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The Thoroughbred industry lost one of its great horsewomen last month when Diane Perkins, a top breeder and trainer among her many accolades, died overseas Aug. 6 at 89.

Johannes, the defending City of Hope Mile Stakes (G2T) winner and second in last year's Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T), returns as the even-money morning-line favorite in this year's edition at Santa Anita Park.

The Ciaron Maher team is set for another high-profile weekend across Sydney and Melbourne, headlined by Godolphin rising 3-year-old Tempted, who bids to become the first filly to capture Golden Rose Stakes (G1) glory since Forensics in 2008.

Lead Artist is a Juddmonte Farms homebred by multiple leading sire Dubawi out of the family of the farm's legendary blue-hen mare Hasili.

To honor John Harris' legacy, Santa Anita Park will host the John C. Harris Stakes Sept. 27. For 3-year-old fillies at about 6 1/2 furlongs on Santa Anita's unique hillside turf course, the race was previously named the Unzip Me Stakes.

Fasig-Tipton has cataloged 1,601 entries for its Kentucky October Yearlings Sale, to be held Oct. 20-23 in Lexington. The four continuous sessions, conducted Monday-Thursday, will begin each day at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation announced Sept. 25 a strategic partnership with EnviroEquine & Pet that involves an innovative online cookie drive aimed at raising funds for vital equine research.

Full Serrano is making only his second start of 2025 in the Goodwood at Santa Anita Park, with an eye toward another appearance in the Breeders' Cup.

Letters to the Editor for the Sept. 25 edition of BH Daily sees a call for changes in how the Eclipse Award for horseplayer of the year is determined.

Patriot Spirit, bred in Kentucky by Blue Heaven Farm, may not be as well known as some of his eight Vosburgh Stakes (G3) opponents, but he enters with all cylinders clicking in search of his first graded stakes win.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's proposed 2026 budget has been out for its mandatory public comment period and is now before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The topline comes out to just over $78.4 million. If credits to the industry are fully applied, then the cost to the industry is around $60.4 million.

HISA has already responded to nine public comments posted to the federal register. Its response, however, doesn't include those subsequently submitted by Churchill Downs Incorporated's (CDI) CEO, Bill Carstanjen.

CDI is hardly an impartial voice in this matter. The company is suing HISA because the 2025 budget was approved under the old formula for calculating assessments, based in part on purses. The current formula (based on both starts and purses) is set to change for next year (to one solely based on starts).

Nevertheless, Carstanjen's comments mirror in effect many of the questions and concerns industry stakeholders frequently raise about the cost of operating HISA.

For its part, HISA has broached budgetary matters from the public before, including a 90-minute Town Hall earlier this year. The organization has also posted a two-page factsheet on the budget.

To talk CDI's comments and next year's proposed budget in general, the TDN sat down Wednesday with Lazarus. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

 

TDN: Before we get to the budget specifically, let's quickly talk the sport's economic health. I've written a lot over the years about the economic dangers of concentration at the top end of the market hitting a winnowed out middle and bottom end. What's your response to fears of a shaky middle and bottom end of the sport?

LL: I would say some of that is a false narrative related to the fact that people have a general opposition to HISA because they don't want to be regulated. For example, Emerald Downs just had its best year in a really long time. Turf Paradise was just [leased] to an investor that plans to put some real money into Turf Paradise. Tampa [Bay Downs] has had a good year.

I would love for somebody to share with me which racetracks are struggling. I'll tell you who is struggling. Hawthorne's struggling because they half-built the casino and then stopped. There are [also] some existing conditions that well predate HISA.

For our product to be better and to be more professional, there does need to be some retraction. For example, it's hard to understand why certain racetracks are running at the same time in certain states.

Our job, which is welfare, we [need] to be able to deliver the right amount of racing for the horse population. We don't want to overtax the horses that we have and run them too often because we know that too many high-speed furlongs are one of the things that has the potential to cause injuries and ultimately death. So, do we have enough horses to run the races that we have?

I'm out there because I care about Finger Lakes and Tampa and Emerald Downs-racetracks that do a really good job on safety and care, but don't have access necessarily to gaming revenue or the same sorts of [horse] populations the strongest racetracks have. So, I agree that that's an area we need to focus on.

