The stallion rosters of many farms will be finalized in the weeks leading up to, or following, the Breeders’ Cup, but two major retirements for 2026 were confirmed on Wednesday.
Coolmore has announced that 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Eclipse Award divisional champion Sierra Leone will make his final start in this year’s Classic on Nov. 1 at Del Mar, before retiring to its Ashford Stud. Sierra Leone, by Gun Runner, will have his fee announced after his Classic defense attempt.
Bucchero covered a robust book of 192 mares in his second New York season after moving from Florida, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. It is a rarity for a non-Kentucky stallion to break into the top 20 most active stallions.
Bucchero was the only stallion outside of Kentucky even in the top 50. The next is Ocala Stud’s Win Win Win, who covered 137 mares.
Airdrie Stud has released the 2026 stud fees for it’s 12-stallion roster, highlighted by the introductory fees of newcomers Mystik Dan and Jonathan’s Way. Winner of the 2024 Grade 1 Kentucky Derby and second in that season’s Grade 1 Preakness Stakes, Mystik Dan has further established himself as one of the most talented older horses in training in 2025 and will head to Del Mar as one of the leading contenders in the Grade 1 Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile following his emphatic score in the Grade 2 $500,000 Lukas Classic on September 27th. His lifetime earnings to date stand at more
Young sire Tiz the Law covered 274 mares, narrowly ranking as the busiest stallion in North America, as The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred and foal crop estimates released Thursday showed continued contraction in the industry.
Patch Adams, who won back-to-back Grade 1 races this summer at Saratoga Race Course, has been retired to WinStar Farm for the 2026 breeding season after sustaining an injury during preparations for the Breeders’ Cup, according to a press release.
Patch Adams won the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial in his last start Aug. 23. Before that he won the Grade 1 Woody Stephens. Both races were at Saratoga.
Patch Adams, a 3-year-old son of Into Mischief, raced for his breeder WinStar Farm and CHC Inc.
The board of the Gerry Dilger Equine Scholarship Foundation is delighted to announce the 2026 recipients of its Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Experience scholarships. These particular annual awards are granted to recent graduates of equine programs from Irish educational institutions, providing young people with the opportunity to travel to the United States and gain placement at a leading Kentucky farm.
Just Leo, the lesser-known brother of nine-time graded stakes winner Firenze Fire, is enjoying modest success early in his stud career for Mr. Amore Stable. The 6-year-old’s first crop, consisting of three horses to reach the track so far, has already produced two homebred winners for owner Ron Lombardi and trainer Kelly Breen.
Maximum Security, who was voted the Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old male of 2019, will move to Breakway Farm in Indiana to continue his stud career, that farm announced Friday night.
Maximum Security, by New Year’s Day, began his stud career at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky in 2021. He will stand for $3,500 at Breakway in 2026.
Grade 1 winner and producer Hot Dixie Chick, a key member of Stonestreet Farm’s history and broodmare band, was euthanized due to complications from colic, the farm announced recently. The daughter of Dixie Union was 18.
Blue hen broodmare Special Me has been pensioned at age 19 at the Brogden family’s Machmer Hall Farm in Paris, Ky.
“She is literally the toughest, strongest horse I have ever met,” Carrie Brogden wrote on social media. “To say she has been special to this farm and so many people would be an understatement.”
