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Young sires setting the standard
So far this season, 29 US-based freshmen sires have sired a stakes performer, already ahead of the class of 2023, writes Melissa Bauer-Herzog
IF THERE WAS ANY WORRY that this year’s US freshman sires’ crop may be lacking, the stallions involved have firmly put any concerns to rest.
Of the 61 US stallions to sire at least one juvenile stakes winner this year, 13 are freshmen sires with Complexity leading all stallions by both juvenile stakes winners with three such scorers and two graded stakes winners as of September 12.
In all, 29 different freshmen have sired at least one stakes performer so far this year.
To compare with 2023, 16 of last year’s freshmen stallions had sired stakes winners by the end of their first year with runners and 25 had at least one stakes performer.
Those statistics are similar to 2022 with another arguably strong group of freshmen – that year 27 stallions sired a stakes performer and 18 sired at least one stakes winner by December 31.
Two of the 2024 freshman stallions with stakes winners this year have already broken through at the top level after McKinzie’s son Chancer McPatrick won the Hopeful Stakes (G1) to close out the Saratoga meet just about a week before Game Winner’s colt Gaming won the Del Mar Futurity (G1).
Both stallions were trained by Bob Baffert – he also trains Gaming.
Gainesway Farm’s McKinzie also played a role in the Del Mar Futurity – his son McKinzie Street finishing second by a length and three-quarters.
However, it is no surprise that McKinzie nor Game Winner have found success in their second careers. McKinzie was highly regarded after winning Grade 1 races from two to four and entered stud at a fee of $30,000. Game Winner started at the same fee after a racing career that saw him win Eclipse Champion Two-Year-Old Colt honours in 2018 and a pick up a graded race win at three.
Only Good Magic sired a juvenile Grade 1 winner from the 2022 freshmen crop with no freshman stallion accomplishing the feat last year.
One of the more surprising new stallions to have enjoyed early success is Complexity, who started his career at a modest fee of $12,500.
The son of Maclean’s Music won the Champagne Stakes (G1) at two and the Kelso Handicap (G2) two years later, and he grabbed the headlines early this season when siring his first winner on April 12 before Mo Plex broke through at stakes level on July 13 having won his maiden on debut in late June.
Mo Plex came back just over three weeks later to win the Sanford Stakes (G3) at Saratoga. The colt stayed undefeated in late August with a victory in the Funny Cide Stakes.
Trainer Jeremiah Englehart is hopeful that Mo Plex will become his sire’s first Grade 1 winner in October – and Mo Plex could achieve that feat in the same Grade 1 race won by his sire.
“I kind of would like to see him go around two turns to see how he uses that natural speed, too,” Englehart said after the Funny Cide, adding: “Anything is on the table, I’m just glad that we got this one and hopefully he comes out well.”
Just a few weeks after his Sanford win, another by Complexity made headlines in Europe when Black Forza became his first European stakes winner. A US-bred colt, who sold twice in Kentucky sales before bringing £220,000 at this year’s Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale, the Michael O’Callaghan-trained colt won the Richmond Stakes (G2) at Goodwood less than a month after breaking his maiden in Ireland.
That victory spurred on a Flash Sale through Keeneland of Black Forza’s dam and half-sister. His dam Harlee Honey was sold to Miss Vicky Stables for $240,000, while his half-sister Ocean Honey fetched $48,000 days before Black Forza finished fourth in the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint.
Four different farms house freshman sires with two or more stakes winners, but in the second-crop sire rankings Spendthrift Farm’s stallion barn holds five stallions in the top 12, including the top three.
Omaha Beach and Maximus Mischief both have six 2024 stakes winners and 13 stakes performers to lead both categories, while Mitole is second by stakes winners on five.
Spendthrift’s five-time champion sire Into Mischief – who is well on his way to earning a sixth championship – also plays a big role in the second crop sires’ table.
He is the sire of Maximus Mischief and also the sire of Audible, who leads the crop by number of graded stakes winners at two and graded stakes performers at five, in addition to sitting fourth by number of stakes winners.
Into Mischief, such a dominant force
in the US stallion ranks now and leading every North American sire category other than number of Grade 1 winners this year, is quickly proving to be an emerging sire-of-sires.
His son Goldencents sired this year’s Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystik Dan, while Practical Joke’s two Grade 1 winners this year puts him sixth-best on the North American sires’ table and just one behind his Dad.
Into Mischief has four sons in the top 55 by earnings among active sires with the bottom two both second-crop sires.
It’s two young stallions, though, who rule the general sires’ rankings by number of Grade 1 winners sired this season – Nyquist and Gun Runner, that pair entering stud in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Standing for a private fee this year, it is no surprise to see Gun Runner top of at least one category.
Now the sire of four crops of racing age, the stallion came out firing with his first crop and hasn’t cooled off since.
His four 2024 Grade 1 winners include winners from 7f to 1m1f, and all have come on the Dirt surface with six Grade 1 performers overall this year.
Nyquist’s $85,000 fee for this year quickly made sense once the racing clicked into full gear this summer with the Uncle Mo son the sire of four Grade 1 winners since late May.
He has proven that he’s an “equal opportunity” sire with those Grade 1 winners ranging from two to four-year-olds with victors on both the Dirt and Turf.
