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Morplay Racing LLC's 'TDN Rising Star' presented by Hagyard Shisospicy (Mitole), who beat the boys in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint and is a finalist in no fewer than three Eclipse Award categories, will begin her 4-year-old campaign in the Middle East before following a similar course to the Breeders' Cup as in 2025. The news was revealed by Morplay's Rich Mendez and trainer Jose D'Angelo on FanDuel TV midday Thursday. D'Angelo is set to be represented for the second straight season in the G2 1351 Turf Sprint on the Saudi Cup undercard at King Abdulaziz Racecourse on Feb. 14. Howard Wolowitz contested the same event in 2025, finishing 10th. All things equal, Shisospicy would press on to Dubai for the G1 Al Quoz Sprint over the straight 1200 meters at Meydan Racecourse Mar. 28. The Al Quoz is one of five elite-level events on the Dubai World Cup program and the D'Angelo stable could also be represented by GI Breeders' Cup Sprint hero and fellow Eclipse finalist Bentornato (Valiant Minister) in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen. The back end of 2026 could look similar to 2025, according to connections. Mendez and D'Angelo indicated the filly could make a return to Kentucky Downs, where last year she took out the GII Music City Stakes en route to the Turf Sprint. As that is an age-restricted affair, Shisospicy has the GII Kentucky Turf Sprint Stakes against the boys over six furlongs or the GII Ladies' Turf Sprint at 6 1/2 panels as options. The 2026 Breeders' Cup will be held at Keeneland. “She had a huge year last year, beat the boys as a 3-year-old,” D'Angelo said on FanDuel TV. “The way she's training, I feel she can compete at this level.” Shisospicy is five-for-six on the grass, her only defeat coming when down the field in the G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot last June. Following her victory at Del Mar, achieved in partnership with Qatar Racing, Shisospicy went through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale, where Morplay bought out their partners on a bid of $5.2 million. The gray returned to the worktab in late December, most recently going three-eighths of a mile in a bullet :36.30 (1/11) at Palm Meadows on Dec. 31. Though clearly biased, Mendez is confident his filly could lock horns with the horse most consider the world's best turf sprinter, Ka Ying Rising (NZ) (Shamexpress {NZ}). “The money makes a difference. For the competition, the better opportunity for her is out there, show the world,” Mendez said. “Some people say she wasn't fast, but I'd love to see a match race between her and Ka Ying Rising.” Shisospicy would depart for Riyadh on a direct flight departing Feb. 2. The post Morplay Reveals Shisospicy Plans For 2026 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

The first foal by the high-class sprinter Mill Stream was born at Yeomanstown Stud on Wednesday when the Dark Angel mare Silver Rose delivered a bay filly. Silver Rose, a full-sister to the G2 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 hero Golden Goal, has already produced the Listed winner and Group 3 runner-up Eternal Elixir (Shaman). Stud manager David O'Callaghan said, “Delighted to have Mill Stream's first foal on the ground. She's a belter, a big, strong, bay filly, with good limbs.” Mill Stream, a Group 1 winner when landing the 2024 July Cup at Newmarket, covered 170 mares in his first season at Yeomanstown in 2025. He will stand the upcoming season at a fee of €10,000. The post First Foal by July Cup Winner Mill Stream Born at Yeomanstown Stud appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Shisospicy is set to begin her 2026 season in Saudi Arabia, competing in the 1351 Turf Sprint (G2T) on Saudi Cup (G1) night Feb. 14.View the full article

The air is getting thinner now, as we explore those stallions standing between $30,000 and $59,999, but this penultimate instalment of our series does open access to genuine elite quality. Several in this range have a proven ability to sire horses who go on, in turn, to take a lucrative place at stud; and a number, within that group, have reached a stage in their careers where their fees have been cut temptingly within reach. Take MACLEAN'S MUSIC. Doubling his fee to $50,000 for 2022–after two sons contested the finish of the GI Woody Stephens the previous summer–looked reasonable enough when the resulting yearlings averaged $135,739 (median $100,000) in 2024. Things did not play out so well for his clients in the next cycle, however, with his latest crop sliding back to $97,264 