Bill Farish

Champion Lemon Drop Kid (Kingmambo--Charming Lassie, by Seattle Slew) has died of an undisclosed cause at the age of 28 at Lane's End, the farm said via a press release on Friday morning. Foaled at Lane's End and bred by W. S. Farish and W. S. Kilroy, Lemon Drop Kid is out of Charming Lassie, a half-sister to Broodmare of the Year Weekend Surprise (Secretariat). The Lane's End sire was closely-related to the impactful A.P. Indy. Lemon Drop Kid was sold for $200,000 at the 1997 Keeneland September Sale to...

7th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 3:55 p.m. ET. A $1-million buy at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, YINZER (Twirling Candy) takes the racing stage for the ownership group of West Point Thoroughbreds, CJ Stables and Bill Farish. The Steve Asmussen trainee is out of Rehearsed (Tapit) who is a full-sister to GISP Closing Bell and a half-sister to GII San Felipe Stakes hero Hear the Ghost (Ghostzapper). Also making the races is Aerate (Candy Ride {Arg]). The Stone Farm homebred trained by Brian Lynch was produced by Ducru...

Flightline (Tapit--Feathered, by Indian Charlie) and Quality Road (Elusive Quality--Kobla, by Strawberry Road {Aus})) lead Lane's End Farm's stallion roster with the pair each standing for $150,000 for the 2025 season. Horse of the Year Flightline, who is represented by his first crop of weanlings this year, stood for the same amount in 2024, while Quality Road, who lists MGISW National Treasure among this season's standouts, stood for $200,000 this year. "The much-anticipated Flightline weanlings will be on display in the upcoming November sales, and we've already seen the international...

A stallion share in Horse of the Year and sire Flightline (Tapit--Feathered, by Indian Charlie), whose first foals are weanlings of 2024, has been catalogued for the inaugural Keeneland Championship Sale, to be held the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 30 in the Paddock at Del Mar, site of the 2024 Breeders' Cup World Championships on Nov. 1-2. The share is offered by an original owner of Flightline who retains multiple shares in the stallion. Flightline won a trio of Grade I events in 2022--the Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan by six...

The Jockey Club has elected new stewards and members to its rolls, the organization said in a release on Thursday morning. The new stewards are Gary Fenton, David O'Farrell, Everrett R. Dobson and Vincent Viola. William S. Farish Jr. (vice chair) was re-elected. The remaining stewards are Stuart S. Janney III (chair), Ian D. Highet (treasurer), William M. Lear (secretary), Barbara Banke, Louis A. Cella, Terry Finley and R. Alex Rankin. The new members who were added include, Joseph Appelbaum, John Ballantyne Ph.D., Rick Gold, Marshall Gramm Ph.D., M.V. Magnier,...

There were two Grade I races last weekend in North America, one at Saratoga and one at Del Mar. One was on the dirt and one was on the turf, one at 10 furlongs and the other at nine furlongs. Other than both being carded for 3-year-old fillies, what did they have in common? Each was won by a daughter of a Lane's End sire. Union Rags captured the GI Alabama Stakes with Power Squeeze, while Twirling Candy took the GI Del Mar Oaks with Iscreamuscream. To add to the...

When City of Light won the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in 2018, it was one of the more impressive performances of the day. Although it had already been announced he would enter stud in 2019 at Lane's End Farm near Versailles, Ky., he had one race remaining on his dance card: the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes the following January. He romped that day as well, besting a slightly favored GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner with a 112 Beyer Speed Figure, which topped his 110 Breeders' Cup mark,...

Claiborne Farm and Lane's End Farm have committed to a co-sponsorship of the Former Broodmare division at the 2024 Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium, presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America, the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) announced Tuesday. First run as a pilot program in 2023, the Former Broodmare division is now an official competition avenue at the Thoroughbred Makeover, welcoming recently-retired broodmares to compete alongside the traditional retiring racehorse division in all 10 offered disciplines. Broodmares will be pinned and recognized separately, and compete for a separate pot of $10,000...

It's safe to say that no horse has retired to stud in recent memory with the fanfare of Flightline, who won all six of his starts by a combined 71 lengths, including four Grade Is. He was the world's highest-ranked racehorse of 2022, and earned triple-digit Beyers in all six of his starts. With an initial fee of $200,000, Flightline covered just over 150 mares in 2023 in his initial book, and those in-foal mares averaged $1,074,431 at the sales, the highest average for a first-crop covering sire in 15...

Owner Jon Ebbert was adamant that Arcangelo (Arrogate) was not for sale after the 3-year-old put in a hard-fought victory in the GIII Peter Pan S. The story didn't waver as the striking gray reeled off wins in the GI Belmont S. and GI Travers S. and it still didn't change when Ebbert was selecting a stallion farm for the star of his Blue Rose Farm. At Lane's End, Ebbert found a team that was experienced with and even enthusiastic about his desire to be involved in the next chapter...

The commercial travails of turf stallions in Kentucky have become notorious. But there are a couple of aligning trends that give Up to the Mark every right to make a breakthrough when he starts his new career at Lane's End in 2024. For one thing, there appears to be a growing consensus that opportunities for grass horses will only increase over the years ahead—even as those coming round to that opinion find their options much reduced by the loss of Kitten's Joy and English Channel. At the same time, Up...

Quality Road (Elusive Quality), the sire of 17 stakes winners in 2023 including GI Preakness S. hero National Treasure, will stand the 2024 breeding season for $200,000, the same fee he commanded in 2023. The 17-year-old stallion, is responsible for an additional five winners at the graded level this season, including 'TDN Rising Star' Agate Road, who makes his next appearance in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita Nov. 3. Accordingly, it has been a strong yearling sales season for Quality Road, who was represented at the...