Country House, who in his final start won the 2019 Kentucky Derby via an unprecedented disqualification, will enter stud at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Ky., in 2021.

Country House’s retirement was announced in February by his connections, after the son of Lookin At Lucky spent the second half of last year recovering from a battle with laminitis. Stallion plans were not yet finalized at that time, as the colt’s health had been the primary focus, and the 2020 breeding season was already underway.

Clayton

Bodemeister – Smarthalf, by Smart Strike

Bred in Ontario by Bernard and Karen McCormack ($16,000 Keeneland November weanling purchase by Zulu Racing; $50,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Donato Lanni)

As Daily Racing Form’s 2020 Queen’s Plate Watch debuts, Clayton sits atop the list. The colt sports classic connections on both sides of his pedigree.

Stakes-placed Wooderson, a half-brother to Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra, will begin his stud career for Burdette Thoroughbred Farm of Arkansas in 2021, becoming the latest stallion from this family in a regional marketplace.

Wooderson, by Awesome Again and out of the stakes-winning Roar mare Lotta Kim, won 3 of 10 career starts, with a maiden win at Saratoga as a 3-year-old later followed by allowance victories at Keeneland and Monmouth. He was second by a length in the 2019 Alydar Stakes at Saratoga to Tom’s d’Etat, now one of the top hores in training.

As the season for the younger set heats up, freshman sires swept the weekend’s graded stakes races for 2-year-olds at Del Mar.

Dual Eclipse Award champion Covfefe helped Into Mischief to his first leading sire title in 2019 by flaunting her speed. The filly’s four stakes wins on the season – capped by the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint – included a track record-setting performance in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, and a win in the Dogwood Stakes at Churchill Downs in which she missed champion Groupie Doll’s track mark by just seven-hundredths of a second.

By Jennifer B. Calder

As the horses turned for home on that warm June afternoon in 2018, the crowd of 90,000 plus at Belmont Park was electric.

The chestnut stallion with the large white blaze and long, elegant stride stood out amongst his competitors, not only due to his powerful ground-eating strokes as he raced for home, or as the only horse in the field not covered in the dust of Big Sandy, but also as only the 13th horse in the history of horse racing to win the Triple Crown.

Uncle Chuck

Uncle Mo – Forest Music, by Unbridled’s Song

Bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet ($250,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Karl Watson, Mike Pegram, and Paul Weitman)

Uncle Chuck, among the late bloomers to arrive on this year’s elongated Kentucky Derby trail, will get a litmus test when he challenges divisional leader Tiz the Law this Saturday at Saratoga. The colt is the product of crossing a young classic sire over a classy sprint mare who has developed into an outstanding broodmare.

Perennial leading sire Tapit has a Kentucky Oaks winner on his résumé in Untapable, who won the filly classic and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in 2014 to lock up a divisional Eclipse Award. Tapit’s son Tapizar, who stands alongside him at Gainesway, emulated the feat with just his second crop, as Monomoy Girl won the 2018 Oaks and Distaff to secure a championship.

Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, last year’s leading freshman sire, hit another milestone in his stud career on Sunday. Pista was a 6 1/2-length winner of her debut going 10 furlongs on soft turf at Galway in Ireland, becoming her sire’s 50th individual winner. The victories for the Coolmore stallion have come in seven different countries.

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Summer Front has made Saratoga his battlefront this summer – and is making a statement there.