John Sikura

Flightline was clearly the star among stars at the Eclipse Awards ceremonies held Jan. 26 in Palm Beach, Florida, but a trio of stallions that call the rustic environs of John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa home stole the show from a sires' perspective, accounting for half of the evening's 10 winners among the Flat divisions. Success at the Eclipse Awards is obviously directly correlated with horse racing on its biggest stages, and the results from the first weekend of November, not far away from Xalapa at Keeneland Race...

With the Breeders' Cup returning to Lexington for the third time, headlined by the mighty Flightline (Tapit), the buzz in Lexington was electric from late October all the way through the nearly two weeks of breeding stock sales that followed the World Championships. Combine that with a deep and diverse buying bench and high demand and the result was gains in both gross and average for the 10-day Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which ran from Nov. 7-16. "With the close of the November Breeding Stock Sale, Keeneland is nearing...

LEXINGTON, KY- The 79th renewal of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale opens its 12-day run Monday with the first of two Book 1 sessions beginning at 1 p.m. Consignors started showing Book 1 yearlings Friday and an international cast of shoppers were getting second looks at those elite youngsters on a misty Sunday morning in the Bluegrass, while also getting a head start on Book 2 horses who will start selling Wednesday. "I think the activity is very good, particularly for Book 1," said Peter O'Callaghan, whose Woods Edge Farm...

What a time to be alive for John Sikura, master of Hill 'n' Dale! The farm's stallions have been putting on quite a show lately while Sikura quietly goes about the task--well, it's a labor of love, really--of restoring, modernizing, and expanding Xalapa, the historically significant Bourbon County property near Paris that he acquired a few years ago. Xalapa now houses Hill 'n' Dale's roster of 12 stallions and all of the farm's mares, yearlings, and foals on close to 1,500 acres. On Sunday at Saratoga, the farm's Ghostzapper was...

Polite but perfunctory. That was pretty much the tone in which people tended to praise Kitten's Joy while he was with us, and I guess it should be no different now that he's gone. Even so, it strikes me that his loss has been inadequately lamented. Not just in his own right, as an avowed turf stallion who freakishly contrived two general sires' championships in North America; but also, virtually unremarked, as a final straw in what has over the past nine months become an outright catastrophe for the enlightened...

Polite but perfunctory. That was pretty much the tone in which people tended to praise Kitten's Joy while he was with us, and I guess it should be no different now that he's gone. Even so, it strikes me that his loss has been inadequately lamented. Not just in his own right, as an avowed turf stallion who freakishly contrived two general sires' championships in North America; but also, virtually unremarked, as a final straw in what has over the past nine months become an outright catastrophe for the enlightened...

Coolmore America's Triple Crown winner Justify, a son of Scat Daddy, never raced at two, and he famously became the first unraced 2-year-old since Apollo in 1882 to win the Gl Kentucky Derby. Midway through July, however, Justify is already represented by a Group 2 winner in Europe and a Grade III winner in North America from his first crop of 2-year-olds, and through Monday he sat second by less than $30,000 on the first-crop sire list by progeny earnings behind Spendthrift's Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), a rival he defeated...

Inventive, a multiple graded stakes-producing mare, has been pronounced in foal to Charlatan. By Dixie Union, Inventive is the dam of GI Del Mar Futurity winner Klimt. "It's only fitting that Charlatan's first in foal mare is the dam of a Grade I winner. The mare has a wonderful pedigree, hailing from the family of GI Test S. winner Fara's Team, the dam of Breeders' Cup Classic winner Concern. She is representative of the quality book Charlatan has attracted," said John G. Sikura, President of Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa....

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, delayed a day due to last week's blizzard, took some time to find its footing, but gained in strength throughout Tuesday's opening session to end the day with figures up compared to its 2020 opening session. "We are very pleased with the way things ended up," said Keeneland's vice president of sales Tony Lacy. "We were expecting a very solid day. There was some nice quality, especially towards the end. And that is...

Hill 'n' Dale President John Sikura couldn't be happier with the book of mares that multiple Grade I-winning 'TDN Rising Star' Charlatan (Speightstown-Authenticity, by Quiet American) has amassed for his first season at stud in 2022. Sikura said the quality embodied in this initial book is unlike many he's seen for a first-year sire. "The compliments we've received from people who have come out to see him have been remarkable," he said. "Eclipse Award-winning breeders are sending Grade I-winning and Grade I-producing mares to him, which is something that is...

The case of Bob Baffert has been, sad but fascinating to watch. It has served to be the perfect foil for agenda-driven companies and organizations to attach a face to 'the cause.' Due process and the right to defend oneself with veracity is the foundational tenet of this country. It protects citizens from overreaching by entities such as Churchill, NYRA and others banning Baffert from running at their tracks until adjudication is reached--not dictated. The actions of Churchill Downs clearly prioritize what we already know, which is that the value...

Guarana (Ghostzapper--Magical World, by Distorted Humor), purchased from Fasig-Tipton's November sale for $4.4 million (TDN Nov. 10 edition), will visit MGISW Charlatan (Speightstown), the farm's most recent addition to Hill n' Dale's roster at Xalapa. Awarded TDN Rising Star status after breaking her maiden by 14 3/4 lengths, she followed up that victory in her next start with a stakes record performance in the GI Acorn S., winning by six lengths before adding a score in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks. She subsequently added a victory in the GI...