Just Howard was named Maryland-bred horse of the year for 2017 at the inaugural Maryland Thoroughbred Industry Renaissance Awards dinner Monday night at the Sagamore Pendry Baltimore Hotel in Fell's Point on Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Trained by Graham Motion and owned by the Skeedattle Associates of Robert White, Lou Rehak, and Bob Orndorff, Just Howard also was named champion Maryland-bred 3-year-old and turf horse. He went 4 for 10 last year, with victories in the Grade 3 Commonwealth Derby and restricted Find and Caveat stakes over the Laurel Park turf course.

Champion female sprinter Unique Bella earned a 109 Beyer Speed Figure for her authoritative score in the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes on Feb. 10, helping her sire Tapit further pad his early lead in multiple Beyer Sire Performance standings this season.

The race for leading freshman sire was a heated affair in 2017, and the competition has already begun in earnest as the same group angles for leading second-crop sire honors during the prep season for the Kentucky Derby and Oaks.

Foals by the class that entered stud in 2014 have already made a significant impact on the classic trails, winning four of the combined 15 points races for the Derby and Oaks thus far in 2018.

In an interesting twist, the stallion at the front of the youth charge is no longer in the country.

Among his many achievements in a long life adorned with honor and glory, the late Alfred G. Vanderbilt Jr. achieved Thoroughbred racing immortality by breeding and racing the great Native Dancer. Beaten only once in 22 starts, “the Gray Ghost,” as he was known to early television viewers, left an eternal mark on the breed through his son Raise a Native and daughter Natalma, dam of Northern Dancer.

The white stripe down the dark bay’s face and his four white feet are familiar as he steps out of the barn into the sunlight. But Grade 2 winner Overdriven isn’t heading to the racetrack – he’s walking to the arena at New Vocations’ historic Mereworth Farm facility in Lexington, Ky., for an afternoon ride.

After standing five seasons at stud, the son of Tale of the Cat has been pensioned and gelded and is in a retraining program at the Thoroughbred adoption facility, a rare approach with an active stallion.

“If you can’t beat them, join them” has been a theme in the stallion industry in recent years, with farms and breeding operations joining their business forces to best promote and support stallions.

Freud’s grasp on the reins of his kingdom hasn’t slipped.

The 20-year-old Storm Cat horse, who reigns at Sequel Stallions, continues to dominate the New York stallion ranks. His 2017 bankroll of $6,320,911 easily led the state’s general sire list, decisively outpacing Bellamy Road at $4,750,493, with Big Brown third at $3,320,006. This marks the 10th straight time Freud has finished first or second on the list of general sires with state-sired runners.

Regional sire lists are full of instances where a stallion arrives from Kentucky and instantly becomes a state’s leader by earnings based on the strength of their Bluegrass-bred runners. How they fare as a fully vested member of their new home state’s stallion roster is more of a mixed bag.

There have been 27 finalists for North America’s Horse of the Year honors since 2010, and just seven of them have been born outside of Kentucky.

The latest came in 2017, when Florida-bred World Approval earned the distinction on the strength of a campaign featuring wins in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, Woodbine Mile, and Fourstardave Handicap, all Grade 1’s.

A changing of the guard is taking place among Florida’s stallion ranks.

Familiar names will be clearing out from their entrenched spots on top of the state’s sire list in the coming years, be they the deceased Wildcat Heir or the pensioned High Cotton. Three stallions leading the youth movement’s charge to replace them are First Dude, Poseidon’s Warrior, and Treasure Beach.