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Owner/Breeder Brian Burns Passes Aged 78

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Owner-Breeder Brian Daniel Burns has passed at the age of 78 following a brief battle with cancer.

Larger than life with an entrepreneurial spirit, Burns launched his own company in 1980, underwriting disability insurance for athletes. The high-profile company worked with major sports leagues like the NFL and the MLB and their players. He eventually sold the company in 2007.

Burns’s first foray into the horse racing game was an instant and spectacular success.

He and his father Jimmy–“The name’s Jimmy,” he would say if addressed by the formal Mr. Burns–had long aspired to purchase a racehorse together. But Jimmy died before that became a reality.

At the March 1991 Ocala Breeders’ Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training, Burns bought a colt for a song and called him after his father.

The Name’s Jimmy won the 1992 GIII Will Rogers Handicap and GII American Derby, in the process minting a long and successful relationship with the sport for his owner, who went under the Mount Joy Stables moniker. At his side through most of that run was Crestwood Farm, where Burns boarded his mares for decades.

Three years later at the Keeneland September Yearling sale, Burns bought a Known Fact filly with crooked legs who paddled when she walked. He named her Twin Propellers. She won the 1996 Thelma Stakes. But she was an even better broodmare.

Twin Propellers’ French Deputy filly Air France produced two graded stakes winners. Overdriven (Tale of the Cat) won the 2011 Sanford Stakes for trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole.

Burns held onto Smooth Air (Smooth Jazz), who finished second in the 2008 GI Florida Derby. After running down the field in that year’s Kentucky Derby, Smooth Air won the GII Ohio Derby and the following year’s GII Gulfstream Park Handicap for trainer Bennie Stutts Jr.

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) named Burns their member of the month in March of 2021. In an accompanying profile, Burns discussed his approach to owning and breeding.

“We got in the game to breed to sell to pay for the racing, to be honest,” he said, “and if they didn’t get the price that we wanted, we’d race the horses. And in fact, one horse, Predawn Raid, nobody would give me a thousand for him and he won the [2003] Fred [W.] Hooper [Handicap], which was a grade three.”

Burns added: “I firmly believe it’s the female families that make racehorses. And when you’re lucky enough…if it’s a boy, it’d go in the ring; colts, I’d sell. But the girls from the family, they stay with me now.”

One of the fillies that stayed was Mount Joy homebred Super Phoebe (Malabar Gold), another out of Air France.

In 2015, Super Phoebe produced a filly by Crestwood Farm stallion Get Stormy named Got Stormy, who would go on to become a mare of rare brilliance and durability for trainer Mark Casse.

During a career that encompassed $2,096,553 in earnings, Got Stormy won the GI Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga in 2019 and 2021, the GI Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar in 2019, and finished second in the 2019 GI Breeders’ Cup Mile.

An active outdoorsman, Burns spent much of his later years either fishing in the waters of Cabo San Lucas or golfing and clay shooting in the mountains of Montana. He carried on riding until a ripe age.

The 2021 TOBA profile recounted a riding incident the year prior, when Burns fractured 11 ribs, punctured a lung, and went into septic shock. For two hours, Burns was apparently pronounced dead.

“The doctors said they’d done everything they could,” he recalled, in the TOBA profile. “They were calling Jan, my wife, to turn the machine off.”

Quite suddenly, however, Burns’s vitals sprung back to life. He was home nine days later.

According to an online obituary, a visitation will be held on Wednesday, April 29th, 11:00 AM until the memorial mass starting at 12:00 PM – St. Patrick Church (New) – 928 W Everett Road, Lake Forest, IL 60045.

In lieu of flowers, the obit notes, please consider making a donation in Burns’s name to one of his favorite charities: Old Friends Equine for Retired Thoroughbreds, the Folded Flag Foundation, St. Judes Childrens Hospital, or The Billfish Foundation.

The post Owner/Breeder Brian Burns Passes Aged 78 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Five Fastest Maidens for the Week of April 19-26, 2026

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It was a week of unlikely maiden performances: a staggering 106 debut Beyer and two fast runners from a rare 1 1/4-mile maiden race.