 

TDN: Let's get to the budget. Carstanjen points to this overall dynamic: While the number of covered races HISA oversees has dropped by around 25% between 2023 and 2025, the HISA budget hasn't fallen commensurately with it. As such, the per-start fee has risen sharply. Is the current per-start fee the right number?

LL: First, I'll say his numbers are wrong. He's basing his calculations on numbers that are not accurate. In 2023, we only had the [Anti-Doping and Medication Control] program for half a year. So, it's not a good barometer. In addition to that, he's not taking credits into account.

But putting all that aside, I do think that a per-start fee is a good barometer. And one of the challenges that we face there is, we're not at scale. Because of the Supreme Court case and litigation, we have some very big racing jurisdictions are not under HISA's authority, two of whom have tremendous number of starts, West Virginia, Louisiana, for example.

As we get to a resolution from the Supreme Court on HISA, we're either going to be all in or out.

If we're all out, then this conversation's irrelevant. If we're all in, that means that West Virginia, Louisiana, Texas, they'll all be part of the overall cost structure. And if you look at the numbers, because I've looked at them very carefully, the amount that they assume of fixed costs is much more than it takes for us to service them. So, bringing them into the system will make a huge difference.

The other thing about the 2023 numbers is that we included West Virginia and Louisiana in those numbers. We thought they'd be in. They ultimately ended up not being in. So, those numbers [used by CDI to calculate number of covered races] are just not accurate based on where we ended up at the end of the year.

Either way, there's very little correlation between the number of starts and HISA's costs. I think there's this sort of misunderstanding or misconception that the majority of HISA's job is to run an anti-doping program. We have so many more responsibilities than that.

We have technology responsibilities to build a portal, to collect information, to create risk assessment models. We've created five apps. We have integrated with about 12 different companies to make life easier for veterinarians when they put their billing records in. We do racetrack accreditations-we took over from the [National Thoroughbred Racing Association].

We spend a lot of time on jockey welfare, physical and mental. We have a national medical director who, when Brian Hernandez got hurt last week, was on the phone coordinating his care, making sure that his medical records were transferring. None of that happened before HISA. We have a national database now for jockeys that didn't exist before. We've public affairs initiatives.

[Note: The TDN followed up post-interview on the actual number of covered starts. According to HISA, there were 214,935 covered starts in 2024, and 220,635 covered starts in 2023. HISA's originally projected covered starts for 2025 is 173,988]

 

Bill Carstanjen | Coady Photo

TDN: Carstanjen claims HISA's administrative overheads have “created duplication and inefficiencies that are unnecessarily and unsustainably driving up the costs borne by the racetracks covered by HISA.” What's your response?

LL: It's the complete opposite.

It used to be that every state operated in its own silo, okay? [We] essentially built the system from scratch. Now, we're able to achieve these economies of scale by working directly with racetracks and commissions so that we're not duplicating jobs.

One of the best examples is, we took what was something like 15 labs countrywide down to four. We did a great service to the industry by getting rid of the labs that were unprofessional, incompetent, and frankly lacked integrity.

Now that we have fewer labs, we get much better pricing per sample. Like anything else, if you're going to give more volume to one lab, they're willing to be more accommodating on price. Same thing with shipping. Now, we have uniform equipment, we handle the shipping from one central place, and we take advantage of those efficiencies.

I think where Mr. Carstanjen gets that impression is how when HISA launched, a lot of changes happened in Kentucky statewide, particularly with their commission. Mark Guilfoyle came to work for us-he had been the head of the [former] Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

And on top of that, the current administration [the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation] got sports betting and tripled and whatever [in revenues]. So, Churchill Downs hasn't seen those efficiencies as much in Kentucky as they've seen them elsewhere because of the growth of HHR and all the additional regulation that they've needed to put in place on the commission side.

 

TDN: While the budget has become more detailed with each passing year, I hear often from stakeholders they'd like HISA to much more thoroughly detail key aspects of the budget, including a detailed breakdown of salaries. Isn't this something HISA should be doing?

LL: Absolutely we should be giving as detailed a budget as possible. Anybody who writes to me or writes to our CFO and ask questions that are not answered by looking at our online documents, we answer those questions.

