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PHBA Honors 2020 Champions

The Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association honored its 2020 champions during a virtual celebration of the 42nd annual Iroquois Awards last Friday. Multiple stakes-winning Caravel (Mizzen Mast), bred, owned and trained by Elizabeth Merryman, was named Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly.

Other champions announced Friday were: 2yo Filly: Plane Drunk (Stay Thirsty); 2yo Male: Fire's Finale (Jump Start); 3yo Male: Dreams Untold (Smarty Jones); Older, Turf and Sprinter Female: Jakarata (Bustin Stones); Older Male: Wait for It (Uptowncharlybrown); Turf and Sprinter Male: The Critical Way (Tizway).

PA-Preferred Female and Male were Its a Journey (Jump Start) and Wait for It, respectively. Avani Force (Forestry) was named broodmare of the year. Leading Breeder Award Recipients were Blackstone Farm and Glenn E. Brok LLC.

Patricia Chapman was given the lifetime achievement award and Pastures of Point Lookout was honored with the award of merit.

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Registration Open For Belmont Stakes Challenge

Registration for the two-day Belmont Stakes Challenge presented by Jackpocket, offering cash prizes along with seats to the National Horseplayers' Championship (NHC) and Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC) is now open. The event takes place over Belmont S. weekend, Friday and Saturday, June 4 and 5.

Entrants for the challenge will compete for cash prizes down to fourth place as well as one seat to the 2022 Belmont Stakes Challenge, four seats to the NHC and two BCBC berths.

The 2021 Belmont Stakes Challenge has an entry fee of $10,000, of which $2,500 goes to the prize pool. The balance is the player's bankroll. Tournament races will kick off Friday, June 4 and will conclude with the 153rd running of the GI Belmont S. the next afternoon.

Registration is available by clicking here. In order to enter and play online, contestants must be registered account holders at NYRA Bets. To learn more, click here.

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WinStar Stallion Laoban Dies

Laoban (Uncle Mo–Chattertown, by Speightstown), a leading second-crop sire, passed away unexpectedly, officials at WinStar Farm said Monday. He was eight years old.

“It is with heavy hearts that we have to announce that we lost Laoban this morning,” said Elliott Walden, WinStar's president, CEO, and racing manager. “He had quickly become one of our favorite stallions, and it's sad that we will not have the opportunity to see how influential he could have been as a sire. His passing will leave a tremendous void for all of us, and he will be greatly missed.”

Bred by Respite Farm, the $40,000 Keeneland November weanling turned $260,000 Keeneland September yearling placed as a maiden in the GIII Sham S. and GIII Gotham S. before graduating in style in the 2016 GII Jim Dandy S.

Laoban entered stud in New York at Sequel Stallions, but was relocated to WinStar based largely on the performance of his first crop to the races in 2020. To date, Laoban has been represented by 25 individual winners, five at the stakes level, including GI Darley Alcibiades S. heroine Simply Ravishing and Keepmeinmind, who broke his maiden in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. and was most recently a sound fourth in the GI Preakness S. His other black-type winners include Laobanonaprayer, recent Sir Barton S. winner The King Cheek–entered for Friday's GII Penn Mile S.–and Devious Mo.

Walden said that there would be no further comment from the farm.

Earlier this year, Katie Ritz visited Laoban at WinStar for the TDN and produced the video below.

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Fasig-Tipton Releases Catalog For Santa Anita Sale

The catalog for the Fasig-Tipton Santa Anita 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, to be held Wednesday, June 23, at the Arcadia, California, oval, is now online.

The company has cataloged 105 juveniles for the single-session event, who will be put through their paces during the sale's under-track preview Monday, June 21 beginning at 10 a.m. PT.

The inaugural F-T Santa Anita sale was topped by a Bernardini–Elbe (GB) filly that fetched $420,000 from Donato Lanni on behalf of owner Sarah Kelly. The 2020 renewal was canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are pleased to be bringing this auction back following a successful inaugural sale in 2019,” said Fasig-Tipton California Representative Mike Machowsky. “We are receiving increased participation from Florida-based consignors this year, and the sale's sire power is much stronger, as well.”

To that end, some of the country's leading 2-year-old consignors have earmarked this sale to display the progeny of such stallions as the late Arrogate, popular young sire Classic Empire, Constitution, Empire Maker, Goldencents, Into Mischief, Kantharos, Maclean's Music, Medaglia d'Oro, Munnings, Nyquist, Pioneerof the Nile, Smiling Tiger, Tiznow and Violence.

Supplemental entries will be accepted up until the date of the sale, which begins June 23 at 1 p.m. PT. Print catalogs will be available beginning May 26.

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