Patch Adams

As we approach the opening of the 2026 breeding season, the TDN staff is once again sitting down with leading breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Here we catch up with Christie DeBernardis, CHC's Regional Manager of the Americas. CHC, which first made its presence felt in 2013 and was co-owner of Triple Crown winner Justify, has bred Grade I winners Kimari (Munnings), Valiance (Tapit), and Saudi Crown (Always Dreaming). Cara Marie (14, Unbridled's Song--Miss Kilroy, by A.P. Indy), booked to Patch...

The champion freshman and general sire Distorted Humor was euthanized Saturday morning at the age of 33 due to the infirmities of old age, WinStar Farm announced via press release. A 1993 son of champion Forty Niner out of Danzig's Beauty, by Danzig, Distorted Humor was an accomplished racehorse. Bred in Kentucky by Charles Nuckols Jr. and Sons and owned by R.L. Reineman and Prestonwood Farms and trained by Walden, Distorted Humor won the 1998 GII Commonwealth Breeders' Cup Stakes at Keeneland. He set a track record in the race,...

Throughout its history, WinStar Farm's stallion program has been anchored by raw speed, with champion Speightstown and fellow sprinting specialist Distorted Humor among some of the first sires to define the farm's identity. As WinStar wraps up its 25th anniversary this year, the blueprint is much the same. Patch Adams, Mullikin and Straight No Chaser are the latest Grade I-winning sprinters set to join the roster. Two of the recruits carry the direct influence of the aforementioned cornerstone sires and the third is out of a mare by Congrats, another...

As usual, we start our annual quest for value among Bluegrass sires by treating the rookies as a case apart. From here we'll work our way through fee tiers of those already at stud, starting with four-figure bargains and working our way up to the big guns. In this notoriously unpredictable environment, there's one certainty on which you can hang your hat. Almost all the horses we examine today are about to cover the biggest and best books of their careers--though charging a fee that few will ever command again....

Multiple Grade I winner Patch Adams is now available for inspection at WinStar Farm, the farm announced Tuesday. The son of perennial leading sire Into Mischief developed into one of the nation's premier sprinters this year in his sophomore season, scoring consecutive Grade I victories at Saratoga, winning both the Woody Stephens S. and the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. for trainer Brad Cox. "Patch Adams arrived at the stallion barn on Saturday and is settling in nicely," said Liam O'Rourke, director of bloodstock services for WinStar. "We had the...

5th-AQU, $85k, Msw, 2yo, 1m, 2:10p.m. ET After heavy winds cancelled the card he was originally going to debut on last week, OTTINHO (Quality Road) looks to make it second-try lucky for his unveiling here. Most notably out of Quiet Giant (Giant's Causeway), who is famous for her son, Hall of Famer Gun Runner (by Candy Ride {Arg}), the bay is a Three Chimneys homebred who goes postward for the barn of trainer Chad Brown. Drawn in the middle of the field, he enters this race with a healthy worktab...

Edited Press Release Constitution (Tapit--Baffled, by Distorted Humor) will once again lead the WinStar stallion roster when he stands the 2026 season for $110,000 S&N, while Life is Good (Into Mischief--Beach Walk, by Distorted Humor)'s fee for next year has been set at $60,000. WinStar's 2026 stallion roster, which was released Sunday evening, will also include recently retired multiple Grade I winner Patch Adams (Into Mischief--Well Humored, by Distorted Humor), who will stand his initial season at stud for $30,000 S&N; and Straight No Chaser (Speightster--Margarita Friday, by Johannesburg), last...

Due to an injury sustained in training, WinStar Farm and CHC Inc.'s dual Grade I winner Patch Adams (Into Mischief--Well Humored, by Distorted Humor) will not be competing in the Breeders' Cup as planned and has been retired to WinStar Farm for the 2026 breeding season. A stud fee will be announced later. "Patch Adams had a straightforward lateral condylar fracture in his right hind that went back together extremely well, and he can race or breed without any notice of the fracture in 2026," said Dr. Larry Bramlage of...

WinStar Farm's David Hanley has been named 2025 Ted Bates Farm Manager of the Year by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club (KTFMC). The award honors individuals 'who exemplify excellence in farm management and service to the community." Appointed to the role of farm manager at WinStar in 2013, Hanley has played a key role in the farm's acquisition of new fewer than 11 Grade I winners who have amassed a total of 23 elite-level victories, including Justify, Life Is Good, Improbable, Mullikin and Patch Adams. "I am honored and...

When Practical Joke and Life Is Good--both by Into Mischief and out of Distorted Humor mares--each racked up multiple Grade I victories and retired to major stallion farms in Central Kentucky, the cross they share surely earned a second look. After three 3-year-olds of 2025--Eclipse champion Citizen Bull, Patch Adams, and Tappan Street--added another five combined Grade I victories to that same cross in the last 11 months, anyone savvy enough to have a yearling on offer at Keeneland's September sale on the 'Midas Touch' nick looks positively inspired. Three...

In fairness, an authentic Triple Crown was never available to Sovereignty even if his connections had deigned to seek one. We must still wait and see, then, whether Into Mischief can someday crown his evolution into a Classic influence with the winner of a 12-furlong Belmont Stakes. As and when that happens, it will feel much as when Justify-representing another Storm Cat speed brand, Scat Daddy-set off fast and just kept going. That ability to carry speed is the dirt grail and perhaps we can give some credit for the...

'TDN Rising Star' Patch Adams (Into Mischief) made it two straight top-level victories sprinting at the Spa with a game performance in Saturday's GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. The rail-drawn, 5-2 favorite secured a fantastic pocket trip on the inside in third beneath Luis Saez behind the two-for-two 'Rising Star' Midland Money (Shancelot) and 'Rising Star' Captain Cook (Practical Joke) through an opening quarter in :22.38. Back a spot into fourth through a half mile in :44.52, Patch Adams shot through an opening along the fence as they straightened...