In memory of Better Than Honour

Better Than Honour, who once sold for a broodmare world record of $14 million, went gently into that good night on October 14, 2020. As the 157th running of the Grade 1, $2 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets draws nigh, she has not been forgotten. Nor have her extraordinary accomplishments in the history of this race and contributions to the sport of thoroughbred racing been diminished.

If anything, the luster on the crown of the 2007 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year - who is the only one to produce back-to-back Belmont Stakes winners - is even more luminous now with the passage of time.

“Words can’t adequately describe her importance to me, to the breed, and to the industry, and how unique she was. She was a breed within the breed. She was a rarity. She was the epitome of class,” said her former owner John G. Sikura, the driving force and president of Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms in Kentucky and one of the industry’s leading horsemen.

Better Than Honour’s mark on the Belmont Stakes is indelible.

When it was contested at 1 1/2-miles on the Belmont Park oval, she produced the Kiaran McLaughlin-trained winner of the 2006 edition, Jazil, and in 2007 her daughter Rags to Riches won the “Test of the Champion” for the Coolmore connections and Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Rags to Riches, the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks-winner by 1992 Belmont Stakes winner A.P. Indy, beat eventual dual Horse of the Year and future Hall of Famer Curlin by a half-length in one of the most thrilling editions of the race, and she made history by becoming only the third filly to win and the first since Tanya in 1905.

There’s even more.

In 2008, Better Than Honour’s Mineshaft colt Casino Drive, a paternal grandson of A.P. Indy, was one of the early Belmont favorites after winning the Grade 2 Peter Pan, the traditional local prep race. Unfortunately, Casino Drive was a race day scratch due to a stone bruise in his left hind heel.

Then 15 years later Better Than Honour figured prominently in the Belmont outcome again. Her great-grandson Arcangelo, by Arrogate and out of Modeling, was victorious and trainer Jena Antonucci became the first and only female trainer to win a Triple Crown race. Sikura bred both Modeling and her dam Teeming, the first of Better Than Honour’s 10 foals delivered between 2001 and 2013.

“That’s one of the tests of time. Every year Better Than Honour’s legend grows. The importance of her achievement historically becomes increasingly more unique. It’s one of those things like a patina on a great piece of art. Over time it adds more luster and becomes more glowing as it ages. So does the memory of that achievement,” said the owner of Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm, where Curlin stands.

Better Than Honour was bred “in the purple” by Wall Street mogul Carl Icahn’s Foxfield and foaled in 1996. She was by Deputy Minister out of the Blushing Groom mare Blush With Pride, a multiple top-level winner with the 1982 Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on her resume. Her second dam was the 1982 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Best in Show. The H.H. Aga Khan IV’s Blushing Groom was both a Champion racehorse and sire in Europe.

As a yearling Better Than Honour was initially sold at the 1997 Keeneland July Select auction to Robert Waxman for $750,000 and sent to the barn of John Kimmel, for whom she won Aqueduct’s 1998 Grade 2 Demoiselle at age 2. As a sophomore she raced three times, all in graded stakes in New York, before an ankle injury in the Grade 1 Mother Goose ended her career.

Her talent and impeccable lineage made her irresistible to Sikura.

“It’s such a long story with so many twists and turns that it’s almost hard to chart and follow,” he recalled. “I bought her privately from Bob Waxman. I’d followed her career, and I knew that I had to have her upon her retirement if I could do it. I loved Traffic Judge [sire of Best in Show] and Blushing Groom. She was by Deputy Minister, who was another horse I loved. He turned out to be a prolific broodmare sire, one of the most influential and important of many generations. So, all the aspects of that pedigree were like my favorite dinner. Everything I wanted was there.

“She was regal, she was elegant, she was beautiful inside and out, she was feminine. From a pedigree point of view, she was everything that I loved. Then who could imagine or be so greedy as to think that she would have done all that she has done?” continued Sikura, who bred 1997 Belmont winner Touch Gold by Deputy Minister. “You’d have to be writing a fictional tale for all of that to come true.”

Despite the emotional attachment, Sikura is in the breeding business. He sold Better Than Honour to the Gumberg family’s Skara Glen Stable when she was in foal to Seeking the Gold with Jazil. In turn, Coolmore bought her at auction in 2004 at for $2 million and she joined the global powerhouse’s broodmare band in Ireland. Her Giant’s Causeway 2006 colt named Man of Iron was trained by Aidan O’Brien and won the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Marathon.

