Kudos to Spendthrift Farm for a stellar weekend. Its freshman sire Goldencents, twice winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile-G1, looks more and more to be a chip off the old block, another Into Mischief in the making. His Bano Solo, a two-year old colt out of the Unbridled’s Song mare Royal Paradise, easily won the fifth race, a maiden special weight, at Churchill Downs on June 23. Bano Solo was the most expensive Goldencents two-year old at $400,000, but is now looking like a smart bargain for his esteemed buyers, Winchell Thoroughbreds and Willis Horton. Leading the way by as many as five lengths, the colt was slowed down the stretch, and ended up winning by three lengths. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Bano Solo became the third winner for Goldencents, who is currently fourth on the leading freshman sires list and stands for $12,500.

Another Spendthrift stallion with his first crop racing, Cross Traffic, had his second winner on the same day, as Raising the Ante, out of the Majestic Warrior mare Ante Up Annie, won the third at Evangeline Downs by 4 ½ lengths. Owned by Valene Farms and trained by Sturges Ducoing, this precocious two-year old moved her sire up to number seven on that same freshman sires list. Whitney Invitational H.-G1 winner Cross Traffic stands for $7500.

A previous column noted the early success of Shakin It Up, sixth on the freshman sire list, and a fourth Spendthrift freshman, Can the Man, is thirteenth. Clearly, all of the innovative programs Spendthrift makes available to breeders are paying dividends, both for those breeders and for the young sires of Spendthrift. It must also be noted that Spendthrift owner B. Wayne Hughes, a true gentleman, throws the best party in the Bluegrass every year at his farm, to which all breeders to his stallions are invited to rub shoulders with guys named Baffert, Mandella, Sherman, Bond, and many others too numerous to list.

-- Roberta Smoodin