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I’ve been waiting to write about Liam’s Map’s first winner, because I love the horse. When I visited Lane’s End to view him when he first went to stud, he knocked my eyes out. He is the most unusual of gray horses, with a silver coat that appears to be star-spangled.

The Stillwater S. on July 18 at Saratoga turned into a showcase for one freshman sire, and an exclamation point for another. Ashford’s freshman Competitive Edge emerged from the shadow of American Pharoah when his fillies, My Italian Rabbi and Fierce Lady, finished first and second in that race, dueling one another like real pros.

The Fasig-Tipton July Sale is the first indicator of another trend: which freshmen sires look the most promising to buyers. Though a buzz about the first crops of certain freshman sires begins when the babies hit the ground, the July Sale is the true, initial barometer of that buzz that can be quantified, and Darley at Jonabell and Winstar Farm were the big winners.

Though it hardly seems possible, Khalid Abdullah and his Juddmonte Farms have outdone themselves in terms of audacious breeding in the creation of super-mare Enable, who on July 6, 2019, won the Coral Eclipse S.-G1 with ease, and with her trainer, John Gosden, saying she was only 85% fit. She is en route to her third Prix de le Arc de Triomph S.-G1, which she has won two years in a row, beating the boys with astonishing ease.

The Group One Irish Derby at the Curragh on June 29 represented a hat trick not often seen. The first three finishers, Sovereign, Anthony Van Dyck and Norway, were all sons of the magnificent Galileo, Coolmore’s king. All trained by Aidan O’Brien. All owned by the triumvirate of Magnier/Smith/Tabor. The only differences in the three, apart from very minor differences in pedigree, is that O’Brien couldn’t clone a single jockey to ride all three, and so was dependent on various riders to claim the Irish Derby as his own, as he has done six times before.

On Irish Derby Day, another race may have stolen the show: the Railway S.-G2, a showcase for some of the best two-year-olds, featuring Monarch of Egypt, a much-touted son of American Pharoah, and the highly esteemed Fort Myers, a son of War Front, also Coolmore-owned, out of a Galileo mare, whose second dam is a full sister to the great Giant’s Causeway.

Has anyone else noted the phenomenon of the Nijinsky II eye? I’ve been aware of it for years now, and was reminded of it when Simply Breathless got her close-up in the paddock at Santa Anita as she awaited her photo op in the winners’ circle after the Wilshire S.-G3, a stunning upset for a truly gorgeous mare. Simply Breathless was bred in Great Britain, and I was unfamiliar with her pedigree, though aware of the brilliant campaign her trainer, Neil Drysdale, had planned for her since her importation. Then I saw that eye.

Monongahela’s longshot win in the Philip H. Iselin S.-G3 on 6/22/19 was a thrill for all pedigree nerds, as he may be the lone representative of a long-lost sireline, that of the great Round Table and his son Princequillo, who still influence the breed through his female offspring, through his son Apalachee and his grandson K One King. Monongahela is a five-year old son of K One King, trained by Jason Servis and ridden yesterday by Jose Lezcano, and the horse now has six wins from 24 starts, with total earnings of $381,043.