We're detailing as much as we can in terms of the salaries. There's only 26, 27 I think employees. [Some of] our salaries are already in our 990s, which are public. I think it's the top 10 or 12 [who are].

I've had to get used to this because I was never in public service before. I was always in the private sector. As a personal view, it doesn't feel great for people to know what you're earning. But as somebody who leads the organization with my senior staff, that is an understandable quid pro quo.

Laboratory technician | ARCI

We do what every other nonprofit does in terms of sharing the top salaries. Should [we] have to share the salary from a more junior employee? I'm not adverse to that. But that's also a little bit unfair to somebody who's just starting their career.

In terms of being accountable for how we spend salaries and at least sharing with the industry what we spend on salaries in the IT department versus the comm's department, that I am very happy to share.

And by the way, we're required to provide the FTC every year with a market index on our salaries versus market. They heavily scrutinize salaries. We do have significant oversight there. And we also have a board that approves our finances.

 

TDN: What about the vendors? A more detailed breakdown of requests for proposals, who responded, costs?

LL: I'm happy to be transparent and share information with anybody who wants it.

The challenge with saying, 'we're going to share because we have a lot of vendors and we have a lot of responsibilities to share every single proposal and every single process,' we're just going to end up increasing our costs because we're going to need more people.

It's a constant balance between what resources we want to spend money on and what sort of transparency we think is important. But certainly, if the feeling is that there's more information the public wants to see, we'll look at that.

 

TDN: The lab testing and sample collection expenses in the proposed 2026 budget are only slightly reduced from the 2025 budget. What explains this, given the decrease in races needing to be processed and the efficiencies you identified earlier?

LL: Because we were already realizing those efficiencies. They're not necessarily new efficiencies. [Some], they've [only] been in place since this year. We've only had four labs this year.

The money we spend with the laboratory isn't just on sample analysis. It's also on research, on making sure that, with certain substances that recur in our samples, we are in the right place from a science standpoint in terms of screening limits and all that.

For example, the Metformin study that we did recently should be completed any day now. That was funded through our lab testing budget line. That's a number that we use as like a credit line. If we can gain more efficiencies as time goes on, we won't spend up to that. We haven't spent up to the budget number for lab testing to date.

 

TDN: Another point CDI raises is the lower sample-per-race testing ratio in Kentucky now than pre-HISA (a ratio that's also lower at other states). Should the sample-per-start ratio be more uniformly higher across the country?

LL: It's a complicated question because the testing plan is based on intelligence, experience, and a number of different factors that are not just simply about volume. So, it's hard to say that we need to be at a certain test-per-race.

We're still figuring out what's the lowest number of tests that [costs] the least amount of money to feel comfortable that we're maintaining that level of playing field. But that's the goal.

 

Lisa Lazarus | The Jockey Club photo

TDN: Do you have a timeframe with which to get to that sweet spot?

LL: I can't say that we'll be there by a certain time, but it's something I'm seeing real gains with. We have debates all the time: Should we always test the winner? Should we be doing more out-of-competition and less post-race testing? Should we be doing less TCO2 [testing]?

These are things we talk about all the time in order to figure out where that sweet spot is, where we're spending the least amount of money but able to achieve what we need to deliver.

 

TDN: Factoring in the overall smaller proposed budget for 2026 (compared to 2025), as well as the proposed credits available to the states, it appears the net amount to be charged to the racetracks has increased over 2025 by $1.7 million. What exactly is done to ensure assessments are kept to a minimum?

[Note: While Lazarus responded to this question verbally, HISA also supplied written answers to the same questions once the interview was over. For the purposes of brevity, the TDN has used HISA's written response, the same substantively to Lazarus's comments]

HISA: The net amount has not increased. The 2026 Budget, after expected credits are netted out, is $60.6M. The 2025 Budget, after netting out credits actually given (versus expected/estimated credits from a year ago), is $61.4M. Therefore, the amount to be charged to tracks in 2026 has decreased by roughly $800K.

 

TDN: How and how often are assessments reimbursed?

