Bill Farish

Two new stallions, both debut winners as juveniles who went on to become Grade I winners, have joined the Lane's End roster for 2022. Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB} - Reunited, by Dixie Union) and Lexitonian (Speightstown - Riviera Romper, by Tapit) will stand for a fee of $10,000 in their first year at stud. "Code of Honor and Lexitonian are sound, consistent young horses and they both give breeders a chance to breed to Grade I-winning sires with fair, introductory prices and super pedigrees," Lane's End Farm's Bill...

Call it the Japan factor. We've already seen it creating opportunities for breeders, after all, with Hard Spun--a still more direct conduit of Danzig blood, and arguably underpriced ever since his relaunch in Kentucky after a sojourn in Hokkaido. The Factor, however, is four years further behind in that process, and right now finds himself at an intriguing crossroads in his rehabilitation. Having spent 2018 at Shizunai Stallion Station, the son of War Front had no American juveniles last year and will accordingly have no sophomore representation in 2022. That...

Andy Howard has been appointed Yearling Manager at Lane's End Farm. He will be taking over Peter Sheehan's role--Sheehan is now the stallion manager. "Andy has been a key part of our success with yearlings and will be an important asset on our team moving forward," said Bill Farish of Lane's End. "We are extremely confident in his ability to manage such a fundamental part of our operation." Howard worked as an assistant in the Versailles, Kentucky farm's yearling division since 2013. Notable yearlings he has helped raise are GI...

   Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB} - Reunited, by Dixie Union) arrived at Lane's End Farm, where he will stand the 2022 season, early in the morning hours of Tuesday, Dec. 7. The multiple Grade I winner was bred and raced by W.S. Farish and earned nearly $3 million over his four-year career. "It's a really fun day for all of us at Lane's End," Bill Farish said after watching the homebred take in his new surroundings at the Lane's End stud barn. "Code of Honor coming home is...

Urban parks are well-loved destinations in America's most developed and highly-populated cities. Of course Central Park is the first that comes to mind, as well as perhaps Lincoln Park in Chicago or Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. These beautifully-designed pieces of landscape architecture serve as gathering places for the city's community and are often stopping points for those visiting a bustling metropolis. In a few years Lexington, Kentucky--with a population of less than 400,000--will get a state-of-the-art park of its own in the heart of downtown. Ground is set...

Grade I winner Lexitonian (Speightstown--Riviera Romper, by Tapit) will stand the 2022 breeding season at Lane's Farm and will command a fee of $10,000. Winner of the GIII Chick Lang S. as a sophomore in 2019 and beaten a nose I the 2020 GI Bing Crosby S., the Calumet Farm homebred defeated the likes of next-out GII Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix S. winner Special Reserve (Midshipman) and 2020 champion sprinter Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) in the prestigious GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. at Saratoga this July. "He's a horse who fights",...

Lane's End Farm helped raise nearly $50,000 for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF) with the auction of 20 hand-crafted surfboards, each individually designed to highlight the nursery's stallion roster. The surfboards were created in partnership with the Cornett advertising agency and the Torrance, California-based Chili Surfboards. Prior to being auctioned off to the highest bidders, the surfboards were on public display at Breeders' Cup partner hotels in the Del Mar area as well as the racetrack over Breeders' Cup weekend. John Velazquez, Mike Smith, Drayden Van Dyke and Victor...

By Emma Berry and Kelsey Riley NEWMARKET, UK--Watership Down Stud's signature family of Darara (Ire) brought yet more success for breeders Lord and Lady Lloyd Webber when their Sea The Stars (Ire) colt out of So Mi Dar (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) sold to Bill Farish for 1.2 million gns at Tattersalls. As the bidding progressed, Andrew Lloyd Webber appeared in the ring seconds before Anthony Stroud and the Godolphin team gave way to Charlie Gordon-Watson, who was bidding on behalf of the American owner of Lane's End Farm. "We don't...

by Brian DiDonato, Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY - If Monday's first session of the Keeneland September sale was solid, Tuesday's second day of selling and final Book 1 session was very strong. Three yearlings hit the seven-figure mark during the opener, and another eight brought that amount or more on Tuesday, led by the current sale-topping $1.6-million Quality Road colt. Consigned by Eaton Sales, agent for Stonestreet Bred & Raised, the well-related hip 300 was purchased by Woodford Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds. "It was a great...

When a horse carries a name like this, there can be no evasion or equivocation. With due honesty, then, let us admit that Honor Code is not yet converting his transparent eligibility as a stallion--apparently so watertight in pedigree, physique and performance--in quite the fashion that seemed likely when he produced the luminous Honor A.P. from his very first crop. Not yet. Small, agonizingly flexible words, in the context of a suffocatingly impatient marketplace. By any rational measure, it should still feel like early days in Honor Code's stud career....

While there are certainly some strong contenders vying for this year's Champion 3-Year-Old Colt title, it's still possible that the future recipient hasn't yet had his breakout win. Perhaps, he wasn't even seen in a Triple Crown race. In the past 20 years, two colts have managed to earn the crown for Eclipse Champion 3-Year-Old Male despite having skipped the Triple Crown trail. The first was Arrogate, who did not make his graded stakes debut until his famed 13 1/2-length, record-setting GI Travers. The second came the following year. [Elite_video_player...

By the time a stallion's fourth book opens, the team behind him is usually pulling out all their stops to fill those pages. But perhaps no marketing technique in their repertoire can have quite the same effect as just one big price tag when the stallion's first crop of juveniles go to market. At last week's OBS March Sale, three first-crop juvenile sires were represented by youngsters that surpassed the $500,000 mark in the sales ring, and representatives from each of their respective farms said the phone has been ringing...