If a massive Thoroughbred conglomerate can also be a tight-knit family operation, Spendthrift Farm is such an operation, and it rode its connections to success as both an owner and breeder in 2025.
Remarkably, this would be the first Eclipse Award for Spendthrift, which was founded in 1937 by Leslie Combs II. The farm was revitalized into its current era by the late B. Wayne Hughes, starting in 2004. Hughes died in 2021, and the farm is now owned and overseen by his son-in-law Eric Gustavson and daughter Tammy Hughes Gustavson.
The farm’s exploits in 2025 were led by a pair of juveniles named for family and friends. Ted Noffey, whose name is a play on longtime farm manager Ned Toffey, completed an unbeaten campaign and likely locked up an Eclipse Award title by winning the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile presented by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, his third Grade 1 win of 2025. Tommy Jo, named for the Gustavsons’s granddaughter, also was a Grade 1-winning juvenile this season.
:: Full list of 2025 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories
Both of those juveniles are by Spendthrift kingpin Into Mischief, who earned his seventh consecutive North American general sire title in 2025. Spendthrift’s massive stallion roster also includes Yaupon, who gave the farm its fourth straight freshman sire title this season; leading second-crop sire Vekoma; and the top four third-crop sires in Omaha Beach, Mitole, Maximus Mischief, and Vino Rosso.
Tommy Jo races as a homebred for Spendthrift, while Ted Noffey was a $650,000 yearling purchase at the 2024 Keeneland September sale. Also purchased to race by the farm was Kopion, another Grade 1 winner in 2025.
Spendthrift trailed only Godolphin by graded stakes wins for owners, 22 to 10, and by Grade 1 wins for owners, eight to six.
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