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MISCHIEF ruled again, but the pack is coming
Gun Runner and Curlin had good years, but 2023 saw Justify come of age with his second crop and the son of Scat Daddy could have champion two-year-olds on both sides of Atlantic
WITH BREEDERS’ CUP weekend firmly in the rearview mirror, the racing season in the US is close to being wrapped up and for the fifth straight year, Into Mischief is all but guaranteed another champion sires’ title.
The only stallion with progeny earnings of over $20 million in the US in 2023, he won’t reach his record-breaking mark of $28,106,800 of 2022 but he continues to set the pace for all stallions in the country.
While it wasn’t a typical year for Into Mischief, who didn’t have a Breeders’ Cup winner for the first time since 2018, his “under par performance” proved to be enough for him to have a large lead in all but two of the stakes categories for leading sires, as well.
As of November 5, he led all stallions with 25 stakes winners, 48 stakes performers, 14 graded stakes winners, and 28 graded stakes performers.
While he had a large lead in many of those stakes categories, he tied with Gun Runner’s 11 Grade 1 performers at the top of that list.
Gun Runner again continues to impress with the three crops of racing age he has had so far, and he not only leads his generational sires’ table but also is amongst the best on the general sires’ list in many categories.
Sitting third by earnings after Breeders’ Cup weekend, Gun Runner registered another year with multiple Grade 1 winners, three of those showed off the sire’s versatility.
His juvenile Locked won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, and though both Echo Zulu and Gunite won Grade 1s their juvenile season they both registered another success at the top level as four-year-olds this year.
Gun Runner himself got better with age so it’s no surprise to see his runners competing at Grade 1 level throughout their careers, though it is interesting to note that he seems to be siring smart sprinters as well as distance runners.
Gun Runner himself never won a race over less than a mile with all of his Grade 1 victories coming over 1m1f or further.
Gun Runner has been a standout sire since his freshman year so it’s no surprise to see him as the one in the shadow of Into Mischief.
One challenger who has come to prominence this year – and he features in the European report, too – is Justify.
That stallion left Breeders’ Cup weekend tied with Into Mischief by number of Grade 1 winners at six.
An undefeated Triple Crown winner, it was guaranteed from the time Justify won the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes that he’d be attracting a stellar book of mares.
When he was snapped up to stand at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud he would be set for a top book, and the stallion hasn’t disappointed with the quality of runners he put out.
The one surprising thing going into the fall though was, perhaps, that he only had two Grade 1 winners from his first two crops.
Arabian Lion became his sire’s first Grade 1 winner almost exactly five years to the day after he won the Triple Crown in the 7f Woody Stephens Stakes (G1).
Versatility has been the name of the game with Scat Daddy sons and Aspen Grove showed that Justify is no different when she won the 1m2f Belmont Oaks (G1) on Turf a month later.
But, outside of those two, and Verifying finishing a close second in April’s Grade1 Blue Grass Stakes, Justify had been pretty quiet at the top level until October.
When Opera Spinger crossed the line in front in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac in France, it seemed to open the Justify floodgate.
The following weekend Just F Y I showed that his progeny can handle the slop with victory in the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes, and then City Of Troy annexed the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes in Newmarket the next weekend.
The stallion’s success culminated at Santa Anita on the first Friday of November though when daughters Just F Y I and Hard To Justify won back-to-back Breeders’ Cup races with Just F Y I’s win in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, almost definitely securing her Eclipse championship honours, one race before Hard To Justify remained undefeated in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
It is likely that Justify will have champion juveniles on two different continents with City Of Troy also looking like he’ll get champion two-year-old male honours in Europe.
Not surprisingly, Justify’s stud fee has doubled to $200,000 in 2024 after his early October successes, putting him just $50,000 less than Into Mischief and Gun Runner.
Those two are joined by Curlin as the most expensive stallions in North America this year, while Quality Road joins Justify in the $200,000 club.
