In the six decades since Linda Madsen’s parents bought Milky Way Farm in Temecula, Calif., the property has undergone a few transformations.
For a time, the focus was on Arabian show horses and later cattle before evolving into its current form as a full-service Thoroughbred breeding farm. There are no plans for further revisions.
“It’s been the greatest place to live,” Madsen said in an interview earlier this month. “I wake up and think, ‘How can I be this lucky?’ ”
There is plenty of change going on in the California Thoroughbred industry, with an uncertain racing landscape in the northern sector of the state; the death of major breeder John Harris and the dispersal of his stock, including stallions; and a new horse moving to the state who will factor in the stallion ranks. Remaining as constants in the Golden State are its leading sires, Stay Thirsty and Grazen.
Group 3 winner Sergei Prokofiev, last year’s leading freshman sire in England and Ireland, will return home to Canada to continue his stud career.
Anderson Farms, which bred the son of Scat Daddy, announced that it has acquired and syndicated the stallion, who will stand at Ballycroy Bloodstock in Loretto, Ontario, for a fee of $10,000 Canadian. Anderson sold Sergei Prokofiev for $1.1 million as a Keeneland September yearling to the Coolmore team, which raced him and then stood him at Whitsbury Manor Stud in England. His runners are led by Group 1 winner Arizona Blaze.
Thorpedo Anna will be bred to Gun Runner for her first mating, pairing two Horse of the Year honorees.
Thorpedo Anna, by Fast Anna, retired in October with 12 wins from 16 career starts and earnings of more than $5.4 million. Her seven Grade 1 victories included, in her championship campaign, the 2024 Kentucky Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The filly is now owned in majority by John Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm, with the Magdalena Farm of trainer Kenny McPeek’s family and her breeder, Judy Hicks, holding minority interests.
There are multiple 2023 and 2024 Eclipse Award champions retiring to stud for the coming season in Kentucky. Along with a trio at Ashford Stud, Straight No Chaser is joining the 2026 stallion ranks.
Straight No Chaser, the 2024 Eclipse champion male sprinter who earned more than $2.6 million, is by Speightster, a WinStar homebred who is a son of the operation’s perennial leading sire Speightstown, also a champion sprinter.
As multiple Grade 1 winner Chancer McPatrick struck a pose for breeders at a November open house, the Spendthrift stallion sales team revealed that the farm was the underbidder on the colt when he sold as a juvenile. At the end of the day, Chancer McPatrick comes to Spendthrift as the first son of the exciting young sire McKinzie to stand at stud.
Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Gun Runner, who recorded another Breeders’ Cup winner this year and is heading toward another top-three finish in the national standings, has a loaded pipeline with a smashing season at the yearling sales. His first sons to stud, Cyberknife and Early Voting, were, unsurprisingly, well received.
Airdrie Stud, which has plenty of promise in the pipeline, is adding a second Kentucky Derby winner to its young roster in Mystik Dan. The colt earned his greatest victory in the 2024 Derby, edging out Sierra Leone and Forever Young – the past two winners of the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Broodmare support is key for young stallions to get off on the right foot, and there are few Kentucky newcomers who might get better backing than Grade 1 winners Raging Torrent and Carl Spackler, both debuting at Lane’s End Farm in 2026.
