Alberta Stallion Owners Earn Big Rewards!

The Thoroughbred Breed Improvement Program will provide $2,380,244 in incentives to the Alberta Thoroughbred industry this season, including a $100,000 stallion bonus. With such rewards in place, it continues to pay to own a stallion in Alberta. Stallion owners with Alberta-bred progeny earning $10,000 or more during the calendar year may qualify to share in the stallion bonus.

Alberta-bred progeny may also earn bonuses based on their purse earnings in Alberta races, and with one of the strongest purse structures in Canada outside Ontario, these opportunities allow Alberta-sired runners to compete and succeed while strengthening the reputation and value of the province’s stallions.

Quality stallions are essential to producing competitive Alberta-bred racehorses and sustaining a strong breeding industry. By supporting stallion owners and encouraging continued investment in Alberta’s stallion roster, the program helps ensure breeders have access to strong bloodlines and opportunities to develop successful runners.

Qualifying stallion owners last season shared in rewarding payouts with the Breed Improvement Bonus distributing a total of $100,000 to 29 stallions at 3.25%. The following stallions took the top five spots in the stallion bonus payout in 2025.

Fed Biz earned the top spot on the Stallion Bonus leaderboard with a bonus of $34,636 and total eligible progeny earnings of $938,962. The graded stakes-winning son of Giant’s Causeway stood at Highfield Stock Farm from 2021 through 2025 and is consistently ranked among Canada’s leading sires.

Leading the Alberta-bred runners for Fed Biz was Relaxgodoitramone, who earned $125,300 last season with four victories, including the CTHS Sales Stakes, Alberta Premier’s Futurity, and the Canadian Juvenile Stakes. The two-year-old gelding is owned and bred by Highfield Investment Group.

Additional Alberta-bred runners that contributed to Fed Biz topping the stallion bonus standings include Thatswhatimherefor, No More Lies, Kamal, Tango for the Soul, and Whatwomenwant.

The second-place stallion bonus of $8,557 was earned by the Distorted Humor son It’s No Joke, whose progeny recorded $231,965 in eligible earnings last year. It’s No Joke is owned by Dr. Don Gibb of Lethbridge. The stallion’s leading runner was We the Fringe, who posted $55,255 in eligible earnings during the season. The 2021 mare was bred by Pierre Esquirol and is owned by Biggs Racing. Fifteen additional It’s No Joke runners also contributed to the stallion’s bonus, including Briar’s Rose, Amusing Way, Justinflation, Kulsum, and Flashing Joker.

The Cape Canaveral influence is still seen in many successful Alberta-bred runners today where the late sire is ranked third on the stallion bonus earners list. The Mr. Prospector son Cape Canaveral spent many years at the top of the leaderboard in Canada and was the foundation sire for Highfield for fourteen years. Cape Canaveral earned a stallion bonus of $8,059 for Highfield Investment Group with total progeny earnings of $218,471. The leading Cape Canaveral runner last season was Wedge Pond with earnings of $37,076. The 2018 gelding is owned by Mitch Sutherland and was bred by Highfield Investment Group Inc. Definitely Italian, Sizzlin Rose, Rough Customer, and Tennessee Moses were also among the stable of twenty Cape Canaveral-sired runners whose performances helped place the sire among the leaders on the Alberta Stallion Bonus list.

Fourth on the list is Car Talk whose progeny earnings put the Bernardini son in fourth position among the leaders on the Alberta stallion bonus list. Car Talk earned a stallion bonus of $4,829 with total eligible progeny earnings of $130,901. The leading runner among the seven Car Talk runners was the 2022 gelding, Fancy Like That, with eligible earnings of $39,250. The 2022 gelding is owned by Theo Ward and bred by Empire Equestrian. Suddenly Famous, Tabula Rosso, Cassano and Maverikie also helped to earn the Cat Talk stallion bonus.

Rounding out the top five on the stallion bonus list is the Any Given Saturday son, Saturdaynitelites, with a stallion bonus earned of $4,230. The Perry Pellerin owned sire had progeny earnings of $114,673 from twelve eligible runners. My Kind of Nite was the leading Saturdaynitelites runner with earnings of $15,532. The 2021 mare is owned by Perry Pellerin & Memory McCracken and was bred by Perry Pellerin. The fifteen Saturdaynitelites bonus earning runners also included names such as Babylikestorock, Turn It Loose, Dontbringmedown and Thrill of the Nite.

Exciting new stallions for the 2026 breeding season in Alberta include the Jimmy Creed son, Joey Freshwater and the Into Mischief son, Higher Standard. Joey Freshwater stands at Cambridge Park in St. Michael and Higher Standard stands at Esquirol Farms in Sherwood Park.

More information on these two new sires and other stallion listing information may be found on the new interactive national stallion directory on the CTHS National website at

https://www.cthsnational.com/stallion-directory, or find more information about the Horse Racing Alberta Thoroughbred Breed Improvement Program at https://www.cthsalta.com/breed-improvement-program