{"id":239684,"date":"2026-04-21T00:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239684\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T00:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:26:07","slug":"bentornato-named-2025s-florida-bred-horse-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239684\/","title":{"rendered":"Bentornato Named 2025’s Florida-Bred Horse of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bentornato<\/a>\u00a0 is the 2025 Florida-bred Horse of the Year in a vote by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association board of directors and announced at the FTBOA Awards Gala held April 20\u00a0at the Circle Square Cultural Center in Ocala.<\/p>\n

Bentornato won the $1.84 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) Nov.\u00a01 at Del Mar<\/a>, becoming the sixth Florida-bred winner of the race with Eillo in 1984, Precisionist (1985), Smile (1986), Cherokee Run (1994), and Big Drama (2010). He is the 30th Florida-bred winner of a Breeders’ Cup race. He also won the Louisville Thoroughbred Society Stakes at Churchill Downs<\/a>\u00a0in September, earning $1,190,350 in his two starts in 2025, and was an Eclipse Award finalist in the champion male sprinter division.<\/p>\n

Bred by Susan and Charles Chu’s Tanma Corporation, Bentornato finished 2025 with career earnings of more than $2.3 million for owners Leon King Stable Corporation and Julia and Michael Iavarone. The Iavarones purchased 25% for $1 million at the Keeneland Championship Sale at Del Mar a few days before the Breeders’ Cup. Bentornato is by Bridlewood Farm stallion Valiant Minister<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 out of the Put It Back mare Her Special Way<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

The 2025 FTBOA Breeder of the Year, as voted by the FTBOA board, is presented for the seventh time to Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Stud. Live Oak Stud had previously been honored as FTBOA Breeder of the Year in 2006, 2007, 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021. In 2025, her homebreds earned $2,889,679 from 386 starts with 65 wins, 52 seconds, and 68 thirds.<\/p>\n

Weber’s Live Oak Plantation was also Florida’s Leading Owner in 2025, topping the Florida-bred earnings list with $3,120,3521 from 259 starts with 45 wins, 50 seconds, and 36 thirds. This is the eighth time Live Oak Plantation has garnered the title as Florida’s Leading Owner following 2011, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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For a record sixth consecutive year, Khozan<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 is the Florida Stallion of the Year with progeny earnings of $6,303,290. He earned the titles in 2020 ($3,521,813), 2021 ($3,671,794), 2022 ($4,513,950), 2023 ($6,292,158), and 2024 ($5,679,578).<\/p>\n

Khozan was represented in 2025 by the winners of seven stakes, and his leading earner with $203,120 was Dear Dad<\/a>\u00a0. Jasper Robusto, Hurricane Nelson<\/a>\u00a0, Khozalite<\/a>\u00a0, and Shaq Diesel<\/a>\u00a0 were among his stakes winners in 2025. He is property of Al Shaqab Racing and Stonehedge.<\/p>\n

Khozan stood the 2025 season at Ocala Stud.<\/p>\n

Leinster<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 was the state’s leading freshman sire and leading juvenile sire in 2025 with progeny earnings of $832,731 from nine winners and 22 starters. His leading money earner was multiple stakes winner and group 2-placed Lennilu<\/a>\u00a0, who banked $216,489 on the year. Leinster was also represented by stakes-placed runners Monster<\/a>\u00a0, Squire<\/a>\u00a0, and Bronze Bullet<\/a>\u00a0. Leinster stood at Pleasant Acres Stallions in 2025.<\/p>\n

Other Florida-bred champions recognized are champion 2-year-old male Camigol<\/a>\u00a0, champion 2-year-old filly Ground Support<\/a>\u00a0, champion 3-year-old male Macho Music<\/a>\u00a0, champion 3-year-old filly G W’s Girl<\/a>\u00a0, champion older female and champion female sprinter R Disaster<\/a>\u00a0, champion turf male Reef Runner<\/a>\u00a0, and champion turf female Queen Maxima<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Her Special Way, the dam of Bentornato, was named the 2025 Florida Broodmare of the Year. She is currently owned by Michael Sucher’s Champion Equine.<\/p>\n

The 2025 Joseph M. O’Farrell Memorial Award presented by Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company went to Keiber Rengifo’s Golden Rock Thoroughbreds and Stuart Morris. Morris consigned FTBOA Horse of the Year Bentornato to the 2022 OBS October Yearling Sale. Golden Rock Thoroughbreds consigned him to the 2023 OBS March Sale.<\/p>\n

Ashley and Vincent Mirarchi’s Rivermont Farm in Ocala was presented the 2025 Needles Award, recognizing an accomplished small breeder in Florida. Among the star Rivermont Farm homebreds in 2025 were Jasper Robusto, a multiple stakes winner in Japan. Rivermont-bred runners accounted for $805,410 in earnings last year.<\/p>\n

This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bentornato\u00a0 is the 2025 Florida-bred Horse of the Year in a vote by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[106137,106136,28,30,29,4734,106135,106133,106134,106131,106139,45703,106132,106140,45702,106138],"class_list":{"0":"post-239684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-ashley-mirarchi","9":"tag-charlote-weber","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-florida-thoroughbred-breeders-and-owners-association","14":"tag-g-ws-girl","15":"tag-golden-rock-thoroughbreds","16":"tag-keiber-rengifo","17":"tag-live-oak-stud","18":"tag-rivermont-farm","19":"tag-southeast-region","20":"tag-stuart-morris","21":"tag-thoroughbred-breeding","22":"tag-thoroughbred-racing","23":"tag-vincent-mirarchi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}