With the eyes of the racing world on Pimlico, young sire First Defence enjoyed a solid weekend, as he was represented by Grade 3 Miss Preakness winner Irish Jasper and Sir Barton Stakes winner Fame and Power. According to Daily Racing Form’s SirePowered Results, the Juddmonte Farms sire is represented by five individual stakes winners this year, in the U.S., Hong Kong, and Ireland.

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Stallion coverage

Leading sires have Mid-Atlantic heritage - by John P. Sparkman

Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale

High-profile alumni give sale momentum - by Joe Nevills

For more than three decades, North America’s leading sire has stood in Kentucky. It was not always thus.

Pennsylvania’s overall loss was state resident sire Jump Start’s gain as the exodus of a trio of stallions left him as the leading returning sire in the state. With several of his veteran campaigners still on the track, he will look to keep the momentum going in 2015.

When the 2015 breeding season began, Northview Stallion Station of Chesapeake City, Md., looked ideally positioned for a continued reign in the region, with perennial leading Maryland sire Not For Love on the active roster. However, the 25-year-old Mr. Prospector horse, a cornerstone of the state’s breeding program for nearly two decades, was pensioned in March, about a month into the season, due to a reproductive hematoma.

DRF sales editor Joe Nevills analyzes the Preakness Stakes field, in post position order, in the form of Haiku, a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.

American Pharoah
The Derby winner
Faces speed tests on both sides
Left: Rail. Right: Dortmund.

Dortmund
Just ran out of gas
In front-running Derby try
Is his tank re-filled?

Mr. Z
Runs for new colors
On a road with lots of twists
And not many wins

by Joe Nevills and Nicole Russo

A closer look at the pedigrees of the entrants for the 140th running of the $1.5 million Preakness Stakes, to be contested Saturday at Pimlico

Mizdirection, a former beast on the downhill turf course at Santa Anita, is now a mother. The winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in 2012 and 2013, Mizdirection produced her first foal April 28 in France – a colt by New Approach.

On Sunday at Santa Anita, the rescheduled $75,000 Mizdirection Stakes for fillies and mares is expected to be run on the hillside course, where Mizdirection was 6 for 6. The leading nominee for the stakes is Home Journey, whose trainer, Mike Puype, guided Mizdirection through a career that included 11 wins from 17 starts and earnings of $1,719,621.

Roy Jackson had a Kentucky Derby horse.

Divining Rod had enough points to make the gate after a three-length win in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 11, and Jackson had already ponied up the $6,000 required for late nomination into the Triple Crown races. The ticket to Louisville was his to punch.

By the time the horse was unsaddled, Jackson had already made his decision, and his vision for the colt reached beyond the first Saturday in May.

Super Saver was among the standouts in a strong group of freshman sires last year – and the WinStar Farm stallion doesn’t show any signs of slowing with his first crop.