Courtesy of GaineswayTapit

Expanded incentive programs for owners and breeders of Maryland-breds will go into effect in the state beginning with the start of the Laurel Park fall meet on Sept. 19.

The program will be rolled out and expanded over a three-year period, beginning next week, where breeders will receive a 30 percent bonus payout for Maryland-bred horses that finish in the top three of any race at a Maryland racetrack, and a 10 percent stallion bonus. The owner bonus awards will continue with the current program of 17.5 percent to the winner through the remainder of the year.

Hessonite, a two-time New York-bred champion and winner of nine stakes in a 22-race career, has been retired from racing, trainer David Donk said Wednesday.

Donk said while Hessonite is sound, she hasn’t completely recovered from her summer campaign that included two races 17 days apart in early-to-mid July when the weather was hot. Donk also noted that Hessonite is cataloged for the Night of Stars Sale at Fasig-Tipton on Nov. 4, a sale from which she was withdrawn last year to race at 5.

Sky Conqueror, Canada’s champion turf male in 2006, was represented by his first winner on Sept. 7 when Regal Conqueror won a maiden special weight at Woodbine.

Making her career debut, the 2-year-old Ontario-bred chestnut filly rolled to a 7 1/2-length score in the six furlong race, finishing in 1:10.31 on Woodbine’s Polytrack and earning a 71 Beyer Speed Figure. She is campaigned by her breeder, William Sorokolit, and is out of multiple Grade 2 winner Classic Stamp, by Regal Classic.

Cindy Evans Photography/courtesy Our Mims Retirement HavenLotka

Lotka, a Grade 1 winner on the racetrack and a prolific broodmare, died Sept. 10 at Our Mims Retirement Haven in Paris, Ky., at age 30. The Danzig mare had been a resident at the facility, operated by Jeanne Mirabito, since 2008.

Prospective, a multiple graded stakes winner last year, has been retired from racing. Stud plans are pending.

The 4-year-old Malibu Moon colt concludes his career with seven wins from 17 starts for earnings of $719,130. He captured the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby and Grade 3 Ohio Derby last year. He also won the Grade 3 Grey Stakes on the synthetic surface at Woodbine as a juvenile, and won or placed in four other stakes for his career.

Grade 1 winner El Corredor will relocate to stand the 2014 breeding season at The Stallion Station at Copper Crowne in Opelousas, La. His fee will be $3,500 if paid by Nov. 15. 2014, or $4,000 when the foal stands and nurses.

The 16-year-old Mr. Greeley horse, who began his career at Hill 'n' Dale Farm near Lexington, Ky., in 2002, stood the 2013 season at Questroyal North in Stillwater, N.Y.

When the bay Malibu Moon colt walked into Shug McGaughey’s shed row last year, the Hall of Fame trainer already had a blueprint of sorts to follow as he shaped the Phipps Stable and Stuart Janney homebred, named Orb, into a racehorse who would ultimately bring McGaughey his first Kentucky Derby win.

During the 2011 racing season, it seemed that practically every good horse in Europe was by Galileo out of a Danehill mare. The great Frankel (Galileo–Kind, by Danehill) dominated his competition, but Roderic O’Connor (Galileo–Secret Garden, by Danehill) and Golden Lilac (Galileo–Grey Lilas, by Danehill) both won classics, and later that season, Maybe (Galileo–Sumora, by Danehill) earned highweight Irish 2-year-old filly honors.

Reddam Racing LLC, Ocala Stud, and Morton Fink earned top honors as the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) held its annual National Awards Dinner Friday, Sept. 6, at the Fasig-Tipton facility in Lexington, Ky.

J. Paul and Zillah Reddam's Reddam Racing earned the National Owner of the Year award; J. Michael O'Farrell's Ocala Stud was named National Breeder of the Year; and Fink, who campaigns reigning Horse of the Year Wise Dan, was honored as National Small Breeder of the Year.