and a particularly unhelpful median, throwing in keep and prep costs, of $65,000. But Maclean's Music has now taken his second cut since, to just $30,000, and that brings him right back into the realm of value as sire of four popular young sons at stud in Kentucky. Conserving a male line for Distorted Humor makes him eligible for somewhat historic stature, hardly reflected in a fee like this, and he has maintained numbers well with another 130 mares last spring. The reality is that GII Pat Day Mile winner Macho Music remains his solitary graded stakes scorer over the past two years, but hopefully his upgraded mares will be stopping that rot pretty soon. MUNNINGS has also put himself under a bit of pressure, owing his one graded stakes success in 2025 to a 6-year-old in a Grade III sprint at Aqueduct. But plenty of people will forgive a flat spot in one that spent the preceding five years as a fixture in the top 10 of the general sires' list. It did feel as though his reputation had been a little over-egged when exalted as a six-figure cover in 2023, but a third consecutive cut brings him steeply down to $45,000–a number that stacks up most agreeably against a $159,470 average ($120,000 median) for the 56 yearlings he has just sold, of 79 offered, from that crop conceived at $100,000. Sure, he has a lot of volume behind his 88 stakes winners, but they represent a rock-solid 6.5% percent clip of named foals and include Jack Christopher among half a dozen Grade I winners. Munnings | Coolmore VIOLENCE is another with heirs at stud, but could have done with more than three stakes winners in 2025, at a time when his book needs careful management. Those did at least include a 10-length winner of the GIII Sanford Stakes and one of the best juvenile prospects in the west, in Boyd, and he's still supplying the same genes that have so far produced 43 black-type scorers (5% of named foals) including five at Grade I level. Moreover the Medaglia d'Oro glamor of his stock remained evident at the sales, where 21 of 30 yearlings averaged $169,000 (albeit not even half that sum, by median). Having briefly touched $60,000 only a couple of years ago, he represents excellent value at half that fee, whether your agenda is oriented to the sales or the racetrack. It makes ample allowance for such fertility issues as have impeded the rise of Violence, and ensures that the breeder who adapts patiently to his needs can profit from a limited supply of goods that should remain reliably in demand. When he's good, Violence can be very good indeed, and few sires at this kind of money have so high a ceiling. His champion son FORTE renews a challenge we have repeatedly set during this series. If he was genuinely worth $50,000 as a blank page in 2024, he's presumably worth $35,000 as sire of 24 weanlings sold (of 28 offered) at an average $166,875 (median $157,500). ELITE POWER has made an identical slide despite faring better yet on his sales debut, processing 17 of 20 weanlings as $182,352/$170,000. But since they will presumably depreciate again this time next year, you can pounce just as they are about to show their wares on the racetrack. On the same basis, we'll certainly be leaving last year's rookies to stew in their commercial juice for the time being. Forte | Sarah Andrew The dividends available from sticking with a bubble sire can be sampled in MAXFIELD, who was trimmed to $35,000 for his third season, in 2024, but will stand at $50,000 this spring after his first juveniles put him behind only Yaupon on the freshman table. Though an emphatic Grade I winner at two himself, he won his other elite prize in the November of his third campaign, so his stock should continue to thrive. Just as well, mind, as this class is guilty of historic underachievement and Maxfield mustered a solitary stakes winner from his 60 starters. Whether he has done enough to merit a higher fee than his own sire is a question reserved for our Value Podium! In the preceding intake, TIZ THE LAW has by now put together a rather more substantial resume–crowned by his first Grade I winner only a few days ago–but we must raise an eyebrow that he should have been the busiest stallion in the land with 274 mares last spring. His latest yearlings cashed in on his strong start, 34 sold of 41 at $134,321 (median $90,000), but a fee returned to $40,000 (from $30,000) may give some pause to those who know that catalogues must soon be fairly inundated. In the meantime, as we keep saying, true believers will have got to him at $20,000 on the bubble and will have a coveted commodity to take to the upcoming yearling sales. Be all