In the months before breeding season begins in February, another important ritual takes place – the winter open houses.
Open houses are an important part of the stallion selection process because it allows breeders to see the stallions (many of them will also schedule private showings) and it also allows others to conduct their own inspections.
While I am not currently breeding any mares, I do a lot of research on these stallions for various clients and like to refresh my memory on what the stallions look like every year or so. Conformation shots are a good base but there’s no substitute for seeing a horse in person.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some of my photos from the November and January open houses and a few facts about each of the stallions. As a warning, there aren’t photos of every stallion at every farm. It’s rare that we do an ‘all-show’ because at many farms that means you’d be there for the whole day!
This week’s blog covers November’s visits to Lane’s End, Three Chimneys, and WinStar Farm.
Standing at WinStar Farm is Grade 1 winner Audible. By champion sire Into Mischief, Audible himself won five of 10 starts and finished on the board three other times – including a third in the G1 Kentucky Derby – for over $2.1 million in earnings.
A $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Florida 2-Year-Old Sale graduate, Audible one of two winners out of his 2-time winning dam. That mare is half-sister to stakes winner and stakes producer Akilina and stakes-placed Kitty Panda. There are stakes winners under three of Audible’s first four dams and his fourth dam is three-time Grade 1 winner Classy Cathy. That mare produced a Group 2 winner herself with four of her daughters also producing stakes performers.
According to Blood-Horse’s Stallion Register, Audible is one of six sons of Into Mischief standing in Kentucky this year and one of two with first yearlings in 2022 (the other is Maximus Mischief). He will stand for $25,000 when breeding season begins in February.
A Grade 1 winning son of Curlin, Connect won six of his eight starts on the track and was a leading sire last year with his first crop of foals. The stallion is a third-generation sire for Lane’s End Farm, who stood his grandsire and kicked off his sire’s career. He is already living up to their early success with more stakes performers than each of them. Connect already has a G1 winner and a G2 winner and at this point Curlin just had two graded stakes performers. Smart Strike had two stakes winners and a stakes performer at this point in his career but no graded stakes winners. It is worth noting that they both had many runners, however.
A few nicks have already formed with Connect from his first crop of runners. His Grade 3 winner Hidden Connection and stakes-placed Queen Camilla are both out of Awesome Again mares. Grade 1 winner Rattle N Roll and multiple stakes-placed Kneesnhips are both out of mares from the Storm Cat line – Rattle N Roll out of a Johannesburg mare and Kneesnhips out of a Tactical Cat mare.
Connect stands for $25,000 as one of seven Curlin sons in Kentucky.
A top runner on the track, Constitution has also been an exceptional sire. In one of the toughest stallion classes I remember in recent history, he’s been a standout.
Constitution leads Northern Hemisphere fourth crop sires by number of stakes performers, graded stakes winners, and graded stakes performers. He sits third to two other stand outs in American Pharoah and Night Of Thunder by stakes winners and ties with them at 11 graded stakes winners each. Constitution’s standout racehorse so far has been four-time Grade 1 winner Tiz The Law but he has nine Grade 1 winners overall between North and South America.
In South America his Group 1 winning nick has been to Storm Cat sons with Seeking The Dia mares giving him two Group 1 winners, Bluegrass Cat the sire of another, and Giant’s Causeway and Kitten’s Joy rounding it out. Only one of those seven South American Group 1 winners isn’t out of a mare from the Northern Dancer line – that one by Proud Citizen. The only non-Storm Cat among the Northern Dancers is a mare by Galileo.
In the U.S., Constitution’s Grade 1 winners are more diverse with Tiz The Law out of a Tiznow mare and Americanrevolution out of a Super Saver mare. Tiznow has been gold with Constitution overall so far, of his 10 runners out of Tiznow mares, two have won stakes and five overall have blacktype to their name while a sixth was fourth in a stakes.
Constitution stands for $85,000 at WinStar Farm this year as the 11th most expensive stallion in the United States.
An interesting return to Kentucky in 2021 was Daredevil, who spent a year in Turkey after sold before his successful runners convinced the Turkish Jockey Club to partner with Lane’s End and bring him back to the United States. Looking at the moment as the best son of More Than Ready to stand in the Northern Hemisphere, Daredevil is the sire of eight stakes winners and 13 stakes performers from 180 runners – including multiple Grade 1 winners Swiss Skydiver and Shedaresthedevil with each of his three crops to produce at least one stakes performer.
