In a tumultuous year for Thoroughbred racing, synthetic surfaces again became a major point of discussion. A number of major racetracks switched to synthetic surfaces in the 2000s, including the Southern California circuit – which found itself in the center of the storm regarding equine welfare in 2019 – and Keeneland. However, most tracks eventually reverted back to traditional dirt surfaces, as they struggled with maintenance or faced complaints from a variety of racing groups, including breeders, handicappers, and trainers.

The Jockey Club announced in December that it is continuing consideration of its proposed rule to limit the annual breeding of individual stallions, a move that would have a major commercial impact on leading stallions.

The Jockey Club, the breed registry for Thoroughbreds in North America, announced in September that it was considering limiting the books of stallions to 140 mares, an unprecedented move in this industry. The limit would be phased in beginning in 2021, depending on the year in which a stallion first entered stud.

Cowtown Cat finished as Ohio’s leading stallion with state-sired progeny in 2019 – but a recent influx of Grade 1/Group 1 winners into the state, all of whom sired stakes horses while standing in larger markets, means that position may not be secure in coming years.

City of Light kicked off the year in style for his sire, Quality Road, by winning the Pegasus World Cup Invitational by 5 3/4 lengths, continuing the momentum from his win in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile the previous fall. However, the Pegasus was the career finale for City of Light, as he immediately shipped to Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky to join his sire in time for the 2019 breeding season. There were still more than 11 months remaining in the racing season.

It was an impressive debut. The young stallion, who stood for a modest fee in the fiercely competitive Kentucky market, put a pair of horses from his first crop in the 2013 Kentucky Derby – Santa Anita Derby winner Goldencents and Wood Memorial third-place finisher Vyjack. Although neither hit the board that first weekend in May, both went on to be millionaires and performers at a high level for multiple seasons.

And Into Mischief wasn’t joking around.

As America’s Thoroughbred industry goes, so go our regional breeding centers. Iowa’s Thoroughbred business certainly reflects the larger whole, only with more dire numbers. It is currently in a state of painful contraction – and has been for years. While neighboring Illinois’s parallel struggle has been attributed, in large part, to a lack of racetrack casino revenues, Iowa is here to tell you that such gaming centers, while helpful, are no cure-all.

After finishing in the top 10 on Indiana’s general sire list each of the last two years, the third time was the charm for Unbridled Express, who broke through to take the Hoosier State’s sire title for the first time in 2019.

Unbridled Express, who stands at Swifty Farms in Seymour, Ind., sired 14 winners, including six repeat winners, from 29 starters for progeny earnings of $1,089,725 in 2019. He easily outdistanced his closest competitor on the list, Haffner Farm’s Notional, at $870,130.

Horse racing has a long and storied history in the Illinois, where it has enthralled the sporting public since the 1830s. But times have changed in recent decades, and not for the better.

In the high-stakes bloodstock game, a stallion’s fourth year at stud is considered a particularly risky time to breed to him. That marks the same season that his first foals come to the races as juveniles, and their performances can cause the value of his future offspring to either skyrocket or plummet. And thus, stud fees, the size and quality of books of mares, and commercial auction prices for a stallion’s stock will generally dip in his third and fourth years before establishing a future path.

Regally bred Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker, an influential stallion who is the grandsire of Triple Crown winner and leading freshman sire American Pharoah, has died at Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Ky. The farm said the stallion died on Saturday, “after a battle with a rare disease that compromised his immune system.” The son of Unbridled was 20.