A champion at two and the Kentucky Derby (G1) winner at three, Nyquist is arguably both the best runner and sire son of sire-of-sires Uncle Mo.
Curlin led the way at Keeneland September with $5 million sale
CURLIN LED THE WAY at Keeneland September through to the end of the fourth session by both average and gross with 37 lots sold for an aggregate of $24.39 million and an average of $659,189.
The stallion’s results were bolstered by siring the sale-topping yearling out of Cavorting bought by Whisper Hill Farm for $5 million (Lot 347). The price was over double the second highest-priced horse of the sale – that colt was also bought by Whisper Hill Farm for $2.2 million (Lot 169).
Bred by Stonestreet Farm and offered by Indian Creek, the top lot colt’s three-time Grade 1-winning dam Cavorting is the dam of this colt’s four-time Grade 1-winning full-sister Clairiere and the Grade 2-placed Judge Miller, in addition to being a half-brother to the stakes winner La Crete from her three foals to race.
“He should be the sale topper because he is the best horse in here. We pretty much knew everybody was going to want to buy him, so they could have the great race record that is in his future and his furtherance in becoming a wonderful stallion,” said Whisper Hill Farm’s Mandy Pope.
The farm also purchased the $2.2 million Gun Runner colt out of Princesa Carolina from Four Star Sales. He is the third foal out of stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Princesa Carolina, a daughter of dual Grade 1 winner Pure Clan, one of three stakes performers out of Grade 3 winner Gather The Clan, the matriarch of a family that has 16 stakes performers led by three Grade 1 winners.
Gun Runner easily led all stallions by number of seven-figure yearlings with seven hitting the $1 million mark, two better than Curlin’s five and three better than Into Mischief’s four.
Into Mischief had the third and fifth highest-priced yearlings with Monique Delk going to $1.75 million for a Summerfield-consigned
colt (Lot 345). He is out of the highly successful Malibu Moon mare Catch The Moon, and that mare’s six winners from six to race include the Grade 1 winner, Grade 3 winner and six-time Grade 1-placed Midnight Bourbon among her four stakes winners.
An unraced mare, Catch The Moon is a full-sister to the Grade 2-placed Cancel This and a half-sister to the stakes-winning duo of Dubini and What A Catch. Her unraced half-sister Clarendon Fancy is dam of the juvenile Grade 1 winner Brightwork, who won the Prioress Stakes (G3) on her 2024 debut just a few weeks earlier.
Highly regarded when retired to stud, the hype for Charlatan continued in September when his first yearlings were offered at Keeneland.
His Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa-consigned colt brought the sixth-highest price of the sale when M.V. Magnier and White Birch Farm paid $1.4 million for Lot 70.
The colt is the second foal out of three-time Grade 1 winner Guarana, whose first foal sold for $1.4 million to Winchell Thoroughbreds at the same sale in 2023. Guarana is one of three stakes winners for Magical World, who is a daughter of Grade 1 winner Pleasant Home. Descendants of Pleasant Home include three stakes winners and seven other stakes performers.
“This was a very nice horse. His mother was a very nice race filly and Charlatan was a very good racehorse himself,” said Magnier. “Let’s hope he’s as good as his mother. Chad [Brown] liked the horse, everybody did. We’ll bring him back to Ashford, and we’ll figure out what we’re going to do with him there”
One of two million-dollar yearlings for Charlatan, the colt was also one of three seven-figure horses purchased by the Coolmore/ White Birch Farm partnership. The duo bought six yearlings for an average of $991,667 and gross of $5.95 million, the second-highest average for any buyer who bought more than one yearling.
Uncle Mo has two Grade 1 winners of his own this year and has five sons in the top 95 by earnings. Of the sire’s 25 to sell during the first two books of the Keeneland September Sale this year, 17 were colts and they averaged $470,000 with a median of $500,000.
His most expensive in that group was a $1 million colt purchased by Mitsu Nakauchida (Lot 343) with nine of his colts bringing $500,000 or more during the four sessions. Uncle Mo’s $414,400 average for all his yearlings sold in those books put him seventh among stallions with five or more sold.
Stock by Uncle Mo’s son Nyquist were also in demand with two of his colts leading the fourth session and the only two to sell for over $1 million through Thursday. The sire had three horses sell for seven figures during the first week of the sale.
Nyquist registered a higher average than his sire at $467,250 with his median slightly lower at $375,000 for a gross of $9.345 million for 20 sold.
By the end of the fifth session, John Stewart’s Resolute Bloodstock, that has made such a global impact this year, had purchased nine horses for a spend of $6,325,000, giving a top price of $1,200,000 for the Nyquist colt out of Candy Swap, a half-sister to the Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Sidney’s Candy (Lot 1114).
Keeneland sold 436 yearlings during the first four sessions of the sale for a gross of $132,963,000 – up 13.28 per cent from 2023 –with the average rising 8.1 per cent to $304,961 and median rising from $225,000 in 2023 to $260,000 this year. The RNA rate also rose slightly to 29.59 per cent from 28.67 per cent during the first two books last year.
“We’re really pleased with the depth of the buyer base,” said Keeneland Senior Director of Sales Operations Cormac Breathnach at the conclusion of the second book. “The buyers have come back in force and really been here to challenge each other.”