LL: We bill monthly. The assessments are split 50 50 [between the horsemen and the track]. In some states, the commission pays for the entire invoice, like in Virginia, for example.

At the end of the year, we look at everything paid and compare it to what the actual numbers show, and we either give them a credit or tell them there's a shortfall.

 

TDN: Are all tracks and jurisdictions up to speed on their payments?

LL: The only racetracks in the country that have not paid HISA in 2025 are those racetracks owned and operated by Churchill Downs. In Virginia [where CDI-owned Colonial Downs is situated] the commission pays the assessment.

 

TDN: How is that impacting you?

LL: We haven't [had] to ask anyone for a loan or default on any of our obligations. And if you figure that Churchill Downs owes probably $8, $9 million, I think we're doing pretty well under the circumstances.

By next year, I hope we'll start to at least bring in or realize some outside revenue to start the process of basically decreasing the burden on the industry.

 

TDN: Right. In the Town Hall you mentioned how you're looking at raising revenues from HISA in other ways. Have you made any meaningful movement on this?

LL: I don't want to say too much yet, but the one area where we're pretty advanced is we have a tremendous amount of data.

We have enabled to package our data anonymized, so it's not exposing or connecting any particular benchmark or metric with us to the course, but in ways that are very attractive to insurers, to other jurisdictions, to companies that are producing either wearables or other interesting technologies for horse racing or even other horse sports.

We've also had some international jurisdictions reach out about licensing some of our technology because, believe it or not, [we're] seen internationally as being a first mover on having the portal that we have and some of the data analysis that's tied to it.

We're collecting about 5,000 records a day. We're well into 6 million records in our database. If we can work also alongside some other industry stakeholders, I think we can even magnify that opportunity.

 

TDN: You've said by 2035 you hope HISA to be financially self-sustaining. When can stakeholders expect to see some meaningful chunks taken out of these costs?

LL: What I'll continue to say is that by 2030, I think that stakeholders can expect that half of the assessments will be paid for by non-assessment revenues.

 

TDN: In April of this year, HISA has $2.8 million in outstanding loans and another $1.25 million outstanding in the form of a line of credit. What's the current status on that?

LL: I think it's the same.

 

TDN: From your discussions with the horsemen and the stakeholders, what other budgetary questions have you gotten?

LL: The cost rate for HISA is not an entirely new cost. They are essentially a 20% increase of costs that existed prior, which I think was the gap between where we were from an integrity and safety standpoint and where we are now, or at least where we're going.

Sometimes people will say to me, 'how is this too expensive?' And I'll say, 'okay, how is it impacting you? What do you find expensive?' And they can't tell me. There's nothing that's affecting their day-to-day life. They see numbers, and they're just saying it's expensive.

Part of it also, while commission budgets were available, nobody took all those budgets and put them into one number. So, the number feels big to people, especially if they don't understand how the credit system works.

The one thing I'm not interested in doing is running an organization that's just keeping the lights on and isn't advancing the sport.

I don't think there's much space to cut costs and still be able to deliver what we're required to deliver. I think the industry deserves a lot more and I'm really confident that in time, horsemen and racetracks will come to realize it's worth it ultimately.

The post HISA Budget Q&A With Lisa Lazarus: “Bringing Them Into The System Will Make A Huge Difference” appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

The Jockeys' Guild of America issued a press release on Thursday afternoon responding to the suspension of Paco Lopez by HISA, which is reproduced here in its entirety.

The notice issued by Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (“HISA”) against Paco Lopez on Sept. 22, 2025 for “immediate suspension for 6 months” is absolutely uncalled for and beyond ludicrous. This is just the latest in an extensive list of jockeys who have been assessed the outlandish fines and penalties for the use of the riding crop, the organization said in a press release on Thursday afternoon.

The Jockeys' Guild is in no way condoning the actions of Paco on December 3, 2024 at Parx aboard National Law. His actions out of frustration and fear were indeed wrong. However, after Paco worked with his counsel, the Guild, and HISA, Paco entered into an agreed order of a conditional reinstatement with HISA. At the time of his reinstatement in January of this year, HISA acknowledged that Paco served a suspension, participated in anger management, made donations to both Second Call Thoroughbred Adoption and Placement and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, and demonstrated remorse in his actions. While the terms of the original agreement are confidential, the Guild stands firm that this suspension based on the infractions of the use of the riding crop since his reinstatement in which Paco has raised his wrist above his helmet, have absolutely zero correlation to type of conduct of Paco demonstrated on National Law at Parx.

