B. Wayne Hughes

The buying team at Spendthrift Farm had it down to two different 2-year-old colts from the first crop of the late Harlan's Holiday at the 2007 OBS March Sale. Did they ever pick the right one. Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday--Leslie's Lady, by Tricky Creek), winner of the GI CashCall Futurity and the back-to-back reigning champion general sire, got the final nod of the pair, bringing $180,000 from B. Wayne Hughes's operation following a :10 2/5 breeze. The striking blaze-faced bay--standing the 2021 season for $225,000 at Spendthrift Farm--graces the cover...

Spendthrift Farm, Ashford Stud and Three Chimneys Farm are suing The Jockey Club in federal court over the "stallion cap" rule that went into effect in 2020, alleging that the 140-mare breeding limit now being phased in amounts to a "blatant abuse of power" that acts as an "anti-competitive restraint" and threatens to disrupt the free-market nature of the bloodstock business. The plaintiffs contend that the stallion cap "serves no legitimate purpose and has no scientific basis" while alleging that the nine stewards of The Jockey Club who voted to...

B. Wayne Hughes's Spendthrift Farm has acquired a 50% ownership interest in graded stakes winner Keepmeinmind (Laoban). The 3-year-old colt was second behind Essential Quality (Tapit) in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity and third behind that subsequent champion in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile before concluding his 2-year-old campaign with a win in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. He currently sits second on the GI Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 18 points. "We are delighted to be a part of such an exciting young racehorse as Keepmeinmind, and thankful to...

Thousand Words (Pioneerof the Nile--Pomeroy's Pistol, by Pomeroy) has been retired from racing and will begin stud duties this year at B. Wayne Hughes's Spendthrift Farm. The 4-year-old, a $1-million Keeneland September purchase, was campaigned by Spendthrift and Albaugh Family Stables and was trained by Bob Baffert. He won the 2019 GII Los Alamitos Futurity and 2020 GIII Robert B. Lewis S. and Shared Belief S. He was also second in the GIII Los Alamitos Derby. Thousand Words retires with four wins and a second from nine starts and earnings...

Business is booming at Spendthrift Farm. The once-defunct stallion station has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence in the past decade, thanks in large part to a superstar stallion, a deep-pocketed owner and the steady hand of an experienced general manager. Ned Toffey has seen it all since B. Wayne Hughes purchased Spendthrift in 2004, and he joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Toffey talked about the explosive growth of the farm, what makes Into Mischief special,...

Spendthrift Farm's General Manager Ned Toffey joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to talk new sire Authentic, recent purchase Monomoy Girl and the farm's thriving operation.

Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic winner Authentic (Into MIschief--Flawless, by Mr. Greeley) has been retired to Spendthrift Farm, where he will stand for a fee of $75,000 S&N, the farm announced Monday morning, two days after his Classic win. He arrived at Spendthrift at around 10 a.m. Monday, led off the van by his trainer Bob Baffert, who proclaimed, "There he is. The best horse in America." "Authentic is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of horse, and Mr. Hughes is very proud that we are able to share him with 5,300-plus...

by Jessica Martini, Brian DiDonato & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY - A dazzling array of race fillies proved demand for high-quality bloodstock remains high during a frenetic renewal of the Fasig-Tipton November Sale at Newtown Paddocks Sunday. Champion Monomoy Girl (Tapizar), who captured her second GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff Saturday, topped the sale when bringing a final bid of $9.5 million from B. Wayne Hughes's Spendthrift Farm. The 5-year-old mare, who will return to training with Brad Cox, spearheaded a remarkable night of bidding for the Spendthrift team, which...

B. Wayne Hughes's Spendthrift Farm has acquired the breeding rights to undefeated multiple Grade I-winning juvenile Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music--Unicorn Girl, by A.P. Five Hundred), recent winner of Belmont's GI Champagne S., a 'Win and You're In' event to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keenland next month. Trained by Steve Asmussen, the J & J Stables-bred colt has earnings of $402,564 in four career starts for owners Kirk and Judy Robison. "Jackie's Warrior is proving to be one of the fastest 2-year-olds to come around in the last decade...

Revolutions start in the street. But it's only once they have taken over the citadels, and adapt to the trappings and opportunities of power, that you can judge their ultimate success. In transforming the stallion business from the bottom up, B. Wayne Hughes was aptly faithful to his own origins. The son of an Oklahoma sharecropper, he remembers a Grapes Of Wrath migration from the Dust Bowl to California with a mattress strapped to the family jalopy. He also remembers local hostility to the incomers: not least because the "Okies,"...

As far as marketing for a nascent, unorthodox racehorse ownership venture goes, you couldn't do much better than a horse carrying your silks into the Churchill Downs infield as the GI Kentucky Derby winner. That's what Michael Behrens experienced Saturday, as Authentic (Into Mischief), bought into by his MyRacehorse microshare partnership in June, fought off favored Tiz the Law (Constitution) past the Twin Spires to earn the garland of roses. Wednesday, Behrens joined the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to...

When Authentic (Into Mischief) ran in this week's Kentucky Derby, he carried the hopes and dreams of over 5,000 microshare owners with him, who can now rightly call themselves owners of a Kentucky Derby winner.