Henny Hughes to stand at Walmac for 2013 season

Henny Hughes, currently ranked second on the North American juvenile sire list, will return to the United States for the 2013 Northern Hemisphere breeding season. John T.L. Jones III, managing director of Walmac Stud Management, announced Tuesday that Walmac has leased the 9-year-old son of Hennessy from his owners at Rangeview Stud in western Australia. He will stand at Walmac Farm in Lexington, Ky., for a fee of $7,500 when the foal stands and nurses.

Henny Hughes, who is out of the stakes-placed Meadowlake mare Meadow Flyer, leads all North American juvenile sires in 2012 with six stakes winners, including Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Beholder. He ranks second to Harlan’s Holiday in progeny earnings on the juvenile sire list with more than $2.2 million.

“What a brilliant year Henny Hughes has had,” Jones said. “He is arguably the top sire of precocious 2-year-old performance in North America today, being the leading sire of 2-year-old stakes winners, and getting such a freak filly in Beholder who impressed us with her two-turn victory in the Breeders’ Cup.”

One of the best sprinters of his crop, Henny Hughes won 6 of 10 career starts and earned $1,124,820 for owner Zabeel International Corp., highlighted by wins in the 2006 Vosburgh Stakes and King’s Bishop Stakes. He retired to stud at Darley in 2007 and regularly shuttled to Darley’s Australian operation until last summer, when he was sold to Robert and Jody Gray’s Rangeview Stud.