Bill Farish

There are few people in racing more qualified to speak on the health of the sport than Lane's End's Bill Farish. In addition to running the historic farm, Farish is on the board of the Breeders' Cup, chairman of the Horse PAC and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Keeneland Association, the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Foundation. Wednesday, Farish joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland, calling in as the Green Group Guest of the Week to explain why...

Lane's End's Bill Farish joins this week's TDN Writers' Room and explains why he's bullish on the future of horse racing.

Lane's End Farm has announced that perennial leading sire and 2000 champion older horse Lemon Drop Kid (Kingmambo--Charming Lassie, by Seattle Slew) has been pensioned from stallion duties. The 25-year-old will remain at Lane's End Farm to enjoy the rest of his retirement. Lemon Drop Kid is responsible for siring 98 black-type winners and 46 graded winners worldwide to date, including Grade I winners Beach Patrol, Cannock Chase, Citronnade, Christmas Kid, Lemons Forever, Romantic Vision, Richard's Kid, Santa Teresita and Somali Lemonade. He is currently ranked 11th on the cumulative list...

The Lane's End Press Pass event has become increasingly popular over the past few years, and while hosting a large gathering in their stud barn was made impossible for the farm due to the current circumstances, Lane's End still worked to make the third annual Press Pass a reality. Through a Zoom meeting, media members joined the virtual get-together to chat with Bill Farish and the rest of the Lane's End team about the farm's stallion program. TVG racing analyst Scott Hazelton hosted the event and led participants through the...

Visit Horse Country, like many others, suffered a serious financial impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. Several members of the industry, such as Fasig-Tipton, Keeneland, the Breeders' Cup and The Jockey Club, stepped into help. However, Visit Horse Country has now partnered with the Bluegrass Community Foundation to launch a charitable fund supporting initiatives like services for TAA-accredited aftercare members of Horse Country which receive a complimentary membership; scholarship and field trip visits; community outreach such as Meet the Neighbors; and a new workforce development partnership with the Kentucky Chamber of...

He who dares, wins. For commercial breeders, however, that famous military maxim is becoming ever less practicable. Rather than hold their nerve, they rush nervously from one new stallion to the next, few daring to stick around long enough to take a yearling to market once a first crop has actually been exposed to the racetrack. These cycles often become self-fulfilling, in that few stallions can seize so limited an opportunity in time to maintain adequate momentum. But every now and then, one comes along that, no sooner than he...

Dancing Rags, the 2016 GI Alcibiades S. heroine, will be offered at this year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale on Nov. 8. and will represent the end of the line of an esteemed story in Thoroughbred racing and breeding as one of the last broodmares owned by the late Phyllis Wyeth. The daughter of Union Rags is in foal to top sire Curlin, and already has an Into Mischief yearling filly and a War Front weanling filly on the ground. "I think Dancing Rags should appeal to a lot of people," said...

One of the top second-crop sires Daredevil (More Than Ready--Chasethewildwind, by Forty Niner) will relocate to Lane's End Farm for the 2021 breeding season. The GI Champagne S. victor will stand for $25,000. Sire of 3-year-old sensations Swiss Skydiver and Shedaresthedevil, Daredevil is third on the North American-based, second-crop sire behind only American Pharoah and Constitution with just over half as many starters. Daredevil is the only first-crop sire to ever sire an individual winner of the GI Kentucky Oaks and the GI Preakness S. in the same year. Swiss...

Hronis Racing's Grade I-winning millionaire Gift Box (Twirling Candy--Special Me, by Unbridled's Song) has been retired from racing and will take up stud duties in 2021 at Lane's End Farm. On the board in the GII Remsen S. as a juvenile and second in the Curlin S. at Saratoga as a sophomore, Gift Box joined the John Sadler barn in the second half of his 5-year-old season and immediately bested GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile hero Battle of Midway (Smart Strike) in the GII San Antonio S. in December of...

Mike Cline, "the only farm manager Lane's End has ever known," according to a press release from the farm announcing the news, is retiring after a 40-year career at the storied nursery. "It would be hard to overstate Mike's importance to Lane's End and everything that has happened here since the farm's inception," said Will Farish, "I hired Mike back in 1979 and he has overseen everything from the broodmares, to stallions, to sales, to barn construction, to pasture maintenance." Many successful people in the industry came up under Cline's...

Honor A. P. (Honor Code--Hollywood Story, by Wild Rush) will be retired to Lane's End Farm upon the conclusion of his racing career, the farm announced Friday. The 3-year-old is from the first crop by his sire, who also stands at Lane's End, and is his highest earner. Honor A. P. has finished first or second in each of his four starts, winning the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby in his last outing June 6, and establishing himself as a favorite for the Sept. 5 GI Kentucky Derby. "He's a...

If someone new to our business asked you to pick a single race in 2015 that might explain the passion that consumes us, you probably wouldn't pick the processional exhibitions of a first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. You'd show them the GI Whitney S. In a summer when hardly anyone will be able to renew the Saratoga pilgrimage, you may find the jolt of nostalgia too poignant to revisit the video yourself. But gosh, that was a horserace. Liam's Map (Unbridled's Song), flying just that fraction too close...