If Cot Campbell had not been so stubborn in his belief that partnerships were the way to attract new owners to Thoroughbred racing, the winner’s circle at Belmont Park after Justify had won the Triple Crown might have been much less crowded.

New York-breds have stolen the stage at the top level this year, with runners like Audible, Diversify, Mind Your Biscuits, and Voodoo Song winning in Grade 1/Group 1 company. Statebreds will have the stage all to themselves on Friday at Saratoga as the track hosts New York Showcase Day, featuring six stakes for statebreds worth a total of $1.25 million. 

As we were poignantly reminded this week, only three fillies have won the Kentucky Derby in its 145-year history. Genuine Reward, one of only two foals produced by 1980 Derby winner Genuine Risk, died last week at Old Friends Retirement Home for Thoroughbreds near Lexington, Ky., after being saved from slaughter three years ago by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand and Old Friends’s Michael Blowen. Sadly, both of Genuine Risk’s foals were colts, so she has no tail-female descendants.

How do you measure greatness in a stallion? Traditionally, the number of stakes winners, graded stakes winners, Grade 1 winners, and sire championships have been the yardsticks by which great sires are measured.

Multiple stakes winner Starry Dreamer, the dam of internationally prominent sire War Front, died this week at age 24 due to the infirmities of old age. She will be buried in the Marchmont cemetery at Claiborne Farm, where she resided for owner Joseph Allen.

Starry Dreamer won the Gold Digger Stakes as a juvenile, and the Regret Stakes and Palisades Stakes as a 3-year-old. Her 12 stakes placings included a runner-up effort in the Grade 1 Gazelle Handicap as a 3-year-old. In total, the daughter of Rubiano won 6 of 31 starts for earnings of $564,789.

Nominations will close Wednesday, Aug. 15, for the third annual U.S. Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards.

Godolphin is the principal sponsor of the awards, in association with The Jockey Club, the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protection Association (NHBPA), and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA). Godolphin also sponsors the equivalent Stud and Stable Staff Awards in Ireland, Australia, Britain, and France.

Not many stallions go to stud each year with what most breeders would consider ideal qualifications. As a graded stakes winner at 2, Grade 1 winner at 3 and 4, with an outstanding pedigree and excellent conformation, To Honor and Serve came very close to that ideal when he retired to Gainesway in 2013. Despite those credentials, things have not worked out as expected for To Honor and Serve, and he was recently sold to stand in South Korea.

The male line of the great American racehorse and sire Native Dancer has had three opportunities to transplant itself to Europe.

Great sires almost always sire at least very good sire sons, but it is often late in their stud careers, particularly for stallions who start out at relatively low stud fees and thus cover better-pedigreed mares after they prove their worth, as did three-time leading sire Tapit. Tapizar, from Tapit’s third crop, was the first Grade 1-winning son of Tapit to go to stud, and though he has not made the fastest start at stud, he has a genuine star in Coaching Club American Oaks winner Monomoy Girl.

Grade 1 winner and Canadian champion Shaman Ghost will make the latest move of his stud career as he relocates from California to owner-breeder Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs in Kentucky for the 2019 season, the operation announced Monday.