5) LATE NIGHT TEXT, 4/23-3rd, 7 furlongs (VIDEO)
Beyer Speed Figure- 83
(f, 3, by Into Mischief-Arrifana, by Curlin)
O-Daugherty Racing and 24th Road Racing. B-LNJ Foxwoods & Gainesway Thoroughbreds (Ky). T-Saffie Joseph Jr. J-Micah Husbands.

Running for Joseph for the first time, Late Night Text improved his previous top Beyer Speed Figure by 11 points in his sixth career start to defeat a pair of Brad Cox-trained favorites (including Godolphin’s third-place finisher Delightfully, a full-sister to two-time champion Essential Quality). First foal to race from stakes-winning and GSP dam Arrifana, who was 5-for-6 lifetime with a best Beyer of 91.

4) RAGS OVER RICHES, SA, 4/25-3rd, 6 furlongs (VIDEO)
Beyer Speed Figure- 83
(c, 3, by Mendelssohn-Welcome Speech, by Henrythenavigator)
O-Sayjay Racing. B-William Harrigan, Mike Pietrangelo and Mark McEntee (Ky). T-Richard Baltas. J-Armando Ayuso.

His debut victory marked a double triumph over low expectations. First, he was bought as a yearling by Steve Young’s Sayjay Racing for just $40,000 after RNAing as a weanling for $50,000. And last week at Santa Anita, he went to post as the 19-1 longest shot in a six-horse sprint field (his dam had zero speed and ran long on the turf), yet rushed past the leaders in midstretch en route to a 4-length triumph. And in case you’re wondering, there is zero connection to Belmont winner Rags to Riches.

3) DIRECT STRIKE, CD, 4/26-8th, 1 1/4-miles (VIDEO)
Beyer Speed Figure- 84 (2nd)
(c, 3, by Into Mischief-Day of Victory, by Victory Gallop)
O-Qatar Racing, Mountmellick Farm and Hunter Valley Farm. B-Cypress Creek Equine. T-Brad Cox. J-Irad Ortiz Jr.

After setting the pace, he couldn’t hold off Tiernanogue (below), who also beat him at Fair Grounds. But he keeps getting better numbers with each start. And his $500,000 yearling pricetag reflects his solid pedigree. Into Mischief needs no introduction, and his now-21-year-old dam also produced Gr. I winner Finley’sluckycharm and is a half-sister to multiple Gr. I winner Pure Clan and Gr. II winner Greater Good.

2) TIERNANOGUE, CD, 4/26-8th, 1 1/4-miles (VIDEO)
Beyer Speed Figure- 85
(c, 3, by Quality Road-Spritz, by Awesome Again)
O-Mulberry Racing. B-Gary Holland (Ky). T-Brendan Walsh. J-Tyler Gaffalione.

Billionaire Australian investor Mike Gregg is making a splash in racing down under, but Tiernanogue is his first U.S. winner in 16 total starts. The $300,000 yearling purchase has been improving with racing and with added distance, and gradually wore down Direct Strike in a manner indicating he probably wouldn’t mind a mile-and-a-half. First foal of dam Spritz, stakes placed on the track but nowhere near as successful as her half-sister Judy the Beauty, the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (Gr. I) winner.

1) MASHALLAH, KEE, 4/23-6th, 6 furlongs (VIDEO)
Beyer Speed Figure- 106
(f, 3, by Maxfield-All in With Aces, by Quiet American)
O-JR Ranch. B-Taylor Made Stallions, Louis Brooks Ranch, Bayshore Stables et al (Ky). T-Brendan Walsh. J-Joel Rosario.

It’s a Brendan Walsh exacta at the top of the rankings, but this one wins by a pole. She became the 20th horse since Beyer Speed Figures were first published in DRF in 1991 to record a figure of 106 or higher in a career debut. The fastest-ever was 114 by Maclean’s Music in 2011, who never raced again. And this bodes well for Mashallah’s future: of the other 18 on the list, 17 went on to run at least one more triple-digit Beyer.

