Some thoughts prompted by quotes from Abram Hewitt and Dinny Phipps back in the day.

Recent BTW Lost Horizon has a female family that combines numerous nostalgic names from the hey-day of W.T. Young’s Overbook Farm breeding program.

Golden Tempo scored a late-running win in the Kentucky Derby for the Phipps family as a 6th generation homebred.

It’s a little late in the season, but sometimes you can’t help circumstances. Still, Velvet Vixen will get a shot with Blofeld this spring to kick off her breeding career.

It’s that time again — here are our picks for this year’s Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks!

Fashionista, whose pedigree features Rasmussen Factor inbreeding to Ran’s Chick, will get her first pairing with our favorite Maryland stallion Blofeld in 2026.

Sister Dawn switches it up to another Storm Cat-line stallion in ’26, exciting first-year sire Arzak, who appears likely to be the most popular new stallion in NY this year.

The black-type placed and royally-bred Queen Mum will be a part of the first book of mares to visit Eclipse Champion Straight No Chaser in 2026.

A quick digression to discuss some color genetics and statistics.

Successful young runners First Mission and Lacie Be Good will pair up to produce what we expect will be an equally talented foal of 2027!

Bucchero and Inheritance have both produced extremely versatile foals, and should make an excellent pairing on proclivities.

New acquisition Imaginetheodds will take advantage of Blofeld’s best cross, and his second-best cross.

The proven and promising Army Mule will be a perfect pairing for young black-type winner Bluelightspecial in 2026.

Desert Rendezvous sticks with the Tapit sire-line in 2026 when she visits last year’s most popular first-year stallion, Charge It.

The brilliantly-fast maiden mare Cruise To Catalina will head to Darley for an exciting like-to-like match with freshman sire First Mission in 2026.

Blofeld has already produced a pair of $200k earners out of a Union Rags mare, including the Preakness runner Mugatu.

Arzak looks like the perfect stallion for New York, and Pivotal Woman will provide just the right type of mate to him in his first book.

With an exciting update in the form of her TDN Rising Star half-brother Englishman, Fee will again get a highly-commercial pairing in 2026 when she visits Mindframe.

Johannes was one of the best turf milers of the last couple years, and as a son of Nyquist is a very exciting addition to the Claiborne stallion ranks in ’26.

Mischievous Mind will be bred to Prince of Monaco for the second year in a row, in a mating that makes just as much sense in ’26 as it did in ’25.