Longtime horseman John Fernung died on March 5 in Ocala, Fla. He was 79.

Fernung gained national prominence as the racing manager for multiple Eclipse Award-winning Lasater Stable (1974-76). The operation was the leading money-winning stable in the country five years in a row and, during Fernung’s tenure, raced Grade 1 winners Honky Star, Hot N Nasty, and Royal Glint.

Juddmonte’s blue hen Kind, best known as the dam of unbeaten champion Frankel, died Monday due to foaling complications. The 20-year-old daughter of Danehill had delivered her final foal, a surviving Kingman colt, on March 2.

“I cannot thank the [Rossdales Veterinary team] and Juddmonte team enough for the tireless care they have given Kind,” Juddmonte’s UK stud director Simon Mockridge said in a press release. “To many, she will rightfully always be best remembered as the dam of Frankel and Noble Mission. To us at Juddmonte, she will always be Kind by name and Kind by nature.”

Life Is Good

Into Mischief – Beach Walk, by Distorted Humor

Bred in Kentucky by Gary and Mary West ($525,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by China Horse Club and Maverick Racing)

Cesario, a Grade 1 winner on two continents and the dam of two champions in Japan, died Saturday at Northern Farm in Japan of a ruptured artery. The daughter of Special Week was 19.

Fresh off earning another Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding owner, the international Godolphin operation has started 2021 in strong fashion. Godolphin recorded three homebred graded stakes winners in the United States on Saturday alone, highlighted by Eclipse Award champion Essential Quality’s successful 3-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn. Mystic Guide gave the Godolphin blue a double at Oaklawn by winning the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap, and Antoinette captured the Grade 3 The Very One at Gulfstream.

Tapit, one of North America’s perennial leading sires, turned 20 on Saturday. The Gainesway stallion celebrated by sweeping Saturday’s Kentucky Derby preps, as Eclipse Award champion Essential Quality returned a winner at Oaklawn Park and Greatest Honour continued his march through the Gulfstream Park prep series.

Fire At Will

Declaration of War – Flirt, by Kitten’s Joy

Bred in Kentucky by Troy Rankin ($97,000 purchase by Three Diamonds Farm at 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Fire At Will is expected to make his 3-year-old debut on the main track in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park in a bid to step onto the Kentucky Derby trail.

Popular dual Eclipse Award champion Covfefe delivered her first foal, a filly by Constitution, on Tuesday in Kentucky.

Co-owner Jaime Roth shared the news Tuesday evening, posting a video of the blaze-faced bay mare and her filly at Gainesway Farm, where they are boarded. Covfefe was campaigned throughout her career by the LNJ Foxwoods of Jaime Roth and her parents, Larry and Nanci.

Sealy Hill, a Canadian Hall of Famer who went on to a stellar career as a broodmare, died Tuesday at Bonne Chance Farm near Versailles, Ky. The daughter of Point Given was 17 and had been pensioned from breeding since 2018.

Coolmore's Ashford Stud, Spendthrift Farm, and Three Chimneys Farm, three prominent Kentucky farms standing some of the nation's most well-known stallions, have together filed a lawsuit challenging The Jockey Club's rule limiting the books of future stallions, the first legal challenge to the first such rule of its kind adopted by North America's governing Thoroughbred breed organization.

Last May, The Jockey Club announced that it was adopting a rule putting a cap of 140 mares bred annually on stallions born in 2020 or after. There is no cap on stallions born before 2020.