that as it may, there's no denying that seven graded stakes winners from 165 starters to date is a really auspicious foundation. Two Grade I winners for CITY OF LIGHT in 2025 consolidated rather than refreshed a reputation that has at times depended heavily on one of them, Fierceness, to sustain a fee that has now stabilized at $35,000 (having been cut from $60,000 for 2024). But his other elite scorer has at least shown that his stock will continue to flourish much as he did himself. Having become City of Light's second Grade I breakthrough late in his sophomore career, turf star Formidable Man was better than ever at four and saw off all but one of the Europeans at the Breeders' Cup. While there may yet be plenty of slow burners out there, for now City of Light must settle for less extravagant market expectations than when rewarded with a fee hike simply for selling his first yearlings so well. His latest crop retailed at $129,704/median $80,000. With our customary apologies to those overlooked in what is necessarily a highly subjective survey, we now turn to three stallions, at very different stages of his career, who should appeal strongly if happening to meet other, more fundamental criteria for your mare. VALUE PODIUM Bronze: LIAM'S MAP Unbridled's Song–Miss Macy Sue (Trippi) $50,000, Lane's End Here's a stallion in his absolute prime, now 15 and celebrating Grade I winners in 2025 from each of his last three crops onto the track, taking him up to seven overall. His security of tenure at this level is reflected by a hike from $40,000, but even that looks worth embracing when you consider how consistently he rewards his clients at the sales. The gray's latest crop of yearlings not only averaged $178,515 for 63 sold (of 84 offered) but also maintained a much narrower gap to the median, at $150,000, than many others we have reviewed in this category. Remarkably, the purchasers of Napoleon Solo had to give just $40,000 to an outstanding nursery for the runaway GI Champagne Stakes winner; whereas GI Toyota Blue Grass Stakes scorer Burnham Square had been retained by his breeders; and 'TDN Rising Star' presented by Hagyard Deterministic, winner of consecutive Grade Is on the turf at Saratoga, was a $625,000 yearling. And that spread shows what you get with Liam's Map: a racehorse sire, whether for trainers or breed-to-race programs, but also a sire that can achieve dividends at the sales. With his son Beau Liam making a flying start, moreover, and juvenile star Brant suggesting that his daughters may also contribute to his legacy, Liam's Map is achieving a stature that makes look quite a center of gravity for the entire market. Of course, you also get half the genetic package being expensively purveyed by Not This Time! If overall his 31 stakes winners have come at a rather pedestrian 4.1% of named foals, his reliability at the sales means that Liam's Map–fully subscribed as usual last spring–is going to keep looking after an awful lot of breeders. Silver: GIRVIN Tale of Ekati–Catch the Moon (Malibu Moon) $30,000, Airdrie Bit of a no-brainer, this one. Having introduced himself with a series of startling talents, bred for no money in Florida, Girvin earned a passage to Kentucky in 2023. His first Bluegrass-breds will duly enter the starting gate only this year, and with unusual volume by the restrained standards of his exemplary farm: he covered 181 mares for 139 live foals, up from 53 in his final Ocala crop. Even those were sired at no more than $20,000, and paid their way impressively at the yearling sales: 82 sold of 93 offered at $120,719. If the mixed quality of his mares told in a median of $60,000, some supporters were celebrating home runs of $700,000, $535,000 and $500,000. Girvin -Airdrie-PRINT-EquiSport.jpg" alt="" width="1155" height="840" /> Girvin | Equi-Photo Meanwhile Dorth Vader is still thriving, last summer becoming the second Grade I winner from Girvin's debut crop; and likewise Damon's Mound, who won his latest graded stakes at the age of five. His final Florida crop, meanwhile, has put onto the Classic trail Dazzling Dame, who last week won the Busanda Stakes–already her third black-type prize–by a dozen lengths. Even as things stand, Girvin has 15 stakes winners from no more than 197 lifetime starters conceived at $7,500 and $6,000. A mild increase, from $25,000 to $30,000, acknowledges that this horse potentially stands on the brink of a giant leap forward. It feels like an imperative moment to jump into the slipstream. Gold: STREET SENSE Street Cry (Ire)–Bedazzle (Dixieland Band) $40,000, Darley Like a few others in this category, this is a