Blood-Horse

Dylan Browne McMonagle admits it will be hard to top his breakthrough 2025, when he won his first Irish jockeys' championship and scored in the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) at Del Mar, but he has no intention of resting on his laurels.

Two starters from the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), 2024 participant Skelly and 2025 runner Banishing, headline the $150,000 Ring The Bell Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at 6 furlongs Dec. 13 at Oaklawn Park.

The 2025 International Conference for the Health, Safety, and Welfare of Jockeys Dec. 11-12 in Hong Kong saw science-based research on rider safety and performance medicine translated to ideas that jockeys can use in their day-to-day routines.

Echo Town, winner of the 2020 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes (G1), has been purchased by Tyree Wolesensky and has relocated to her Leadem Farm near Leola, Ark., for the 2026 breeding season.

Next year's Epsom Derby (G1) will be worth £2 million as part of a £6 million investment by the Jockey Club (UK) to reinvigorate Epsom and Britain's premier classic, with the aim of attracting a crowd of 100,000 for the festival by 2030.

The Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (G1) Dec. 14 is the first of three big races for Japanese 2-year-olds with connections hoping to find contenders for next year's classics.

The final installment in the 2025 OwnerView webinar series was held Dec. 9 and covered industrywide efforts to support individuals in need. The PDJF, Stable Recovery, the RTCA, and the Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation were in focus.

A 2% share in the Aga Khan Studs' leading sire Siyouni topped the Tattersalls Online December Sale when selling to TCT Bloodstock for 175,000 guineas Dec. 11.

A 17-horse field has been entered for the Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini Internacional (G1) at Hipodromo de San Isidro Dec. 13 in Argentina, part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In.

Grandmoral Lodge Racing's Fraser Auret has made a special journey to Hong Kong this week in order to see Ka Ying Rising for the first time since he left his former home in rural New Zealand.

Tampa Bay Downs has imposed a quarantine on barns 25 and 26 after a horse was confirmed to have the neurological form of equine herpesvirus type 1, also known as EHV-1. The track canceled live racing Dec. 21 and Dec. 28.

Keeneland has supplemented 42 horses—including King’s Plate Stakes winner Mansetti, along with In a Jif, dam of grade 1 winner Cogburn, and her 2025 colt by Into Mischief—to the 2026 January Horses of All Ages Sale, Jan. 12-13.

Bob Baffert, who has won 14 renditions of the Los Alamitos Futurity, has entered Litmus Test, Provenance, and Blacksmith this year.

Local horses, led by Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising, look like solid bets in at least three of the four races comprising the Longines Hong Kong International Races Dec. 14 at Sha Tin Racecourse.

Letters to the Editor for BH Daily, Dec. 11, 2025

Fasig-Tipton's December Digital Sale closed Dec. 10 with gross sales of $10,607,900 for 421 horses sold. The sale gross is believed to establish a record for an online Thoroughbred auction held worldwide.

With the North American Thoroughbred foal crop continuing to contract, numerous panelists speaking Dec. 10 at the Global Symposium on Racing pointed to regional, multi-state cooperation to help stabilize breeding in states with faltering numbers.

Louisiana superstar Touchuponastar will look for his fourth consecutive win in the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic Stakes Dec. 13 at Fair Grounds Racecourse & Slots.

Seeking to ease its financial burden on the Thoroughbred industry, HISA aims to shift half of its income collection away from assessments and toward outside revenue streams by 2030. By 2035, HISA plans to be budget-neutral.

The FTBOA announced Dec. 10 that it will waive most registration fees for Florida-bred and Florida-sired foals of 2026. This offer is available exclusively to FTBOA regular members whose names appear as the official breeder of record.