The wonderful Australian racemare Winx will never break the all-time record for consecutive wins by a Thoroughbred. According to the Thoroughbred Times Racing Almanac, that number stands at 56, set by the Puerto Rican-bred Camarero (by Thirteen-Flint Maid, by Flint Shot) racing against other Puerto Rican-breds in the 1950s.

Multiple stakes winner Rainbow Heir will be among the most consistent runners in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. His season leading up to this race has been most unorthodox. Rainbow Heir has returned to racing this fall after an active season at stud in Florida and is expected to resume his stud duties next February.

Knicks Go sprang a $142 upset when winning the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland to earn his way into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Not only was the colt a massive longshot on the odds board – the odds of his breeders producing a Grade 1 winner may have been just as long.

Knicks Go was bred in the name of Sabrina Moore, 26. Her mother, Angie Moore, introduced her to equestrian sports, and the two rode barrel racers and dabbled in Thoroughbred ownership via partnership.

On one of the sport’s biggest international stages, there will be a chance for Korean racing interests to take a turn in the spotlight, as the colors of KRA Stud Farm will be carried by Knicks Go in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Mr. Crow in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

With racing in Korea conducted exclusively on dirt due to frequent wet weather, owners and breeders have placed a premium on American stock to build their industry, importing stallions such as classic-placed Menifee, now a perennial leading sire in Korea, juvenile champion Hansen, and Grade 1 winner Take Charge Indy.

The hard-knocking multiple Grade 1 winner Hoppertunity has been retired and will begin his stud career at Northview Stallion Station in Peach Bottom, Pa.  

Hoppertunity, by former Pennsylvania stallion Any Given Saturday, retires with a record of 9-8-5 from 34 starts over five seasons of racing, and was a graded stakes winner each of those seasons. The 7-year-old earned more than $4.7 million and, according to Northview, is the richest stallion prospect ever to begin his career in the Mid-Atlantic region.

It is far more difficult nowadays for a regional stallion to make the leap to Kentucky than in the long-ago days of, say, Mr. Prospector. Sheer numbers work strongly against such a shift.

Grade 1 winner Sharp Azteca, whose retirement was announced in early September, will begin his stud career at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky.

Sharp Azteca last raced in January, finishing eighth in the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park. He was pointing to the Godolphin Mile in March in Dubai – a race he was third in during 2017 – but injured a suspensory ligament in his left foreleg during his final work toward that target. The horse spent some time rehabbing at co-owner Gelfenstein Farm in Ocala, Fla.

Medaglia d'Oro, in the midst of a career run on the racetrack and in the commercial arena, will stand for $200,000 to lead Darley's American roster in 2019.

Medaglia d'Oro, by El Prado, sired seven Grade 1 winners in North America last year - including Breeders' Cup winners Bar of Gold and Talismanic - putting him in an elite club with Danzig, Mr. Prospector, and Storm Cat as the only American stallions to have as many in a single year.

Galileo and now Dubawi have so thoroughly dominated European sire ranks over the last decade that some truly outstanding sires are largely overlooked by pundits and, to an extent, breeders and yearling buyers.

Horse of the Year Gun Runner will stand for an unchanged fee of $70,000 in his second season at stud to lead the Three Chimneys Farm roster, the farm has announced.

Gun Runner, by Candy Ride, entered stud this year after winning the Pegasus World Cup, his sixth career Grade 1 tally, in late January, the day after being named Horse of the Year.