Since the inception of HISA, the Guild has and continues to adamantly dispute HISA Rules 2280. “Use of the Riding Crop” and 2282. “Riding Crop Violations and Penalties” as the rules are unreasonable and the penalties are draconian and far exceed the violations. It should be recognized that raising “the crop with the Jockey's wrist above the Jockey's helmet when using the crop” does not fall under the penalties in Rule 2282 (b) and Stewards have the authority to penalize the jockeys under Rule 8200 (b). The Guild has continued to argue that the “punishment must fit the crime”. In addition to the arguing the absurdity of the penalties in Rule 2282 (b) regarding the number count, the Guild has also argued that penalties for all other riding crop infractions under Rule 2280 should be at the discretion of the Stewards.

The Guild and all of its members have always maintained that the safety and well-being of BOTH our equine and human athletes are paramount. We, as an industry, have an obligation to protect and maintain the standards, as well as the integrity of our sport.

However, to invite members of the People of the Ethical Treatment of Animals (“PETA”) and others to dictate or spearhead investigations such as this, is a very slippery downward slope. PETA has proudly claimed responsibility, following a complaint filed by them with HISA, that Paco was immediately suspended. This is absolutely unacceptable.

The original purpose of HISA was to create consistency and uniformity of the rules and regulations of horse racing and the Guild had always been a proponent of such. In an effort to work for the best interest of horseracing, the Guild has attempted to have a strong working relationship with HISA and its staff. There have been great strides made for the jockeys in raising awareness for mental health, as well as medical standards for the racetracks.

With that said, the Guild has always held the belief that HISA should be working with the industry in order to improve the product and catch those who are harming the integrity of the sport that so many have dedicated their lives to preserving. As such, the interested parties need to be afforded the opportunity to collaborate on creating rules and penalties that are in the best interest for our industry. This means those who are creating the rules need to actually not only listen, but take credence, in the insight that is provided by those who are actually participating.

In closing, Jockeys' Guild and jockeys throughout the country are standing with Paco with regards to the absurdity and unjustifiable suspension of six months for his riding crop violations. On behalf of our members, we will continue to fight the unfair and unreason we will continue to fight the unfair and unreasonable rules and to do what is in the best interest of racing, while protecting the human and equine athletes.

On Thursday afternoon, HISA informed Lopez and his attorney Drew Mollica that they will not grant Paco Lopez a stay of his six-month suspension. Click here for the story.

The post Jockeys’ Guild Addresses Paco Lopez Suspension By HISA appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Paco Lopez and his attorney Drew Mollica have been informed by the Horse Racing Safety and Integrity Authority that they will not grant Paco Lopez a stay of his six-month suspension for what HISA called a violation of the terms of his agreement stemming from a Dec. 4 incident involving the whip.

“We are in the process of evaluating all legal remedies including but not limited to an emergency application to a court of competent jurisdiction to seek not only injunctive relief, but sanctions for this unilateral unprecedented decision to breach the terms of our valid agreement,” said Mollica.

Lopez was issued a six-month suspension on September 23 by HISA, who said that “the suspension stems from Mr. Lopez's violation of the terms of his conditional reinstatement, related to a December 4, 2024 incident.” In that incident, Lopez struck his mount, National Law, on the head with his whip after the race had concluded. He was issued an indefinite suspension for that, which was later reduced to 50 days after agreeing to therapy and other conditions. The terms of the agreement are confidential.

Mollica had sought a stay of the six-month suspension while he appealed the decision.

When the suspension was announced, a HISA spokesperson explained, “Since Mr. Lopez returned from his suspension in January, 2025, he has been found by stewards to have committed 10 violations of HISA's riding crop rule, including eight violations in which the crop was raised with his wrist above his helmet when using the crop. The cumulative nature of the violations demonstrates a pattern of disregard for HISA's rules and presents risk of injury to Covered Horses.”

