Creative Minister, by Creative Cause, continued a solid spring for the Airdrie Stud stallion roster as he finished third in the Preakness Stakes.

Grade 1 winner Creative Cause, third in the 2012 Preakness, entered stud at the Jones family’s Airdrie in 2013. The son of Giant’s Causeway is also the sire of Grade 1 winner Pavel and graded stakes winners Identifier, My Boy Jack, Significant Form, and Skyler’s Scramjet.

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Coolmore has invested heavily in carrying on the torch of its late classic sire Scat Daddy, who died suddenly in late 2015. Its efforts to keep the flame alive are paying off, as two of Scat Daddy’s sons, including Triple Crown winner Justify, achieved milestones on Sunday.

Canadian champions who have gone on to be successful broodmares continued to make an impact on this spring’s Triple Crown series, as Preakness Stakes winner Early Voting extended the legacy of his granddam, the late Silken Cat.

Early Voting is out of the unraced Tiznow mare Amour d’Ete, whose dam is Quebec-bred Silken Cat. A late Storm Cat mare, Silken Cat earned a Sovereign Award as a Canadian champion and went on to produce Eclipse Award champion Speightstown.

BALTIMORE – Preakness Stakes victor Early Voting continued the remarkable ascent into North America’s elite sires for Horse of the Year Gun Runner, who now has an American classic winner to boast from his record-setting first crop.

BALTIMORE – Smart Strike and his sons have been extremely successful in producing stamina for the Triple Crown series – and, indeed, have stood out in the Preakness Stakes, specifically.

That history is one of the best things that longshots Fenwick and Skippylongstocking will have going for them in Saturday’s Preakness. Fenwick is by Smart Strike’s two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, while Skippylongstocking is by Curlin’s son Exaggerator. Both sires are Preakness winners themselves.

Rob and Stacy Mitchell take pride in being hands-on owners and breeders, doing their own work with their horses at their Briland Farm in Lexington, Ky. That includes delivering the foals.

“She usually sleeps in the barn and delivers them,” Rob Mitchell said of his wife.

“I call him when the water breaks,” Stacy Mitchell said with a laugh.

Creative Minister was a 2 3/4-length winner of a salty allowance race at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May, some seven hours before Epicenter carried the Winchell Thoroughbreds colors to a game second in the Kentucky Derby. The two colts will converge in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Ironically, Creative Minister, who races for Fern Circle Stables, Back Racing, and trainer Kenny McPeek, is from a Winchell foundation family and will now seek to upset their star colt in the Preakness.

Rich Strike, who gave Calumet Farm a record-extending 10th Kentucky Derby victory as a breeder, will not be in Baltimore on Saturday. But Calumet homebred Happy Jack is expected to be in the starting gate for the Preakness Stakes, looking to extend the historic operation’s record in the second jewel of the Triple Crown.

Happy Jack is by Calumet stallion Oxbow, who gave the farm its first Triple Crown victory under Brad Kelley’s ownership when he won the 2013 Preakness. Happy Jack carried the same black and gold colors to finish 14th in this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Flatter, a consistently successful sire who carried on the legacy of A.P. Indy as a cornerstone of the Claiborne Farm roster for nearly two decades, was euthanized on Monday due to the infirmities of old age. He was 23.

Flatter, by A.P. Indy and out of Praise, was a second-generation homebred for Claiborne and longtime partner Adele Dilschneider, and a full brother to graded stakes winner and successful sire Congrats.

Keen Ice will forever be remembered for an upset victory, as he ran down Triple Crown hero American Pharoah to win the 2015 Travers Stakes, stunning an enthusiastic crowd at Saratoga as he returned $34 for the win.

Rich Strike said, ‘Dad, hold my mint julep.’

Rich Strike, from the first crop of Calumet Farm stallion Keen Ice, pulled off the second-biggest upset in Kentucky Derby history on Saturday evening at Churchill Downs, shocking a full house as he overhauled favored Epicenter in the final stages and returning $163.60.