As of this writing, nine stallions will be standing for $150,000 or more in 2024 with all but Flightline, who stands for $150,000, down from the $200,000 he stood for this season, having at least three crops of racing age on the track.
The Curlin’s dozen
Curlin had another big year with his 12 stakes winners in 2023, led by five Grade 1 winners.
The stallion is almost guaranteed to have at least two Eclipse champions after Idiomatic won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and Elite Power repeated in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, both running for Juddmonte.
Named last year’s champion male sprinter, Elite Power’s only loss of 2023 came at the hands of Gun Runner’s Gunite when second in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes in August before he turned the tables in November when the pair finished first and second at the Breeders’ Cup.
Elite Power retired after that race and is set to stand for $50,000 in 2024 – second only to Curlin son Cody’s Wish, who joins the Darley roster at $75,000.
After a few quiet years in the stallion barn after losing Arrogate in 2020, Juddmonte stands both Elite Power and Mandaloun (Into Mischief).
A homebred for Juddmonte, Idiomatic burst onto the scene in January with a 6l romp at Turfway Park. The filly won all three of her starts at the track this season, culminating in the Latonia Stakes on March 25 for her first stakes victory before stepping up to graded stakes company in the Grade 2 Ruffian.
She finished second to Pass The Champagne, but got back in front for the rest of the year, and included in her five-race win streak after the Ruffian were three straight Grade 1 victories. The streak of success will have some debating if she should also take Horse of the Year honours.
Curlin may also have a third champion on his hands in the older Dirt male category after Cody’s Wish also won three Grade 1s and finished third in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes.
The only thing that may stand in that four-year-old’s way when it comes to taking home the Eclipse Award is the horse whom he finished third to in that race.
White Abarrio (Race Day) finished eighth in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup to kick off the year before a drop in class to an allowance optional claimer saw him visit the winner’s circle.
Switched to Rick Dutrow Jr.’s barn after controversy with his former trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., he finished third to the aforementioned Cody’s Wish in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap before back-to-back victories in the Whitney Stakes (G1) and the Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).
White Abarrio’s successes are a boon for the South Korea breeding industry, who purchased his sire Race Day in late 2020 and will see his first crop of Korea-breds hit the track next year.
Spendthrift freshmen sires dominate
Spendthrift freshmen have a stranglehold on the first crop sires’ list this year with four of their five freshmen filling out the top four spots by earnings and the fifth sitting 13th.
Their leading freshman Maximus Mischief is proving to be a good stallion for the farm in more ways than one since he is by their champion Into Mischief.
Spendthrift has put a lot of stock not only in Into Mischief as a sire but also as a sire-ofsires with three sons currently on the roster, including Horse of the Year Authentic, who has first runners in 2024.
Maximus Mischief leads by number of winners on 29 as of November 5 eight ahead of his studmate Mitole with the four Spendthrift stallions also taking the top four spots in that category as well.
But, when it comes down to the first-crop sires’ championship, which is determined by earnings, Maximum Mischief may still not end up the champion.
The top four are separated by just $94,270 with the fifth-place stallion $225,000 behind him.
Most of the major juvenile races have already run so this could be a race that goes all the way until the final card on December 31.
That fifth place stallion by earnings is none other than Scat Daddy’s son Flameaway, who leads all freshmen with his three stakes winners in 2023.
The stallion sees a rise in his fee in 2024, going from $7,500 to $20,000. His three stakes winners means Scat Daddy sons lead both the first and second crop sires’ list by number of stakes winners with Justify filling that spot in every stakes category as well as earnings.
That championship sires’ battle is another close one with Good Magic $368,465 behind Justify after Breeders’ Cup weekend.
The Curlin son made his own splash earlier this year as the sire of Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner Mage and is second to Justify in every stakes category as well.
Good Magic has seen a steady climb in his stud fee the last two years, going from $30,000 to $50,000 from 2022 to 2023 then getting another bump to $125,000 in 2024.