Daughters by A.P. Indy and sons seem to cross well with the stallion. Shedaresthedevil is out of a Congrats mare, stakes winner He’smyhoneybadger is out of a Majestic Warrior mare, stakes winner Daring Devil out of an A.P. Indy mare and two stakes placers are out of mares by Mineshaft and Saint Anddan, respectively.
Daredevil has a bit of an uphill climb over the next few years but it’s likely we’ll see him stick around even during his quiet spell. He only has 16 2-year-olds this season and any we see from his yearling crop will be from his season in Turkey. That said, he bred a respectable 95 mares last year with some of the best breeders in the business sending him mates so he should be back to full action in 2024. I’ve been a big fan of his since he retired so I’m personally hoping we see him hit big again in coming years.
He stands at Lane’s End for $25,000 this year, the same price he stood for in 2021.
One of the most exciting parts of the industry for me is watching the foals of mares I’ve worked with succeed. Gift Box is one of those horses.
He was born the year before I started working at Machmer Hall and is out of my favorite mare in Special Me. Special Me is aptly named and it’s fun to see one of her foals make it to a Kentucky stud farm – a very hard spot to grab. As some one very familiar with the mare and her foals, I can definitely see a lot of her in him.
Gift Box himself was a very talented runner with six wins and 14 top three finishes overall in 18 starts. He was briefly on the Kentucky Derby trail (he finished third in the G2 Remsen) but really came on as an older horse with his career culminating in the G1 Santa Anita Handicap where he outdueled McKinzie. His career ended after a victory in the G2 San Antonio Stakes and his first foals are arriving now.
Gift Box is an interesting prospect as a son of Twirling Candy – who has really risen in the ranks over the past few years. Twirling Candy only has Danzing Candy as a son with runners right now and that stallion has 12 winners from 19 runners. At the moment, Twirling Candy only has three sons with confirmed spots at stud according to Stallion Register. That should be changing shortly, however, with his G1 Preakness winner Rombauer retiring just a few weeks ago and stud plans still pending on that horse.
Gift Box stands for $10,000 in 2022 after breeding 112 mares last year.
One of the best looking horses I saw in November was Global Campaign at WinStar. The winner of six of his 10 starts, he was a Grade 3 winner and 3 then won the G1 Woodward H. at four and finished third in that year’s tough G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
There aren’t many Curlin sons with runners yet so we don’t have a great grasp about what they’ll be doing as sires but Global Campaign has the female family to back him up. He is a son of Globe Trot, who produced three stakes winners from three to race with the trio led by dual Grade 1 winner Bolt d’Oro. All three of her sons are at stud with Bolt d’Oro at Spendthrift and multiple Sonic Mule in Uruguay.
Seeing him after a season at stud, Global Campaign reminds me a lot of the A.P. Indy line – which is who his dam is by – but he also has plenty of Curlin characteristic to him. He’ll stand for $12,500 this year as he waits for his first foals to arrive after breeding 177 mares in 2021.
There may have been no stallion more talked about last fall than Gun Runner, who made the best start to his stallion career of any stallion since Uncle Mo in 2015. Gun Runner was a good runner at two with two wins in three starts but is your typical get better with age type. He won multiple Kentucky Derby preps at three, was third in that race and only finished off the board once that year. He turned into a freak at four and won all but one start (that start was a second place finish) to grab Horse of the Year honors before retiring in 2018 after a G1 Pegasus World Cup win.
Obviously Gun Runner was in demand his first year at stud with 171 mares bred but the thought was that his foals would start really showing off at three. Gun Runner has the likely 2-year-old filly champion in Echo Zulu in addition to Grade 1 winner Gunite among his four graded stakes winners from 68 runners so far. His Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Pappacap is also tied for the lead on the Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard as well. At the end of last year Gun Runner not only was a record-breaking Champion Freshman sire but led all stallions in the juvenile standings as well. Gun Runner also has 118 2-year-olds representing him this year.
Storm Cat and the Pulpit lines seem to be the key to Gun Runner’s early success. Both his Grade 1 winners are out of mares from that line (Menifee and Cowboy Cal are their damsires) and Pappacap is out of a Scat Daddy mare. Pupit is the damsire of his stakes winning Optionality but Pulpit’s son Tapit is the broodmare sire of both his Grade 2 winner Wicked Halo and stakes-placed Costa Terra. Not surprisingly with both raced by Winchell Thoroughbreds, Gun Runner has seen a lot of Tapit mares with five of the nine 2-year-olds he has by Tapit winning at least one race. A third one of that group also finished fourth in a stakes.
Gun Runner’s stud fee more than doubled this year to $125,000, making him the sixth most expensive stallion in the United States with everyone above him entering stud before he was even born.
The flashy Honor A. P is the first son of Honor Code at stud, standing alongside his sire at Lane’s End, where his grandsire also spent his illustrious career.
Honor A. P. finished in the top two in five of his six starts and was fourth in the G1 Kentucky Derby in the start he didn’t hit the board in. He was also one of only two horses to beat Authentic in that horse’s career, scoring a Grade 1 victory in the G1 Santa Anita Derby by 2.75l in June 2020. Honor A. P. is one of four stakes performers and two stakes winners out of the dual Grade 1 winner Hollywood Story so the $850,000 yearling purchase has plenty going for him in the pedigree department as well.
Honor A. P. bred 110 mares in his first year at stud last year and stands for $15,000 in 2022.
Another stallion from that top class of 2016 freshman sires is Liam’s Map, who looks like he’ll be the one to carry on Unbridled’s Song through the male-line.
Liam’s Map was a very successful racehorse with six wins and two seconds in eight starts, including two Grade 1 victories and a second in a Grade 1 to studmate Honor Code (who is also the sire of the above mentioned Honor A. P.). As a sire, Liam’s Map has gotten off to an excellent start with 13 stakes winners and 25 stakes performers – sitting in the top six among all North American and European stallions in both categories. Liam’s Map sits alone at the top in one of the most important categories with four Grade 1 winners from his 212 runners, the best of any stallion who retired in 2016. Three of those came from his first crop with Grade 1 winners on the dirt and turf and his third crop gave us last year’s G1 Alcibiades winner Juju’s Map.
Liam’s Map seems to be excelling with granddaughters of A.P. Indy, especially Bernardini. Bernardini daughters produced two of his Grade 1 winners and another Indy son in Flatter saw his daughter produce Juju’s Map. A.P. Indy himself is also the damsire of one of his stakes winners. Hailing from the Storm Cat line, Johannesburg is the broodmare sire of the fourth Grade 1 winner and it’s worth noting that Johannesburg’s son Scat Daddy is the broodmare sire of one of his 2021 stakes performers.
Multiple lines outside of those two have been quite successful with Liam’s Map as well. Indian Charlie sired his Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Crazy Beautiful and one other stakes winner in addition to two stakes performers. While that stallion hasn’t yet scored a Grade 1 winner by Liam’s Map, Crazy Beautiful has finished in the top three in 11 of her 14 starts with 10 coming at the stakes level.
Liam’s Map started his stallion career at Lane’s End standing for a fee of $25,000 in 2016 and will stand for $40,000 this year.
If you’re a racing fan, you likely know the fairytale that goes with Paynter … he was a Grade 1 winning racehorse who got deathly ill after his Grade 1 victory, came back after nearly a year away from the track and put together a strong 4-year-old campaign with multiple graded stakes placings. If that story isn’t enough to make you a fan, his loving-life, playful attitude will probably push you over to Team Paynter. He definitely isn’t afraid to show his personality at open houses.
Paynter has gone on to be a very useful sire for WinStar Farm with 21 stakes winners and 37 stakes performers. He is also the sire of likely 2021 Horse of the Year Knicks Go and three other graded stakes winners with 75% of his runners winning at least one race.
Interestingly since he’s out of a full sister to Tiznow, Paynter crosses well with that stallion’s daughters and granddaughters. His Grade 3 winner Harper’s First Ride is out of a mare by a Tiznow son (as are 9 other winners from 10 runners by Tiznow granddaughters) and his stakes winner Pirate Junction is out of a Tiznow mare. A.P. Indy granddaughters also nick well with Paynter, he has three stakes performers and 14 winners on that cross with G2 winner Lazy Daisy leading the way.
Entering his ninth year at stud, Paynter stands for $10,000 this year as one of four Awesome Again sons advertised as standing in Kentucky this year.
One can’t visit Lane’s End without taking a photo of Quality Road’s famous forelock.
Of course, that isn’t the only reason a person would want to see one of the top stallions in the nation. A four-time Grade 1 winner as a racehorse. Quality Road has been a consistently top sire with five of his eight crops aged three years and up producing 12 Grade 1 winners between them with the stallion already having three champions and likely one other being named in just a few weeks.
The sire of 28 graded stakes winners and 53 stakes winners overall, three of Quality Road’s Grade 1 winners are out of Dixie Union mares and three others are out of Deputy Minister daughters or granddaughters (the one out of a granddaughter is a Dehere grandson). Two others are out of A.P. Indy granddaughters as well. Dixie Union is also the broodmare sire of his Grade 3 winning High Velocity and the stakes placed Laxfield Road among 13 winners from 20 runners out of those mares while A.P. Indy granddaughters have also produced four other stakes winners and six stakes performers from the 46 runners out of them.
Quality Road is one of the most expensive stallions in the world, standing for $150,000 this year.
One of the biggest bargains in Kentucky in my opinion is Sky Mesa, but I’ll admit that I’m biased. I was lucky enough to intern in the communications office at Three Chimneys back in 2013 and Sky Mesa was one of the stallions on the roster at that time.
Sky Mesa has been standing at stud for nearly 20 years and has 75 stakes winners to his name with 26 graded stakes winners and exactly 700 winners from Northern Hemisphere 940 starters as of Sunday morning. A Grade 1 winner who was undefeated at two and placed in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at three, Sky Mesa is the sire of four Grade 1 winners and has proven to be a top filly sire with most of his stakes winners coming from that group.
A grandson of A.P. Indy, Sky Mesa crosses with quite a few different lines but Unbridled has been his dominant partner when it comes to getting Grade 1 winners with two of his four by Unbridled and that one’s son Unbridled’s Song. Unbridled himself is the damsire of three of Sky Mesa’s stakes winners and that stallion’s sons are the broodmare sires of six stakes winners and 14 stakes performers by Sky Mesa overall. While he hasn’t seen a daughter produce a Grade 1 winner by Sky Mesa yet, Smart Strike is another that has crossed well with the Three Chimneys stalwart. The 11 winners from 15 runners out of Smart Strike mares have produced two Grade 2 winners, a stakes winners, and a Grade 2-placed runner.
Turning 22 this year, Sky Mesa will again stand for $12,500 in 2022 at his longtime home.
One of the more interesting young stallions in Kentucky from an outcross standpoint is the Japanese-bred Yoshida, who proved to be a dual surface talent with Grade 1 victories on both turf and dirt – something not many horses achieve.
While Yoshida is foreign-bred, his pedigree is a familiar one to North Americans. He is a grandson of 1989 Horse of the Year Sunday Silence, who made a huge impact on the Japanese breeding industry. Sunday Silence’s son and Yoshida’s sire Heart’s Cry was a successful Grade 1 winner himself and was selected as the second mate for Hilda’s Passion. That mare was a U.S. Grade 1 winner, who also won multiple other graded stakes and has become a successful broodmare as the dam of two graded stakes winners from six runners.
According to Stallion Register, there are three sons of Heart’s Cry currently standing publicly with two in Japan. His son Just a Way had his first crop hit the track in 2018 and is the sire of Group 1 winner Danon the Kid among five group winners and 10 stakes winners overall from 409 runners.
Breeding 148 mares in his first year at stud in 2020 with those hitting the yearling sales ring this year, Yoshida stands for $12,500 at WinStar in 2022.
Three Chimneys hit a homerun last year with Gun Runner and this year they launch another one from the family in Grade 1 winner Funtastic.
Funtastic is a More Than Ready half-brother to Gun Runner’s dam and will appeal to the breeders looking to tap into the family at a lower price. He has a bit of a “downside” when it comes to the American market as a turf horse but he did win four starts and hit the board in three others. Even with his love for grass, everything in his family shouts he should sire useful dirt horses. More Than Ready obviously can get you a top class dirt horse and most of Funtastic’s family also excelled on dirt.
Funtastic had his first yearlings sell for up to $150,000 in 2021 (off of a $7,500 fee) but is only represented by 23 juveniles this year – so he’s definitely going to be a quality, not quantity play in the freshman sire rankings. He stands for $5,000 in 2022.
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