Champion Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) delivered her first foal, a filly by Europe's 2014 Horse of the Year Kingman (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) on Feb. 15 at Northern Farm in Japan, according to the farm's Twitter and Facebook accounts.
The 6-year-old mare, who defeated males in the 2020 GI Preakness S. and also won the GI Alabama S. and GI Beholder Mile, was purchased for $4.7 million by Katsumi Yoshida at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale and was then sent to England, where she was bred to Kingman at Juddmonte Farms' Banstead Manor Stud before shipping to Yoshida's Northern Farm in Japan.
Campaigned by Peter Callahan and trained by Kenny McPeek, Swiss Skydiver retired in 2021 with a career line of 16-7-3-2, $2,216,480. She was honored with the Eclipse Award as 2020's champion 3-year-old filly.
A futures-styled pari-mutuel wager to pick the winner of the GI Preakness S. before the GI Kentucky Derby goes off will debut this year with an 18% takeout.
The pool will be hosted by the Maryland Jockey Club (MJC). The new bet was unanimously approved at Tuesday's monthly meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission.
Mike Rogers, the president of the racing division for the MJC, described details of the Preakness wager.
“The window of that bet will open on Friday, Apr. 28, and we're going to close roughly 6 p.m. before the [May 6] Derby. So it's going to be cool to see our Preakness future odds right alongside the Derby odds.”
“We're going to use theirs as a foundation. But we're also going to add a couple of [Bob] Baffert horses [that have been barred from Derby competition this year]. We want to hopefully have a couple of local Maryland horses in there. We want to add a couple of fillies. So we're going to try to get maybe at least 30 betting interests. Maybe up to 39 [with an “all others' field option]. We can do 40 [total betting interests].”
Figuring out which Derby starters might contest the second leg of the Triple Crown will lend a difficult element to the bet.
In 2022, the 20-horse Derby yielded only three Preakness starters in a field of nine. In 2021, the 19-horse Derby sent just three starters to the 10-horse Preakness field.
More than 200 works of original art, created by artists throughout the country, will be on display at www.preakness.com/the-art-of-racing for two weeks beginning Monday, Mar. 13, after which the top 10 vote-earners will advance to the finalist category. The winning piece will then be selected by a panel of judges representing the artistic, business, philanthropic and political communities that support Park Heights's indispensable role as the home of Preakness 148. This year's 204 entries surpass the 2022 inaugural year by nearly 40%.
The gallery of art at the Art of Racing website represents the work of artists–from Maryland as well as from 18 other states including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin–who have been inspired by the beauty of Thoroughbred horse racing on and off the track. Descriptions and inspirations in the words of the artists are also available for public view at the website.
The winning artwork of The Art of Racing will be reproduced on a curated collection of Preakness merchandise, the proceeds of which will be used to support the activities of Park Heights Renaissance, a non-profit organization that provides employment opportunities and pursues affordable housing for members of the Park Heights community.
The second annual The Art of Racing represents 1/ST and the Maryland Jockey Club's partnership with the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Many of the submissions were produced by students in four of MICA's art and design classes.
Winchell Thoroughbreds' Epicenter (Not This Time–Silent Candy, by Candy Ride {Arg}), a leading candidate for champion 3-year-old honors, will enter stud in 2023 at Ashford Stud. He will stand for $45,000.
Bred at Mike, Brent and Kevin Harrises' Westwind Farms in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Epicenter was hammered down to the Winchell team for $260,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale and was ultimately turned over to the operation's Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. A maiden winner at second asking going the one-turn mile at Churchill Downs, the bay romped by 6 1/2 lengths to become a stakes winner for the first time in the Gun Runner S. at the Fair Grounds last December before dropping a narrow decision when making his graded stakes debut in the GIII Lecomte S. An all-the-way winner of the GII Risen Star S. in February, Epicenter showed a new dimension in the GII Louisiana Derby, settling a bit further off the pace before quickening home to score by 2 1/2 lengths.
Epicenter's winter efforts made him the 4.10-1 favorite for the GI Kentucky Derby and he raced better than midfield, surged to the lead at the furlong grounds and was outfinished by Rich Strike (Keen Ice). He was similarly unlucky to not win the GI Preakness S., finishing runner-up to recent Coolmore addition Early Voting (Gun Runner) after a slow start and some upper-stretch traffic, but he atoned for those defeats at Saratoga over the summer with some authority.
Epicenter was a romping winner of the GII Jim Dandy S., besting Grade I winner Zandon (Upstart), and, at even-money, the GI Runhappy Travers S., where dual GISW Cyberknife (Gun Runner) was left some 5 1/4 lengths behind. His Beyer Speed Figure of 112 was the highest of any of his generation on dirt this year. Epicenter, who was pulled up when the second pick to Flightline (Tapit) in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic and is recovering nicely from his injuries, retires with a record of 6-3-0 from 11 starts and earnings of $2,940,639.
“Epicenter was solid all year and the Travers was the breakout performance he needed and deserved, and he did it in an emphatic way,” said trainer Steve Asmussen. “He put everything together on a grand stage.”
“He was a brilliant horse whose best racing days were still in front of him,” said Ron Winchell who raced the colt. “Bred on the reverse of Gun Runner's Candy Ride/Giant's Causeway cross he's a hugely exciting stallion prospect.”
“Epicenter is the best son of Giant's Causeway's best sire son Not This Time and is out of a stakes winner by the sire of Gun Runner,” said Coolmore's Dermot Ryan. “His combination of speed and stamina made him a potent force and he's a very good-looking horse to boot. Breeders are going to love him.”
One of three top-level and one of nine graded winners for his boom stallion, Epicenter is the most accomplished foal from his stakes-winning and Grade III-placed dam, who fetched $625,000 carrying a full-sibling to Epicenter at this year's Keeneland November Sale. Westwind acquired Silent Candy for $130,000 in foal to Scat Daddy at KEENOV in 2014.
WATCH: Epicenter storms clear in the 2022 GI Runhappy Travers S.
https://t.co/QzQYUGcmNV
