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.

The horse Tom Bowling was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Friday via the historic review process. His induction represented another impressive accomplishment for his dam, whose impressive record may be even brighter than it appears. The accomplishments of several of her foals are obscured due to name and breed registry changes that would be unheard of in modern racing.

Horse of the Year Gun Runner succeeded from coast to coast, with six Grade 1 tallies including the Whitney and Woodward at Saratoga and the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar. A freshman sire, Gun Runner was represented by graded stakes winners at both Saratoga and Del Mar over the weekend.

There could hardly have been a sire more appropriate to give trainer Steve Asmussen a record victory than Tapit. The Hall of Fame trainer became North America’s all-time career wins leader on Saturday at Saratoga when the Tapit colt Stellar Tap won on debut. The victory gave Asmussen 9,446 wins, moving him one ahead of the late Dale Baird.

Keep Grinding

Tizway – Samsal, by Consolidator

Bred in Ontario by Huntington Stud Farm ($9,771 purchase by Joshua Attard at 2019 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Ontario division premier yearling sale)

Keep Grinding is a family affair for the Attard family, but should he deliver Queen’s Plate success, he would become the biggest standout for his own immediate pedigree, which is light on major accomplishment.

Pin Oak Stud, the Central Kentucky farm owned by Josephine Abercrombie, will disperse its remaining broodmares and weanlings and a handful of racing-age fillies at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky mixed sale on Sept. 12 this year, the farm announced on Thursday.

Silver State, who has already captured the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, will attempt to further burnish his résumé in this Saturday’s Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga Race Course. Not only has the Metropolitan long been considered a stallion-making race – with young winners of the race continuing to be sought after commercially as brilliance continues to be rewarded in the American marketplace – but stallions to pull off the Met-Whitney double have been on a roll as of late.