Justify will shuttle to stand at Coolmore Australia during the Southern Hemisphere breeding season, which begins Sept. 1.
Justify, a son of the late Scat Daddy, is in the midst of his first Northern Hemisphere season at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, where he is standing for an advertised fee of $150,000. The 2018 Horse of the Year will head to Australia this summer before returning at the end of the year. His fee for his initial Southern Hemisphere season is listed as private.
Prominent owner and breeder Edward A. Cox Jr. died last month in his native state of Illinois. He was 83.
Cox stopped at a horse farm in Louisville in 1960 while he and his wife were driving home from their honeymoon, sparking his interest in Thoroughbred breeding and racing and leading to more than 50 years’ involvement with the industry. He became a longtime associate of Claiborne Farm, co-owning 1984’s 3-year-old champion Swale, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, with the historic nursery.
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah could be represented by his first starter on Friday evening, as he has an entrant at Dundalk in Ireland.
All eyes will be on Horus Bird in Dundalk’s first race on Friday, for 2-year-olds going five furlongs on the all-weather track. The local post time is 5:40 p.m., or 12:40 p.m. Eastern in the U.S.
Grade 1 winner Diversify was honored as the New York-bred horse of the year and also took home special recognition from Daily Racing Form at New York Thoroughbred Inc.’s annual awards banquet this week in Saratoga Springs, sponsored by the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund.
