Bernardini led all broodmare sires with four stakes placers out of his daughters in North America this weekend.
We’re officially two-thirds of the way through the Triple Crown and while there isn’t a Triple Crown on the line after Saturday’s race, there was a popular winner in the Preakness.
Read on to see some of the bloodstock stories that came out of Pimlico (and beyond) this weekend.
Pimlico Focused
The Basics
Forty-five horses placing in 15 stakes left Pimlico with new blacktype on Friday and Saturday with two bred in Florida, one in England, one in Ireland, 32 in Kentucky, five in Maryland, and four in Pennsylvania.
The median advertised stud fee (2024) for those runners was $15,000 with an average stud fee of $55,762. Of the 29 stallions with advertised fees in 2024, the most expensive is the trio of Curlin, Gun Runner, and Into Mischief. The least expensive is Fed Biz, who stands in Canada for CAN$5,000 – sitting at about $3,672 in US dollars.
Nine stallions had more than one top three placer in Pimlico stakes this weekend with Gun Runner and Into Mischief leading the charge at three each. Gun Runner was also the lone stallion to have two stakes winners thanks to Gun Song and Shotgun Hottie both winning on Friday. On the broodmare sire side, only three stallions saw multiple runners out of their daughters hit the board. Bernardini leads that charge with three – two coming from one daughter (more on that later).
Arrogate
The search for a truly top-level son of Unbridled’s Song to stand at stud lasted for years, but unfortunately when that son came along, his time in the breeding shed was short.
Arrogate left behind three crops and so far, those they have combined for a 9.69% stakes winners to runners rate. Even more important when it comes to carrying on his bloodline is that the group’s six Grade 1 winners includes two classic winning sons (Arcangelo and Seize The Grey) to continue his legacy. Arcangelo – who is already standing at stud at Lane’s End – hails from his second crop while Seize The Grey came from his final. His first crop didn’t produce a Triple Crown race winner, but it did see Secret Oath win the G1 Kentucky Oaks.
Past as Prelude
Arguably, no broodmare had a better weekend in the U.S. than Past as Prelude.
A Bernardini daughter, the 13-year-old is the latest in a long line of producers from her family and two of her three stakes performers added more blacktype to her produce record on Friday. Her Great Notion daughter Future Is Now was already stakes placed before the Friday’s race but added a win with a victory in the The Very One Stakes. Visiting Audible the year Future Is Now was born, Past As Prelude produced Call Another Play in 2021. That filly won her stakes debut last month before a solid third in the G2 Black-Eyed Susan on Friday.
Past as Prelude has a juvenile McKinzie colt named Places in My Past and visited Audible again last year.
Gun Runner
Gun Runner scored his 30th career stakes winner on Friday when Gun Song won the G2 Black-Eyed Susan as the feature race on the card. It was the second Pimlico stakes winner of the day for him after Shotgun Hottie won the Allaire DuPont Stakes earlier on the card. The stallion didn’t have a Pimlico stakes winner on Saturday, but did see son Imperial Gun finish third in the Sir Barton Stakes.
Other Bloodstock Notes from the Weekend
- In all, there were 28 blacktype races run in North America at eight different tracks from Friday – Sunday with 84 horses placing in the top three.
- Those runners were bred in 10 different states and four different countries and are by 59 different stallions.
- Army Mule, Audible, Connect, Curlin, English Channel, Frosted, Goldencents, Great Notion, Gun Runner, Into Mischief, Justify, Karakontie, Liam’s Map, Practical Joke, Uncle Mo, and Weigelia all had multiple stakes placers around North America this weekend. Army Mule, Goldencents, Into Mischief, and Uncle Mo lead everyone with four each.
- Gun Runner was joined by Connect, Curlin, and Karakontie as stallions who sired more than one North American blacktype winner this weekend.
- Bernardini’s three placers as a broodmare sire at Pimlico were joined by Miss Lizzy winning the Mizdirection Stakes at Santa Anita to take Bernardini to four placers in U.S. stakes. That’s the most of any stallion in that category with Arch, Blame, Bodemeister, Candy Ride, Galileo, Giant’s Causeway, Harlan’s Holiday, Kitten’s Joy, Malibu Moon, Medaglia d’Oro, More Than Ready, Quality Road, Tapit, and War Front all having two each.
- It is worth noting that two of Bernardini’s four placers are by Into Mischief sons (Audible and Goldencents). This is a cross worth watching with 10 of the 17 runners by Into Mischief sons out of Bernardini mares winning at least one race and three of them winning or placing in stakes. Into Mischief himself is the sire of two graded stakes winners, four stakes performers, and 15 winners overall from 22 runners out of Bernardini mares.
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