stallion of proven prowess now seriously undervalued by a fee that must respond to somewhat porous commercial performance of late. Certainly a median of $80,000 for his latest yearlings was not a helpful dividend to those who had paid a $75,000 conception fee, albeit the shinier ones took his average to double that: $164,565 for 38 sold of 44 offered. But Street Sense has now taken a third consecutive cut to what would appear an absurdly generous level–if it weren't for the fact that his neighbor Hard Spun is offering pretty much the same resume at half as much again! Street Sense has actually accumulated his 96 stakes winners at an even better ratio of 6.8% of named foals, with his ninth Grade I scorer La Cara confirming a continued ability to get performers of elite caliber. In turning 22, along with Hard Spun, Street Sense must face the self-fulfilling prejudice against ageing sires. Medaglia d'Oro certainly had a good laugh at that, during his final season before retirement. But there's no question that anyone who can reach Street Sense's diminishing fee will be grateful to tap into a legacy that can produce the kind of dividends generally way beyond this kind of budget. Remember, we're talking about the sire of McKinzie, Maxfield, Speaker's Corner and First Mission. With time, moreover, it appears increasingly evident that he has inherited something of his father's exceptional influence as a broodmare sire: daughters of Street Sense produced 23 stakes winners in 2025, 11 at graded level including Mindframe (Constitution) and Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro). In other words, you certainly wouldn't mind retaining a filly. More commercial rivals may have to go about things in a different way. But one way or another, this farm's strategy for keeping older stallions in the game results in some tremendously sporting fees. We saw that with Medaglia d'Oro, some of whose former partners will doubtless now be dividing their favors between Street Sense and Hard Spun. Don't be surprised if they both enjoy an Indian summer of their own. The post Kentucky Value Sires For 2026: Part 5–Approaching the Snow-Line appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

On Wednesday's TDN Writers' Room podcast, Hill 'n' Dale Farm at Xalapa owner John Sikura challenged the Breeders' Cup to use some of their estimated $98.5 million endowment to shore up California racing and help to ensure its future. “I've always been a huge critic of the fact that the Breeders' Cup keeps $100 million of nominators' awards for a rainy day fund,” Sikura told hosts Bill Finley, Randy Moss, and Zoe Cadman. “In order to have a rainy day fund that needs a hundred million dollars, there will have to be a torrential flood of epic proportions. I might be a loner in the minority so far as my critique goes, but I don't believe the founders of the Breeders' Cup, in their original statement and in their original mission, believed it was necessary to put away $100 million. When you have current crippling issues in our business that are affecting the validity of breeding programs in states and, maybe even the existence of some markets, that money, in my strong opinion, should be put into use to help the Thoroughbred industry. And if there's a cause more important than the survival of California racing, I don't know what it is.” The Breeders' Cup responded that the endowment was managed by an investment committee, and that all decisions regarding the endowment were evaluated and approved by the board of directors. They said that as a non-profit whose mission is to conduct the Breeders' Cup World Championships with the highest levels of quality, safety and integrity and to promote the growth of Thoroughbred breeding, racing, and sales, they must exercise prudent fiscal stewardship while leveraging the endowment and related income to enhance the World Championships and advance their mission. On Thursday, Sikura responded as follows: “The Breeders' Cup's response to my critique only defended their management of the $98.5 million endowment,” he wrote. “That's typical of a non-responsive self-congratulatory group. The concerns raised and possible solutioins to the crisis (in California) were ignored and received no reply. John Gaines, the founder of the Breeders' Cup, often warned of `self-appointed guardians of the turf.' An apt descipton of the current state of affairs–a continuum of non-action and self-praise.” To watch the entire podcast featuring Sikura, click here. The post Sikura Responds to Breeders’ Cup Regarding Endowment appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article