Scat Daddy was a great sire, gone way too soon. Once considered a one-dimensional patriarch of sprinters on grass, his last few crops have featured a Triple Crown winner, Justify, able to get a distance on dirt, clearly. Not to mention many others, on turf, dirt and synthetic surfaces, at any distance, most recently the winner of the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate, Anothertwistafate, running off by seven lengths on the Tapeta surface, and his grandson, Onthewaytonevrland, winning the Rushaway S. on Turfway Park’s big day, by 3 ½ lengths, also on the synthetic, AWT surface.
Europe’s leading freshman sire in 2018 and father of Onthewaytonevrland, No Nay Never, a son of Scat Daddy, broke his maiden on dirt at Keeneland, then went on to win the Prix Morny-G1 on turf, along with other group wins, making him a winner on dirt, turf and synthetic. Scat Daddy’s son, Flameaway, was also a winner yesterday, 3/9, of the Challenger S. at Tampa, on dirt. If one measure of a stallion’s greatness is his ability to get progeny who can win on any surface at the highest levels, then Scat Daddy deserves his laurels.
A great sire is a great sire, regardless of surface, and Scat Daddy proves this with his runners, historically successful on turf, more recently successful on dirt, and lately on synthetic surfaces. With his best sons, such as No Nay Never, becoming sires in their own right with offspring winning on synthetic surfaces, the argument for the safer, more forgiving synthetic surfaces such as Tapeta, invented by trainer Michael Dickinson, must be made via an examination of Scat Daddy and his legacy.
During the short-lived synthetic surface revolution of the early 2000s, most major tracks made the switch to synthetic surfaces over dirt, but did so in a rapid and slipshod manner, quickly returning to dirt after this attempt, at least in part because trainers were resistant to change, though statistics showed the synthetic surfaces to cause far fewer catastrophic breakdowns and injuries. The tracks that kept their synthetic surfaces were Golden Gate Fields, Woodbine and Turfway Park, where sons and grandsons of Scat Daddy have recently flourished.
Rather than destroying the so-called dirt-biased American breeding industry, a switch to quality synthetic surfaces should reinforce the greatness of such sires as Scat Daddy, and give their progeny longer, healthier careers. Scat Daddy and his sons at stud prove the myth of the dirt-bias in American breeding, and indicate that the future of racing might instead be opened up, making many current dirt and turf sires competitive in ways we can only imagine.
— Roberta Smoodin
In light of the Santa Anita breakdowns, a Thoroughbred People fan has suggested and ventured that “Vehicular traffic (tractor and ambulance) is highly destructive to the cushion. Horse drawn harrows and gate have great advantages.”
Saturday March 2nd’s 14-race program at Gulfstream Park, highlighted by Code of Honor’s victory in the 73rd running of the Xpressbet.com Fountain of Youth (G2), produced a record total handle on Fountain of Youth Day of $31,230,535, a 9-percent increase over last year’s 14-race program.
Fountain of Youth day at Gulfstream turned out to be not so much a coronation, but a confusion. Just when one hoped that the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks picture would be clarified, speed duels and disappointment ruled the day. In the Fountain of Youth S.-G2 itself, favored Juddmonte hero Hidden Scroll demonstrated little of the power that was expected of him, leaving Bill Mott scratching his head, and William Farish, squire of Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky, thrilled by the performance of his home-bred Code of Honor.
Jockey David Egan, England’s champion apprentice of 2017, registered his first North American victory when Mohan Stable’s Bobby G galloped to a 5 ½-length win in Friday’s fourth race at Laurel Park.
The latest list of leading sires, as of the end of February, 2019, couldn’t be more telling. The changing of the millennium has marked a tidal shift in leading stallions, except for grand old Malibu Moon (1997), a perennial leading sire and cranky old man. When you go to see him at Spendthrift Farm, you are warned about his lack of patience and bad temper, but he is still magnificent, with his huge hind end, glorious shoulder, and sturdy, strong-boned look of his sire, A.P. Indy. Having owned a Malibu Moon mare who had inherited all of his good looks, I know how he stamps his offspring.
Pope McLean’s 
Record prize money for horsemen will be distributed at Churchill Downs’ 145th Spring Meet thanks to early returns from state-of-the-art historical racing machines at Derby City Gaming.
Name: Edward Coletti Jr. 
As elusive as a snow leopard, as mythic as a unicorn, the colt that many consider the most promising and thrilling Kentucky Derby prospect, who disappeared after destroying competition last summer at two -years-old, Instagrand, has reappeared. After winning the August 11, 2018 running of the Grade 2 Best Pal S. at Del Mar, Instagrand went into hiding, with Jerry Hollendorfer, his trainer, being as closed-mouthed as usual about when he would next start, and his whereabouts. We may never know what transpired to make this stunning colt vanish so completely.