Mollica contended that none of those violations related to the National Law incident.

The post HISA Denies Paco Lopez Stay appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

The horse racing industry will gain access to advanced machine vision technology through a new partnership between Equius AI and global surveillance provider IREX AI, the former said via a Thursday press release.

The collaboration will deliver video intelligence platforms designed for racetracks, training facilities, and equine operations, utilizing IREX's existing security infrastructure currently deployed across 30+ countries at airports, government facilities, transportation networks, and major sporting venues.

The technology suite includes real-time security analytics, fire and smoke detection, crowd monitoring, and biometric access control. Racing-specific applications will encompass individual horse identification, barn entry logging, quarantine compliance monitoring, medication administration oversight, and race-day surveillance.

The release also said that Equius AI, founded by Sobhy Sonbol of Nile Bloodstock, and IREX plan to collaborate with horsemen, veterinarians, and industry professionals to ensure the technology addresses practical needs across the sport.

The post Equius AI And IREX Partner To Bring Machine Vision Technology To Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

A HISA pilot program released results from a study of advanced cardiac monitoring of Thoroughbreds that shows atrial fibrillation (AF)–traditionally considered a benign, performance-limiting condition–can worsen during exercise, cause a more severe arrhythmia that leads to sudden death, according to a press release from HISA on Thursday. The group said that electrocardiogram data from affected horses that displayed AF both at rest and under exertion, underscores the need for early detection and highlighs the potential of integrating routine cardiac screening into pre-training and pre-race evaluations.

During the first six months of 2025, HISA's Exercise-Associated Sudden Death (EASD) Working Group–launched in October 2023–said that EASD accounted for approximately 8% of racing fatalities and 18% of training fatalities at racetracks subject to HISA rules (and training centers owned by them). Retrospective analysis of cases since HISA's inception shows that more than 50% of cases were likely related to cardiac issues, often classified as “Sudden Cardiac Death.” The majority of these EASD events occurred early in a horse's career, with the highest incidence occurring in horses with zero to five starts.

HISA launched its working group in recognition of the critical importance of addressing and better understanding these risks and preventing EASD. The pilot, led by Dr. Cristobal Navas de Solis, Associate Professor of Cardiology, Ultrasound and Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and Dr. Sian Durward-Akhurst, Assistant Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Large Animal Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, is ongoing. The findings were presented at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum in Kentucky in summer 2025, among other meetings of specialists in the field.

Dr. Navas de Solis and Dr. Durward-Akhurst partnered with leading experts to investigate underlying causes and develop prevention strategies. Program collaborators include Dr. Mary Durando (Equine Sports Medicine Consultants, U.S.), Dr. Grace Forbes (Racing Victoria, Australia), Dr. Laura Nath (University of Adelaide, Australia) and wearable technology specialists at Arioneo Equimetre (France).

“Integrating cardiac screening into routine evaluations–whether through wearable devices or veterinary exams–could allow trainers and veterinarians to identify at-risk horses before exercise,” said Dr. Karen Hassan, HISA's Compliance and Research Veterinarian and chair of HISA's EASD Working Group. “This opens the door to scalable monitoring protocols and standardized response strategies that could save equine lives.”

The next phase of the program will focus on scalability and the development of real-time cardiac monitoring protocols and risk-based screening criteria. Specifically, AF could be detected either via wearable devices, handheld ECG devices or auscultation by a veterinarian before exercise, allowing trainers to withhold exercise and work with their veterinary team to evaluate affected horses further.

Establishing optimal workflows and tools to be used for rhythm analysis with an emphasis on AF, defining the risk of arrhythmia other than AF and proposing and evaluating a standardized response protocol for cardiac adverse events during exercise will be key components of the next phase of work.

To further educate stakeholders on EASD, a series of educational webinars will be held for horsemen and veterinarians in the coming weeks.

HISA has issued an accompanying Equine Health Advisory on EASD, associated risk factors and what trainers and veterinarians can do to help prevent EASD, which can be found here.

The post HISA Study Finds AFib Can Contribute To Sudden Death; Early Detection Key appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Coming into the GI Pennsylvania Derby, Puca (Big Brown) may already have been the most valuable broodmare on the planet. But in the 1:48.03 it took to contest that race, she became worth even more. Baeza (McKinzie) won and is now the third son in a row out of Puca to capture a Grade I race.

