Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom will stand the Northern Hemisphere breeding season at Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Ky., after the international breeding operation bought an interest in the horse.

The Maryland Horse Breeders Association and the Maryland Racing Media Association have announced the 12-horse inaugural class for the Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Fame.

The inaugural class includes:

• Cigar, Horse of the Year in 1995 and 1996, who won a then-record 16 consecutive races.

• Safely Kept, champion sprinter of 1989.

• Broad Brush, winner of the 1987 Santa Anita Handicap and Suburban Handicap, leading sire of 1994.

• Challedon, Horse of the Year in 1939 and 1940.

• Gallorette, Champion handicap mare in 1946.

Twilight Ridge, winner of 1985 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, died April 2 at owner Mike Rutherford's Manchester Farm near Lexington, Ky. The daughter of Cox's Ridge was 30.

"Twilight Ridge ... was 30 years old and in excellent health until the last month," Manchester Farm stated in a release. "She was a wonderful producer as well as a great race mare. ... Twilight Ridge will be missed at Manchester Farm as she was a very special lady, always having the sweetest disposition with other horses and people. Twilight Ridge will be buried at her home, Manchester Farm."

Vinery Farm in Lexington, Ky., the anchor property of the international racing and breeding operation, has been listed for sale with a price tag of $13,970,000.

The 440-acre farm was one of four U.S. properties under the Vinery banner, owned by Tom Simon, who announced his intention to sell the majority of the Vinery operation in August 2012. At the time of the announcement, Vinery had properties in Kentucky, Florida, New York, and Australia. The Australian property is owned by a partnership, and Simon has said that the farm will not be sold.

Group 1 winner Intense Focus was represented by his first winner on April 1 when his daughter Intense Feeling won at Warwick Racecourse in Warwick, England.

It was the third career start for the 2-year-old filly, who made virtually all of the pace and handily defeated stablemate Gin Time by two lengths. She covered five furlongs in 1:05.61 over turf rated good to soft.

Intense Feeling is the fifth winner out of the unraced Fairy King mare Titania, a half-sister to stakes placed Twilight Patrol.

Financially embattled Australian mining tycoon Nathan Tinkler has decided to put his entire Patinack Farm operation on the market, including more than 1,000 Thoroughbreds and farms in New South Wales and Queensland.

Test your ability to select the top freshman sires of the season. The Grand Prize winner will receive an annual DRF.com Formulator Past Performance plan valued at $1500. 

Select one stallion from each group below and follow your stable as it accumulates points throughout the year. Entry is open through April 6.

For complete rules, scoring information, and regulations, click here.

Champion Zenyatta delivered her second foal, a colt by popular commercial sire Tapit, late the night of Monday, April 1 at Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Ky.

The chestnut colt was foaled at 11:47 p.m. Eastern time. He shares a birthday with his dam, who was foaled April 1, 2004.

The colt, estimated at 145 pounds, was on his feet by 12:18 a.m. and was nursing within the hour, according to information posted on Zenyatta's official website. 

Faltaat, a leading sire in New Zealand and a champion sprinter in the United Arab Emirates, died at Westbury Stud in Karaka, N.Z., on March 30 at age 23.

“He was 23 years old so we all understand these things do happen, but it’s very sad to see him go,” Westbury Stud general manager Russell Warwick said in a statement posted on the farm’s website. 


“The boys went out to get him in on Saturday afternoon and he was dead in his paddock. It couldn’t have happened more quickly or unexpectedly. If it has to happen, then it’s best to go out that way and he didn’t suffer.”

March 30 brought forth an embarrassment of riches for U.S. racing fans, as the Dubai World Cup card at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates drew several accomplished American-based horses and the final leg of Churchill Downs’ Road to the Kentucky Derby series of 3-year-old prep races kicked off with the Group 2 U.A.E. Derby at Meydan, the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream, and the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds.