Up to the Mark

How has your year gone? With the holidays approaching in earnest, it's not uncommon for American families to send a letter to loved ones sharing highlights from their year. If a stallion were to do that, Not This Time's letter might go something like this: Dear Friends and Family, It's been another great year! One son set the North American record on grass for 5 1/2 furlongs and has been billed as "the fastest horse in the world." Another couldn't be beaten at marathons on the dirt. Yet another was...

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...

It has always been a small farm, and nowadays they're down to no more than half a dozen mares. Some of the more strenuous duties, moreover, have lately been contracted out. After all, Alfonso Mazzetti is not as young as he was. It's been a long and winding road since he used to ride a motorcycle, aged just 11, to the racetrack in Lima where he would shoot pool with the jockeys; never mind the many years in Colorado in between. Such a long and winding road, in fact, that...

It is the typically interesting opinion of John Sikura that "a stallion's genetic switch is either on or off." The quality and quantity of his books may affect his profile, but his potency (or otherwise) will be operative the day he covers his first mare. Sure enough, six Grade I winners to date for Not This Time all belong to his first two books, conceived at just $15,000. Whatever he might yet achieve with his upgraded mares, paying $135,000 last year and now $150,000, he did not need their help...

Arcangelo (Arrogate--Modeling, by Tapit) and Up to the Mark (Not This Time--Belle's Finale, by Ghostzapper), both Eclipse champions of 2023 now standing their first season at stud at Lane's End, have had their first mares scanned in foal. Diamondcoat (Gemologist) has been pronounced in foal to 2023 champion 3-year-old Arcangelo. The 9-year-old mare, owned by Allied Racing Stable, is a half-sister to multiple Grade I-placed Absinthe Minded (Quiet American), the dam of GI Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath (Arrogate). Campaigned by Jon Ebbert's Blue Rose Farm and trained by Jena...

It was an evening to remember for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's Godolphin team, as the worldwide operation accumulated no fewer than five statuettes over the course of the evening at Thursday's 53rd Annual Eclipse Awards Presented by FanDuel TV, John Deere, Keeneland and The Jockey Club, honoring and recognizing excellence in Thoroughbred racing. And they saved the best for last, as Cody's Wish (Curlin), whose story resonated with nearly every fan of Thoroughbred racing and beyond, was named Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male for...

Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables' Up to the Mark (Not This Time) and Cheveley Park Stud's Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) were named turf champions during Thursday's Eclipse Award ceremony in Florida. Up the Mark won three straight Grade I events, starting off with the GI Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic in May, adding the GI Manhattan S. in June and the GI Coolmore Turf Mile in October. On championship weekend, he found just European invader Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) too good while trying 1 1/2 miles for...

The winners in 10 equine and seven human categories will be revealed beginning around 7:30 Thursday evening at the 53rd Annual Eclipse Awards at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. A who's who of the American Thoroughbred industry will be dressed to the nines as the newest group of champions is announced. Of the equine divisions--as is frequently the case--the majority feature little suspense, while there exists a fair bit of intrigue and arguments to be made for multiple horses in the older dirt male division, the female sprint division,...

by George Adams, Housatonic Bloodstock Wasabi has been focused on upgrading the quality of the foals that it's breeding over the last few years, and to that end will be using some higher-end stallions in 2024 than what we've bred to in the past. A stallion that we'll be patronizing heavily this year is Maclean's Music.  He's about to jump from a crop of 2023 2-year-olds numbering 41 and conceived off of a $20,000 stud fee (out of which he already has nine winners, three of whom have also picked...

And so another cycle opens, bringing all the usual dilemmas. To assist their resolution--albeit the exercise seldom fails to entail a degree of provocation, sometimes even offense--today we commence our annual quest for value among Kentucky stallions. This time round, value feels likely to prove quite elusive. With the middle market increasingly porous, stud fees overall are at a challenging level. If they were driven up by a long bull run in international bloodstock, that appears to be tapering away and there's evidently going to be quite a lag before...

After hearing from Chris McGrath in his 2024 Value Sires Part I, we thought we'd ask several breeders who they thought offered particularly good value this year. Here's what they said: Jody Huckabay The horses I have chosen are expensive, but I think they are good value. GOLD: Elite Power (Curlin--Broadway's Alibi, by Vindication), Juddmonte Farms, $50,000. The first horse I like for his body of work, race record, and pedigree is Elite Power. To me, he's on top of the list, with everything being considered. I look at it...

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...