Puca's owner is John Stewart's Resolute Racing, who announced in August that Puca will be sold at this November's Fasig-Tipton “Night of the Stars” sale. As much as he'd like to keep Puca, he said she will not be pulled from the sale.

“I go into the whole thing with a lot of reservation, just because she's the type of mare that literally loves on you when you go up to her,” Stewart said. “I am very attached to her. But at the same time as a business person, with what just happened with Baeza, there's probably not a better investment that I've made in the industry so far. I love her. I love all the horses on my farm. At the same time, when you make a good investment you have to capitalize on it. Still, It's going to be hard to sell her.”

Stewart bought Puca in 2023 at the Keeneland November Sale for $2.9 million. She had originally RNA'd, but Stewart picked her up post sale.

She had already made her mark as a broodmare as her second foal, Mage (Good Magic) won the 2023 GI Kentucky Derby. Stewart could not have known how much more there was to come.

Her third foal was Dornoch (Good Magic), who won the 2024 GI Belmont Stakes and the 2024 GI Haskell Stakes, increasing Puca's value. Dornoch and Mage have both retired to stud. That left Baeza to be the flag bearer. He had lost four straight, three times to Sovereignty (Into Mischief) and once to Journalism (Curlin). But he never missed by much and made the sport's two best 3-year-olds fight to get the victory. Baeza's win in the Pennsylvania Derby gave Puca three straight Grade I winners, two of them Classic winners.

Puca at Resolute | Sarah Andrew

Stewart said he used AI to look up other dams who have had three straight Grade I winners and said he could only find four worldwide.

“She is such a classy horse. She's fantastic,” Stewart said. “The money we make from this will be reinvested in the future of the farm. You look at what Curlin did for Hill 'n' Dale and what Sadler's Wells did for Coolmore. I'm just fortunate enough that I hit the lottery. That was the first year I bought any horses when I bought her and she RNA'd. There are a lot of people in the industry that should have known a lot better than me. They didn't pick her up when they could have bought her.”

What is Puca worth now? A lot more than $2.9 million. Stewart said he plans to put a $5 million reserve on her. She will not be in foal at the time of the sale. She was bred this year to Into Mischief, but the superstar match did not produce a live foal.

“She's empty right now, so if I were to keep her and breed her I wouldn't see any incremental income for two years,” Stewart said. “A lot can happen as we just saw with Wootton Bassett. She's 13 and if I kept her and bred her one more time then I'd be selling her as a 16-year-old after she had the baby. You have to look at those things. At the end of the day we are definitely sellers.”

Though Puca may soon belong to someone other than Stewart, he owns her next two foals after Baeza. She has a yearling colt and a weanling filly, both by Good Magic which makes them full-siblings to Mage and Dornoch.

“I own both of them, but we haven't named them yet,” he said. “The colt is the one we did the MyRacehorse collaboration with. I own 75% of the horse and the MyRacehorse people own 25%. So I own and control him. The filly, we won't take partners on her and she will not be sold. She's at the farm and we own 100% of here. That's one of the reasons that we look to sell Puca because we have this filly. She's a healthy mare and definitely done some special things.”

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Ken Wilkins has been named Director of Stallion Operations for Gary Broad's Walmac Farm, the farm announced Wednesday.

Wilkins previously served as stallion director at Spendthrift Farm and has held similar positions with Adena Springs and Vinery. He is also a past president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club.

“We're thrilled to welcome Ken, who has vast knowledge and experience in the stallion market,” said Broad. “We're confident he'll help build on the strong foundation we have here as we look to a bright future and expanding our stallion roster.”

Upon his appointment, Wilkins expressed enthusiasm about joining the historic operation.

“I am excited and honored to step into this role at Walmac and eager to add another successful chapter to its storied past,” said Wilkins. “We will immediately seek to expand the roster with exciting young stallion prospects. I am also eager to see the progeny of the current stallions develop as we have weanlings, yearlings, and 2-year-olds–anything could happen!”

