Penn National hosts the next two Pennsylvania-bred restricted stakes on Penn Mile Day, May 29, 2026. Named after prominent Pennsylvania-bred race horses, both stakes are on the turf, The Lyphard Stakes, for registered Pennsylvania bred fillies and mares age three and up going one mile and one sixteenth, and the Alphabet Soup Handicap, for registered Pennsylvania-bred horses age three and up going one mile and one sixteenth. Each offer a $75,000 purse.
Kim Pratt Photo
One of the most important and influential sires world-wide was a Pennsylvania-bred named Lyphard. Bred by Mrs. J.O. Burgwin of Sewickley, PA, she sold Lyphard as a weanling at the 1969 Keeneland November Sale to a horseman from Ireland named Tim Rogers who resold him at Newmarket, England to leading French trainer, Alec Head. Head bought Lyphard for Madame Germaine Wertheimer, widow of Pierre Wertheimer of the House of Chanel, and she named him in honor of Ukrainian-born French ballet dancer and choreographer Serge Lifar.
By champion and classic sire Northern Dancer, out of Goofed, Lyphard competed in France, England, and Ireland where he won six of his twelve starts including back-to-back Group One races. He was most successful at one mile and was known for his exceptional closing speed. He retired at the end of the 1972 racing season and was sent to stud in Normandy, France.
Lyphard was leading sire in France in 1978 and 1979 and was leading broodmare sire in 1985. Madame Wertheimer died in 1974, and after the 1977 breeding season, Lyphard was sent to Gainesway Farm in Kentucky where he remained for the rest of his life.
Lyphard stood for nineteen years at Gainesway until he was pensioned in 1996 at age twenty-seven. In 2005, he was humanely destroyed at age thirty-six due to old age and was buried at Gainesway Farm. As a sire, Lyphard’s progeny made an impact on racing around the world. His best runners include European Horse of the Year, Dancing Brave, and Manila, called “one of the best long-distance turf horses in America.” He sired elite turf runners around the world, but he is best known for his legacy as a broodmare sire globally. The Lyphard Stakes at Penn National is appropriately named as a race for Pennsylvania-bred fillies and mares in honor of the great Lyphard.
Alphabet Soup, bred by Roy Lerman, Southeast Associates, and foaled at Center Hill Farm in Pennsylvania, was sold to Californian, Georgia Ridder. He was shipped to trainer David Hofmans in California where he ran all but one race of his career. He was a late bloomer and won his first stake at age four and retired with ten wins, three seconds, and six thirds in twenty-four starts with earnings of $2,990,270.
By Cozzene out of Illiterate, Alphabet Soup won the Grade 3 Native Diver and the Grade 2 Del Mar Breeders’ Cup, both in California, but he is best known for his exciting win in the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Woodbine Racetrack when he set a track record for one mile and one quarter and defeated Louis Quatorze and the phenomenal Cigar.
Bought out by Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs, Alphabet Soup was sent to stud in 1998. He sired forty- eight stake winners including Grade 1 winner, Egg Drop, Sal the Barber, winner of the Calder Derby, and Silver Whistle, Pan American Stakes.
Kim Pratt Photo
Alphabet Soup retired from stud duty in 2015 and moved to Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement in Georgetown, Kentucky where he remained until his death at age thirty in 2022. He left behind his best friend at Old Friends, Gorgeous George, the donkey.
Penn Mile Day offers the best in statewide turf competition. Neither Lyphard nor Alphabet Soup competed in Pennsylvania, but the Lyphard Stakes and the Alphabet Soup Handicap showcase the best turf specialists in the state. Post time is 5 P.M.
