Plenty of Henny in New York and New Jersey

Five-and-a-half lengths the best. Just three fifths of a second off the rack record. And dubbed a new TDN Rising Star to boot. Add it all up and you get the exciting first time starter and winner, Fort Hughes, by Henny Hughes. Quickest out of the gate, the two-year-old colt never looked back proving to be much the best in Belmont’s fourth race on October 10.

Out of champion and multiple G1 winner Forty Greeta, the juvenile is a Darley homebred and is his dam’s second foal. Forty Greeta also has a 2009 yearling by Darley stallion Hard Spun and a 2010 weanling by the World Champion three-year-old and G1-producing sire Bernardini.

Just 44 minutes earlier, it was another maiden winner by Henny Hughes (pictured), the two-year-old Hugh and Me, that hit the wire first at Monmouth. Content to sit just off the pace early on, this juvenile colt put a nose in front at the half-mile mark and stretched his lead out to three and one-half lengths at the wire.

Bred by Nina Gardner in Pennsylvania, Hugh and Me is a graduate of Keeneland’s September Yearling Sale in 2009 and races for George and Lori Hall. He is a half-brother to G1-placed Roman Invasion and is out of the Listed winner and G1-placed Princess V., she a half-sister to four stakes winners and two stakes-placed horses.

Henny Hughes, the only three-year-old ever to win the Vosburgh and King's Bishop, America's most celebrated G1 sprints, is the sire of nine other winners from his first America crop racing in 2010.

The powerfully-built chestnut is currently covering his third southern hemisphere book of mares at Darley Kelvinside at a fee of $19,250 including GST.