The summer meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar help kick the 2-year-old division into high gear. Both meets host a graded stakes series for juveniles, capped by the first Grade 1 events in the division for both colts and fillies, as well as rich maiden special weights that often mark the debuts of well-bred or high-priced youngsters. These eight weeks on the calendar are often when the freshman sire race begins to sort itself out.

Yaupon, who captured last Saturday's Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga, will stand at Spendthrift Farm for 2022, the farm announced Thursday.

Yaupon, by breakout young sire of sires Uncle Mo, races for Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt, whose 2019 Eclipse Award champion sprinter Mitole stands at Spendthrift. Mitole captured the Breeders' Cup Sprint to conclude his championship campaign, and Yaupon is being aimed for this year's renewal at Del Mar.

Grade 1 winner Starship Jubilee has continued to add to her accolades, as she was honored Friday night as the 2020 Florida-bred horse of the year by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.

Starship Jubilee, the 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year and champion female turf horse for the third straight year, also picked up awards for the third time in four years as the Florida-bred champion older female and champion turf female. Starship Jubilee also generated an award for her dam, the Forest Wildcat mare Perfectly Wild, as the FTBOA broodmare of the year.

The old adage “nothing breeds success like success” has proven especially true for Thoroughbred horse racing partnerships. Since Cot Campbell’s Dogwood Stable got the ball rolling in the late 1960s, countless smaller investors have shared the incomparable exuberance of a winner’s circle visit. And since the Dogwood runner Summer Squall became the first partnership horse to capture a Classic trophy in the 1990 Preakness Stakes, subsequent partnerships have consistently competed, and won, at racing’s highest levels.

Known Agenda, winner of this year's Grade 1 Florida Derby, has been retired and will begin his stallion career next season at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky, the farm, announced Wednesday.

Uncle Mo made a brilliant start with his first sons to stud – one that drew high, even historic, praise.

“It reminds me of Storm Cat,” said Rick Burke, owner of Irish Hill Century Farm in Stillwater, N.Y. “Just one after the other, they just kept coming. Just a tremendous sireline.”

Kitten’s Joy hails from a versatile sireline, but up to this point, he has been firmly entrenched in his own niche. The Eclipse Award champion turf male has become a dominant leading turf sire, with sparing success on dirt. He joined the ranks of his family with high-end success on multiple surfaces on Saturday, recording his first Grade 1 winner on dirt as Tripoli prevailed in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar to stamp himself as a leading candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Classic at the same track.

Tapit has already set high bars of stallion success for himself, but keeps finding newer, and higher, bars to clear. Over the weekend, the stallion became the all-time leading North American sire by career progeny earnings, a bankroll he should continue to add to to extend his dominance.

Through Sunday, the career progeny earnings for Tapit, a 20-year-old son of Pulpit standing at Gainesway, stood at $172,904,804. That took him past Giant’s Causeway, who died in 2018, at $172,560,764.

Haddassah

Air Force Blue – Lady Haddassah, by Whywhywhy

Bred in Ontario by Al and Bill Ulwelling

The Canadian Triple Crown demands versatility, with 3-year-olds running on synthetic, dirt, and turf during the series. Haddassah, one of the favorites on Daily Racing Form’s Queen’s Plate Watch, brings a versatile pedigree to the start of the series. He is by a young stallion from a versatile sireline, and his dam also did solid work on multiple surfaces.

Munnyfor Ro

Munnings – Repartee, by Distorted Humor

Bred in Ontario by Daybar Ltd. ($65,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Raroma Stable)

Munnings, who is a top 10 North American general sire this year, is known as an outstanding sire of fillies. He looks to have another good one in Munnyfor Ro, who is likely to be supplemented to the Queen’s Plate after her Woodbine Oaks victory.