Though it was a difficult decision to sell Better Than Honour, Sikura retained Teeming with her genetic blueprint. Teeming foaled seven fillies in a row who have all earned black type, including Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet winner Streaming. Teeming’s daughter Honouring is the dam of 2023 Canadian champion Tyson. Today the legacy continues with 15 Better Than Honour granddaughters in Hill ‘n’ Dale’s band.

“There are only a few pedigrees in America like Courtly Dee [1983 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year] and Better Than Honour, and Juddmonte has some mares of that ilk. But they are extremely, extremely rare. I don’t think you can even dream that big. I’ve been fortunate to be around her and to chart the path and career of some very important horses,” said Sikura. “She was as unique as Curlin is in our stud barn. We’ve had some other pedigrees that have been significant but hers would be at the absolute very top. You could write her resume next to the greats of the breed. That’s who she was.”

Sikura, who partnered with Mike Moreno’s Southern Equine Stables for a 30-70 percent split, bought Better Than Honour back from Coolmore after Jazil won the 2006 Belmont. In 2008 she was offered as part of the dispersal sale of their joint holdings and was recognized by bidders as the rarest of jewels.

The hammer came down at $14 million [$21 million today] when Moreno bought her outright. The price paid set the world record that has never been equaled for a broodmare and is the second highest amount [$16 million for The Green Monkey] paid for any thoroughbred at auction.

Better Than Honour left Hill ‘n’ Dale for what was at the time Moreno’s Southern Equine Farm in Midway, Kentucky. She produced three more foals, with her last delivered in 2013 and unraced, and then lived out a luxurious retirement at what is now Cypress Creek Farm.

When she began to founder in the fall of 2020, she was euthanized to spare her the indignity of the inevitable pain and suffering.

“I was with her for the last four or five years of her life. I’ve been around horses all my life and she was very special. She breathed rare air. She absolutely knew who she was and had that regal air about her. She was the queen. That’s how she carried herself. She had a ton of presence,” said Farm Manager Ryder Finney. “She got constant attention and lots of treats, as she should. She loved her carrots and her mints, and she got plenty of them. She got whatever her heart desired. She held queen status and was high priority from Day One. It was an honor to take care of her.”

Better Than Honour received the highest tribute reserved exclusively for the titans of the sport. While only the head, heart, and hooves- signifying intelligence, courage and speed- of most Thoroughbreds are buried, she was interred entirely whole on the farm.

Throughout history, only nine broodmares have produced two U.S. Classic winners, with Puca being the most recent. Purchased at auction by John Stewart’s Resolute Racing for $2.9 million in 2023, her full-brother colts Mage and Dornoch won the 2023 Grade 1 Kentucky Derby and the 2024 Grade 1 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets, respectively. Puca now has the chance to equal Better Than Honour’s feat of producing back-to-back Belmont winners.

Puca is the dam of Baeza, who ran third in this year’s Kentucky Derby and will likely be one of the favorites in the race.

“In recent times, what that mare Puca has done, what Better Than Honour has done, those are very unique accomplishments,” said Sikura. “But in many minds nothing stands up to producing two horses who won the Belmont in back-to-back years, and one of them is a filly, Rags to Riches, who was nominated to the Hall of Fame.”

Better Than Honour’s award as the 2007 Broodmare of the Year is held in a place of utmost respect at Hill ‘n’ Dale on the wall behind Sikura’s desk, where he still looks at it every day with fond remembrance. Her halter is encased in a shadow box and is also there.

“Those are both prized possessions. I have a few items that are near and dear to me. I have pictures of me with Northern Dancer, Seattle Slew, and Mr. Prospector. In each of those I’m holding the horse. That is my wall. These things are very personal to me,” he said. “Better Than Honour as a broodmare is the equal of [those] male horses and their accomplishments.”

Can lightning strike twice?

“Better Than Honour is the culmination of a dream. She is like the rarest Ferrari or Picasso and the model of excellence, but probably excellence would be divine intervention. She was just above and beyond. It is almost unfathomable what she achieved. They’re so infrequent that you almost cynically believe that they don’t exist or can’t happen. I think that certain emotions and certain achievements are so rare that they’re indelibly etched in your memory when they happen. You maybe see them once or twice in a lifetime. I’ve been lucky,” said Sikura. “I’m hoping to have another one. I’m hopeful that more and more of her daughters and granddaughters will rekindle the glory.”