The post Five Fastest Maidens for the Week of April 19-26, 2026 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Owner/Breeder Brian Burns Passes Aged 78

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Owner-Breeder Brian Daniel Burns has passed at the age of 78 following a brief battle with cancer.

Larger than life with an entrepreneurial spirit, Burns launched his own company in 1980, underwriting disability insurance for athletes. The high-profile company worked with major sports leagues like the NFL and the MLB and their players. He eventually sold the company in 2007.

Burns’s first foray into the horse racing game was an instant and spectacular success.

He and his father Jimmy–“The name’s Jimmy,” he would say if addressed by the formal Mr. Burns–had long aspired to purchase a racehorse together. But Jimmy died before that became a reality.

At the March 1991 Ocala Breeders’ Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training, Burns bought a colt for a song and called him after his father.

The Name’s Jimmy won the 1992 GIII Will Rogers Handicap and GII American Derby, in the process minting a long and successful relationship with the sport for his owner, who went under the Mount Joy Stables moniker. At his side through most of that run was Crestwood Farm, where Burns boarded his mares for decades.

Three years later at the Keeneland September Yearling sale, Burns bought a Known Fact filly with crooked legs who paddled when she walked. He named her Twin Propellers. She won the 1996 Thelma Stakes. But she was an even better broodmare.

Twin Propellers’ French Deputy filly Air France produced two graded stakes winners. Overdriven (Tale of the Cat) won the 2011 Sanford Stakes for trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole.

Burns held onto Smooth Air (Smooth Jazz), who finished second in the 2008 GI Florida Derby. After running down the field in that year’s Kentucky Derby, Smooth Air won the GII Ohio Derby and the following year’s GII Gulfstream Park Handicap for trainer Bennie Stutts Jr.

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) named Burns their member of the month in March of 2021. In an accompanying profile, Burns discussed his approach to owning and breeding.

“We got in the game to breed to sell to pay for the racing, to be honest,” he said, “and if they didn’t get the price that we wanted, we’d race the horses. And in fact, one horse, Predawn Raid, nobody would give me a thousand for him and he won the [2003] Fred [W.] Hooper [Handicap], which was a grade three.”

Burns added: “I firmly believe it’s the female families that make racehorses. And when you’re lucky enough…if it’s a boy, it’d go in the ring; colts, I’d sell. But the girls from the family, they stay with me now.”

One of the fillies that stayed was Mount Joy homebred Super Phoebe (Malabar Gold), another out of Air France.

In 2015, Super Phoebe produced a filly by Crestwood Farm stallion Get Stormy named Got Stormy, who would go on to become a mare of rare brilliance and durability for trainer Mark Casse.

During a career that encompassed $2,096,553 in earnings, Got Stormy won the GI Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga in 2019 and 2021, the GI Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar in 2019, and finished second in the 2019 GI Breeders’ Cup Mile.

An active outdoorsman, Burns spent much of his later years either fishing in the waters of Cabo San Lucas or golfing and clay shooting in the mountains of Montana. He carried on riding until a ripe age.

The 2021 TOBA profile recounted a riding incident the year prior, when Burns fractured 11 ribs, punctured a lung, and went into septic shock. For two hours, Burns was apparently pronounced dead.

“The doctors said they’d done everything they could,” he recalled, in the TOBA profile. “They were calling Jan, my wife, to turn the machine off.”

Quite suddenly, however, Burns’s vitals sprung back to life. He was home nine days later.

According to an online obituary, a visitation will be held on Wednesday, April 29th, 11:00 AM until the memorial mass starting at 12:00 PM – St. Patrick Church (New) – 928 W Everett Road, Lake Forest, IL 60045.

In lieu of flowers, the obit notes, please consider making a donation in Burns’s name to one of his favorite charities: Old Friends Equine for Retired Thoroughbreds, the Folded Flag Foundation, St. Judes Childrens Hospital, or The Billfish Foundation.

The post Owner/Breeder Brian Burns Passes Aged 78 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Five Fastest Maidens for the Week of April 19-26, 2026

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It was a week of unlikely maiden performances: a staggering 106 debut Beyer and two fast runners from a rare 1 1/4-mile maiden race.