Walmac currently stands four young stallions–Core Beliefs, who is represented by his first crop to the races this year, Fulsome, Pappacap, and Pinehurst.

For more information about Walmac's stallions, contact Ken Wilkins at (859) 699-4887, by email, or visit the farm site here.

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1,601 yearlings are set to go through the ring for next month's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale, to be held on October 20-23, in Lexington, Kentucky. The four continuous sessions, conducted Monday-Thursday, will begin each day at 10 am.

“Kentucky October is one of the most important yearling sales in the nation,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “The quality on offer continues to rise each year, as evidenced by the sire power and strength of pedigree in this year's catalogue.”

Sires represented by multiple yearlings include Constitution, Candy Ride (Arg), Curlin, Flightline, Gun Runner, Justify, Quality Road, Into Mischief, Not This Time, Nyquist, Practical Joke, Tapit, Twirling Candy, and Uncle Mo.

“The sale's honor roll of graduates grew in 2024, with Thorpedo Anna named Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Filly, and Soul of an Angel named Eclipse Champion Female Sprinter,” Browning noted. “Their wins in the Breeders' Cup Distaff and Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, respectively, were remarkably the fourth and fifth Breeders' Cup wins for October grads in the last three years.”

The list of recent graded stakes winning graduates is even more extensive.

“The sale has produced 17 graded stakes winners so far in 2025, including several household names like Chunk of Gold, 'TDN Rising Star' Nysos, Fondly, Margie's Intention, May Day Ready, Swift Delivery, The Queens M G, Thought Process, and 'Rising Star' Tip Top Thomas,” noted Browning. “Two new graded stakes winners in the past couple of weeks–Taken by the Wind and Ready for Candy–show that there are plenty more in the pipeline.”

The catalogue may now be viewed online, and will also be available via the equineline sales catalogue app. Print catalogues will be available on-site in Lexington.

Online bidding and phone bidding services will be available.

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Friday's GII Beldame Stakes at Aqueduct drew a compact field of five led by the wide-drawn Randomized (Nyquist) who looks to get back on track after a less-than stellar finish, winding up sixth and well beaten behind Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) as the early speed in the GI Personal Ensign at the Spa Aug. 23. Dangerous on the front if left alone however, the Klaravich Stables-owned 5-year-old will try and repeat the effort that saw her wire the GIII Molly Pitcher Stakes two back July 19 where she finished three lengths ahead of Majestic Oops (Majestic Harbor) who lines up just to her inside Friday.

The 5-year-old Dan Ward runner cut back to seven furlongs in style last out when third at long odds in the GI Ballerina Stakes Aug. 23.

“The Molly Pitcher was a tough test, a half-million dollar race against some Grade I-winning horses, and she ran really well,” Ward said. “We were going to wait out the time until the Beldame, but the Ballerina was right in the middle and she got a good race that served its purpose. It was seven-eighths, between races, with five weeks until the Beldame.”

By all accounts, Majestic Oops seems to be thriving in the Autumn weather of New York.

“She wasn't bothered by hot weather, but I think now that it is cooler outside, she's doing better,” Ward added. “She comes off the track bouncing, jumping, all of that. I think cooler weather will help her form, her numbers have been going up and we got a good sprint prep right in the middle now.”

Mark Hennig and owner Lewis Lee bring in Gun Song (Gun Runner), a 4-year-old who is still looking for her first win of 2025 having run second in the Obeah Stakes at Delaware and fourth most recently in the GII Shuvee Stakes at Saratoga July 18.

“She's doing super,” Hennig said. “After that race at Saratoga, we figured we would regroup and point to a race in September. We are giving her a shot. Let's see if she can earn her way somewhere. At a mile and an eighth, you know she can lay fairly close.”

The field's sole 3-year-old Margie's Intention (Honor A.P.) exits Grade I company having run third to Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) in the GI Alabama going 1 1/4 miles Aug. 16 for Brad Cox. Her last win came on Preakness weekend in the GII Black Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico May 16.

The post Friday’s Beldame Runs Through Randomized appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Turnover was up fully 51%, the average price rose 48%, and the median was up 54%. The financial details were underpinned by a rock-solid clearance rate of 93% as 440 yearlings found a buyer from 474 offered.