Owner-breeder Morton Fink has won the second annual John Deere Award as outstanding breeder of the 2012 Breeders' Cup Challenge Series and the Breeders' Cup World Championships.
Fink's success in the Challenge Series and World Championships was highlighted by the scintillating victory of Wise Dan in the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT) at Santa Anita Park Nov. 3.
The John Deere Award, presented by Breeders' Cup and National Thoroughbred Racing Association Advantage, goes to the breeder who received the highest number of points based upon graded/group first-place finishes in the 73 Challenge races and the 15 World Championships races.
Fink earned 30 points, finishing four points ahead of Palides Investments N.V., Inc., breeders of Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic (gr. I) winner Royal Delta, and Stonehaven Steadings, who bred Shanghai Bobby , winner of the Grey Goose Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I).
Wise Dan, a 5-year-old gelding trained by Charles Lopresti, also won two Challenge races—the Woodbine Mile (gr. IT) and the Shadwell Turf Mile (gr. IT)—before winning the Breeders' Cup Mile in course record time of 1:31.78.
NTRA Advantage and John Deere will award Fink a John Deere TS Gator utility vehicle, which the breeder said he will give to Lopresti for use on the trainer's farm.
Morton Fink
Anne M. Eberhardt