5) LATE NIGHT TEXT, 4/23-3rd, 7 furlongs (VIDEO)
Beyer Speed Figure- 83
(f, 3, by Into Mischief-Arrifana, by Curlin)
O-Daugherty Racing and 24th Road Racing. B-LNJ Foxwoods & Gainesway Thoroughbreds (Ky). T-Saffie Joseph Jr. J-Micah Husbands.

Running for Joseph for the first time, Late Night Text improved his previous top Beyer Speed Figure by 11 points in his sixth career start to defeat a pair of Brad Cox-trained favorites (including Godolphin’s third-place finisher Delightfully, a full-sister to two-time champion Essential Quality). First foal to race from stakes-winning and GSP dam Arrifana, who was 5-for-6 lifetime with a best Beyer of 91.

4) RAGS OVER RICHES, SA, 4/25-3rd, 6 furlongs (VIDEO)
Beyer Speed Figure- 83
(c, 3, by Mendelssohn-Welcome Speech, by Henrythenavigator)
O-Sayjay Racing. B-William Harrigan, Mike Pietrangelo and Mark McEntee (Ky). T-Richard Baltas. J-Armando Ayuso.

His debut victory marked a double triumph over low expectations. First, he was bought as a yearling by Steve Young’s Sayjay Racing for just $40,000 after RNAing as a weanling for $50,000. And last week at Santa Anita, he went to post as the 19-1 longest shot in a six-horse sprint field (his dam had zero speed and ran long on the turf), yet rushed past the leaders in midstretch en route to a 4-length triumph. And in case you’re wondering, there is zero connection to Belmont winner Rags to Riches.

3) DIRECT STRIKE, CD, 4/26-8th, 1 1/4-miles (VIDEO)
Beyer Speed Figure- 84 (2nd)
(c, 3, by Into Mischief-Day of Victory, by Victory Gallop)
O-Qatar Racing, Mountmellick Farm and Hunter Valley Farm. B-Cypress Creek Equine. T-Brad Cox. J-Irad Ortiz Jr.

After setting the pace, he couldn’t hold off Tiernanogue (below), who also beat him at Fair Grounds. But he keeps getting better numbers with each start. And his $500,000 yearling pricetag reflects his solid pedigree. Into Mischief needs no introduction, and his now-21-year-old dam also produced Gr. I winner Finley’sluckycharm and is a half-sister to multiple Gr. I winner Pure Clan and Gr. II winner Greater Good.

2) TIERNANOGUE, CD, 4/26-8th, 1 1/4-miles (VIDEO)
Beyer Speed Figure- 85
(c, 3, by Quality Road-Spritz, by Awesome Again)
O-Mulberry Racing. B-Gary Holland (Ky). T-Brendan Walsh. J-Tyler Gaffalione.

Billionaire Australian investor Mike Gregg is making a splash in racing down under, but Tiernanogue is his first U.S. winner in 16 total starts. The $300,000 yearling purchase has been improving with racing and with added distance, and gradually wore down Direct Strike in a manner indicating he probably wouldn’t mind a mile-and-a-half. First foal of dam Spritz, stakes placed on the track but nowhere near as successful as her half-sister Judy the Beauty, the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (Gr. I) winner.

1) MASHALLAH, KEE, 4/23-6th, 6 furlongs (VIDEO)
Beyer Speed Figure- 106
(f, 3, by Maxfield-All in With Aces, by Quiet American)
O-JR Ranch. B-Taylor Made Stallions, Louis Brooks Ranch, Bayshore Stables et al (Ky). T-Brendan Walsh. J-Joel Rosario.

It’s a Brendan Walsh exacta at the top of the rankings, but this one wins by a pole. She became the 20th horse since Beyer Speed Figures were first published in DRF in 1991 to record a figure of 106 or higher in a career debut. The fastest-ever was 114 by Maclean’s Music in 2011, who never raced again. And this bodes well for Mashallah’s future: of the other 18 on the list, 17 went on to run at least one more triple-digit Beyer.

The post Five Fastest Maidens for the Week of April 19-26, 2026 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.