Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Knicks Go continued to extend the legacy of a sireline that has had its fair share of success in the Breeders’ Cup over the decades.

Knicks Go is a son of WinStar Farm stallion Paynter, a Grade 1 winner and runner-up in the 2012 Belmont Stakes who endeared himself to fans by overcoming a serious illness to resume racing. Paynter, in turn, is by Frank Stronach’s homebred Awesome Again, who defeated a star-studded field that included champions Skip Away and Silver Charm to win the 1998 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

Four years ago, the Breeders’ Cup came to Del Mar for the first time, and Gun Runner came to Del Mar to repel his challengers and draw clear to a 2 1/4-length victory in the Classic, locking up the 2017 Horse of the Year title.

“In some ways, it feels like it was just yesterday,” said David Fiske, racing and farm manager for Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds, which campaigned Gun Runner with Three Chimneys Farm. “I’ve re-watched that race from time to time, and it’s better than any antidepressant I’ve ever been prescribed.”

The international Shadwell Stables operation experienced a monumental loss this year as its founder, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum, died in March. But even as the powerhouse stable navigates that loss and evaluates its operations, it has continued to show the strength of Sheikh Hamdan’s program.

Shadwell will have Kentucky Oaks winner Malathaat as one of the prime contenders in this Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff. And a few weeks ago, Shadwell shone on another fall showcase program, with three winners on British Champions Day, including two homebred Group 1 winners.

World-renowned sire Galileo, whose death in July sent shockwaves through the racing world, will look to posthumously extend his lead as the Breeders’ Cup’s all-time leading sire by money won. Meanwhile, the action this week at Del Mar also could shift the leaderboard of the event’s leading living sires.

Regally bred multiple graded-stakes winner Tacitus will stand at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky., in 2022, with partners including his breeder, Juddmonte Farms, the operations announced Monday.

Tacitus, by leading sire Tapit and out of Eclipse Award champion Close Hatches, was bred by Juddmonte in Kentucky. He has been campaigned by that international operation through a career in which he has earned $3,767,350 to date. His graded stakes victories came in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial and Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby in early 2019, and the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes last year.

The Metropolitan Handicap has long been considered a stallion-making race, showcasing the brilliance so valued in the American marketplace and the ability to carry that speed beyond a true sprint distance. Now the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, inaugurated in 2007, also has begun to develop the looks of a stallion-making event.

The popular sprinter Firenze Fire, a graded stakes winner in five consecutive years and a 13-time stakes winner overall, will stand stud at Arrow Stud in Japan next year, his current owner Ron Lombardi said Tuesday.

Firenze Fire, 6, will make the 38th and final start of his career in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

At Arrow Stud, Firenze Fire will join California Chrome, the two-time U.S. Horse of the Year (2014, 3016), and Shanghai Bobby, the 2-year-old champion of 2012.

Maryland celebrated its state breeding program and stallions on Saturday, with Jim McKay Maryland Million Day at Laurel Park. But Maryland’s brightest star of the year was not in attendance. Maryland-bred Knicks Go was breezing at Churchill Downs on Saturday in preparation for a cross-country trip to Del Mar and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Goldencents was the busiest stallion in North America in 2021, as sons of Into Mischief took the top three spots on the leaderboard, according to the annual Report of Mares Bred, released by The Jockey Club on Monday morning.

The Jockey Club reported that 1,016 stallions covered 27,829 mares in North America this season, based on reports received through Oct. 18. The breed organization estimates an additional 2,500 to 3,500 mares will ultimately be reported as bred.

Champion Essential Quality will be retired following the Breeders' Cup and will join the Kentucky stallion ranks for Sheikh Mohammed’s international Godolphin racing and Darley stallions operation, along with Maxfield, the farm announced Monday.