Horse of the Year

According to a story by David Grening in the Daily Racing Form, according to trainer Bill Mott, the main goal in 2026 for the newly minted Horse of the Year Sovereignty (Into Mischief) will be the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Mott said that while he has not yet mapped out a schedule for Sovereignty, he has already ruled out a start in the March 28 GI Dubai World Cup. That news came as somewhat of a surprise considering that Sovereignty's owner, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is Vice President...

Godolphin homebred 3-year-old Sovereignty (Into Mischief) has been named the 2025 Horse of the Year. In the final award of the evening, the Champion 3-Year-Old Colt added the ultimate prize to a 2025 campaign which saw him win five of six starts including three Grade I's. Beginning the year with a win in the GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream, he was defeated just once when second in the GI Curlin Florida Derby. He would go undefeated from there, piling up wins in the GI Kentucky Derby, the...

A private tour to visit Hall of Fame member Zenyatta at Lane's End Farm, along with halters worn by Breeders' Cup champions American Pharoah, Cody's Wish, Flightline, and Stormy Liberal, are among several items listed in the Breeders' Cup Charities (BCC) online auction now open for bidding, the group announced via press release. Set to run Monday, Jan. 12 through Sunday, Jan. 18, bidding will close at 11:59p.m. ET on that final day with proceeds going to support BCC. Revitalized in 2025, the program is dedicated to generating meaningful, lasting...

Track stars such as Ted Noffey (Into Mischief), Sovereignty (Into Mischief) and Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) are among the finalists for the 2025 Resolute Racing Eclipse Awards, recognizing excellence through the past year in Thoroughbred racing, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) said via a Sunday press release. Winners in 17 horse and human categories will be announced on FanDuel TV, and other outlets, during the 55th Annual Resolute Racing Eclipse Awards, presented by John Deere, The Jockey Club and the NTRA, on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 7:30...

Champion jockey Alberto Delgado, whose Eclipse Award came in 1982 when he was crowned the Champion Apprentice Jockey, has retired from racing. "It's been coming for a long time," Delgado said. "Over the years, I retired, but never because I wanted to. [It was] because of injuries, concussions. At some point, I was heavy, so I had to retire and get everything straight. Last year, I kept telling myself this would be my last year, and I had to build myself up for it. I still love it, but at...

Horse of the Year candidate and MGISW Sovereignty (Into Mischief) will return to racing in 2026. The news was confirmed by Godolphin's Michael Banahan in an interview Saturday with FanDuel TV. Questioned about the stable's star runner, Banahan told FanDuel's Caton Bredar that Sovereignty was "doing great". "He's up in Kentucky at the moment," Banahan said. "He's at Keeneland. He's galloping--doing fine. We'll probably get him down here to Payson [Park] early in the new year and get him [trainer] Bill [Mott]. Hopefully we'll have as a good a year...

Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), the 2024 Horse of the Year, will be bred during the upcoming season to sire Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}), it was announced by the superstar filly's majority owner, John Sikura, the owner of Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa. Sikura and the others in the Thorpedo Anna ownership have already chosen who she will be bred to in 2027, and that is Curlin (Smart Strike). Curlin stands at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, while Gun Runner stands at Three Chimneys Farm. "We usually take this one...

Yes, it's purely hypothetical, but imagine a GI Breeders' Cup Classic without the rabbit, Contrary Thinking (Into Mischief). That's a race Fierceness (City of Light) probably would have won. Yes, he got free in the stretch and had every chance to run down Forever Young (Jpn) (Reel Steel {Jpn}) and Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) but he couldn't get the job done, finishing third, losing by 1 1/2 lengths. But too much had gone wrong for him at that point, and he could not recover. Unlike what happened in the GI...

by Jill Williams & J.N. Campbell A spectacular Fall Stars Weekend both continues and concludes Sunday at Keeneland, highlighted by the GI Juddmonte Spinster Stakes, a 'Win and You're In' event for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff Nov. 1. While entries may seem sparse for such an historic race with a $650,000 purse, they pack a punch with the reigning Horse of the Year, Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), making her first start in front of the home crowd since her open daylight debut over this surface at this meet two...

10th-CD, 120k, Msw, 2yo, 1m, 5:25 p.m. ET Whisper Hill Farm homebred Graced (Into Mischief), the final foal out of the late 2011 Horse of the Year and Eclipse Award-winning older mare Havre de Grace (Saint Liam), makes his debut for trainer J. Kent Sweezey going a one-turn mile at Churchill Downs. Havre de Grace hemorrhaged multiple times and passed away after producing the bay colt. Mandy Pope's operation went to $10 million at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton November Sale to acquire Havre de Grace, who has also produced GSW Graceful...

Ken Freirich, who was part of the ownership group behind Horse of the Year Flightline, has made a $500,000 gift to Breeders' Cup Charities in an effort to positively impact the Thoroughbred industry's culture of giving by illustrating the importance of long-term commitments, the Breeders' Cup said via a press release on Friday. Funds from Freirich will be released over a 3 1/2-year period. This major gift is in addition to the $100,000 match the international philanthropist provided to Breeders' Cup Charities in July during the organization's Annual Day of...

It was a dramatic finish, but reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) gamely gave it her all and nosed out her competition to win the GI Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga. No stranger to being the media's darling as well as the fan's favorite, the 'TDN Rising Star' was most recently the headliner when Hill 'n' Dale announced that they'd acquired a half-interest in a deal which included former NFL player Marshawn Lynch. In the lead up to the race, trainer Kenny McPeek was particularly bullish on...