Breeding sheds officially open this week across Kentucky, with farms looking to get their new young stallions off to a strong start with the best mares possible in what has become an increasingly competitive landscape.

Not only has the commercial market become highly selective, but a reduced broodmare population also has heightened that competition. According to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred released last fall, 29,218 mares were reported covered in North America during 2019, a decline of 36 percent from 45,317 reported at the same point in 2009.

New York-bred Friend Or Foe is fashioning an unconventional stallion career in his adopted state of Virginia, with his offspring continuing to flourish back in his home state to make him a leading sire.

European Horse of the Year and perennial leading North American sire Giant’s Causeway died in 2018 – but the legacy of his family is very much alive. The late stallion’s active sons in the U.S. include the useful Creative Cause and First Samurai; Carpe Diem and Imagining, both of whom had stakes winners in their freshman seasons in 2019; and Brody’s Cause and Not This Time, who will represent him in this year’s freshman ranks. Eclipse Award champion Mitole, a grandson of Giant’s Causeway, enters stud this month in Kentucky.

In a national breeding market marked by a slow decline in activity the past decade or so, Pennsylvania has been holding fairly well.

In 2019, Pennsylvania was seventh nationally by number of mares bred, with 792, or 2.7 percent of all activity in the United States. Two years earlier, the state was ninth by number of mares bred. The number of mares bred in 2019 in the state was a 16.5 percent increase over 2018, a positive indicator of the strength of the state program as activity nationally declined last year.

The Maryland bloodstock industry has shown strength in recent years, with strong results at Fasig-Tipton’s regional sales, prominent runners emerging from the state such as Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia, and solid young stallions recruited to stand in the state. That was evident in 2019, as a competitive class of freshman sires dueled in their adopted home state and made some impact on a strong national freshman sire list.

Khozan never got a chance to show what he may have been truly capable of on the racetrack. The $1 million purchase, a half-brother to Hall of Fame racemare Royal Delta, won his two starts in dominant fashion, but was injured while preparing for his stakes debut, forcing his retirement. Still, he was well received upon arriving at Journeyman Stud in Florida.

“Khozan is reminiscent of Danzig and Malibu Moon – immensely talented horses with abbreviated racing careers,” Journeyman’s Brent Fernung said. “The upside is unlimited.”

Triple Crown winner Justify entered stud last year at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky. Joining him in the stallion barn was another talented son of Coolmore's late sire Scat Daddy, the globe-trotting Mendelssohn. Both Justify and Mendelssohn proved exceptionally popular, each covering 252 mares in their first seasons.

With breeding sheds across North America set to open in the coming weeks, Ontario Racing's Thoroughbred Improvement Program has announced that its mare purchase program has ended for the season, with a strong response for the new programs designed to bolster the province's breeding and racing industry.

The races were on turf and dirt, won by horses born in different states, who went off as longshots and favorites. But the winners of the first three races on Saturday’s card at Santa Anita were all bred by H. Allen Poindexter, giving the horseman a rare hat trick.

Last year’s strong freshman sire class seems to have picked up right where it left off with the turn of the calendar, as 3-year-olds from their first crops won two of the three Kentucky Derby points races contested last Saturday, as well as two of the weekend’s three Kentucky Oaks points races.