Several farms in Kentucky will debut multiple Grade 1-winning stallion prospects in 2026. Some are Eclipse Award champions, or may be finalists in various divisions. But only one farm will be bringing in three new stallions who are already champions. Coolmore’s Ashford Stud holds that trio of aces, with Sierra Leone, Fierceness, and Citizen Bull all entering stud in 2026. Fierceness was the first of the three to win a title, as he won the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to secure that year’s Eclipse as outstanding 2-year-old male. A year later, Citizen Bull won the Juvenile and the Eclipse. One day after Citizen Bull’s Juvenile victory, the late-charging Sierra Leone – who Coolmore co-purchased as a yearling – ran down a brave Fierceness, who was hanging tough after being involved with the pace, to win the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic. He outpolled Fierceness and was named outstanding 3-year-old male. All three prospects arrived at Ashford shortly after strong efforts in defeat in the 2025 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar. Sierra Leone rallied and just missed catching the globe-trotting Forever Young by a half-length in the Classic with Fierceness a length back in third, finishing ahead of five Grade 1 winners in a group touted as one of the strongest Classic fields of all time. Less than 90 minutes later, Citizen Bull turned in one of the better performances of the weekend in defeat, setting blistering splits of 21.74 seconds, 44.96, and 1:09.08 in the Dirt Mile only to lose a head bob to Nysos. A week after the Breeders’ Cup, Ashford hosted an open house for breeders at a time when many stallions were being analyzed during Kentucky’s November breeding stock sales. Sierra Leone showed why he was a $2.3 million sale-topping purchase at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga in 2022 by Coolmore, Peter Brant, and Brook Smith, striding out with obvious grace and athleticism, even at a walk. His pedigree helped at the sale as well. Sierra Leone is a son of Hall of Famer Gun Runner, a record-setting freshman sire in 2021 who has gone on to be a perennial top-three general sire. His first sons to stud, Cyberknife and Early Voting, were well received with their first yearlings this year. Sierra Leone is out of the Grade 1-winning Malibu Moon mare Heavenly Love – a half-sister to the dam of familiar foe Forever Young. The female line traces directly to Grade 1 winner Roamin Rachel, who produced Japanese Horse of the Year Zenno Rob Roy. “Our sport is becoming more and more global, and we are continually looking to produce stallions that appeal to the international market,” Ashford manager Dermot Ryan said of Sierra Leone, who will stand for an advertised fee of $75,000 in his debut season as the most expensive new stallion in North America among those announced through Nov. 20. “In Sierra Leone, we have a stallion that hails from a family that has also produced elite performers [in Japan]. When you have a champion off the track, with a pedigree like Sierra Leone’s and an exceptional physical, you can’t wait to see what happens next.” Sierra Leone delivered on his pedigree and promise by putting together a record of 14-5-6-3 with earnings of $8,196,200. In addition to his championship-clinching Breeders’ Cup Classic, his major efforts at age 3 included another Grade 1 in the Blue Grass, a close runner-up effort in the Kentucky Derby, a third in the Belmont Stakes, and a third in the Travers Stakes behind two champions. This year, he won the Grade 1 Whitney and was on the board in three other Grade 1 races, including a fine effort when second in the Jockey Club Gold Cup after he had to avoid a fallen rider shortly after the break. “You hate to retire a horse that’s the best you’ve ever trained, of course, and as they leave your barn you worry you may never get another one as good as this one,” trainer Chad Brown said at the Breeders’ Cup. “He’s certainly a very rare horse. That’s the bitter part of this. The sweet part is that he’s going to the top breeding operation in the world and he’s getting a much-deserved pampered retirement where he’s going to have every chance to excel in his second career and be cared for like a king – and he’ll go home safe. “For a horse that’s meant so much to you, to send him off to the best possible home for a second chapter, that’s the sweet part.” The mercurial Fierceness followed his juvenile championship season by winning Grade 1s at both 3 and 4. In his sophomore season, he romped in the Florida Derby and won the Travers Stakes, handing 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna her only loss on the season, with Sierra Leone third. This year, Fierceness added another top-level victory in the Pacific Classic, despite ducking in shortly after the break. Fierceness, who finished with a career record of 14-7-2-2 and earnings of $5,785,000, will stand for $50,000, tying him as the second most expensive new stallion of the season. The leggy individual, who resembles his sire, City of Light, raced as a homebred for Mike Repole. He is from the immediate family of Grade 1 winner Outwork, who has sired a Grade 1 winner himself, and the family of the consistent sire Cairo Prince. “He’s a homebred and he’s out of Nonna Bella, which means ‘beautiful grandmother,’ and she’s out of Nonna Mia, which was named for my grandmother. [Nonna Bella] is by Stay Thirsty, who won the Travers for us,” Repole said at the Breeders’ Cup. “I’m in the game 20 years, and now I’m starting to see the bloodlines. I raced your dad. I raced your mom. I raced your grandmother. It’s pretty cool.” Rounding out the trio that were scrutinized by breeders, Citizen Bull was in remarkably good flesh just a week after his bracing effort in the Dirt Mile. The colt, who was a Grade 3 winner in 2025, a year after his championship season, retires with a mark of 10-5-1-1 and earnings of $1,726,000 for a large partnership helmed by “The Avengers” of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables. Citizen Bull, who will stand for $45,000, is by leading sire and sire of sires Into Mischief. He is out of a Distorted Humor mare, making him bred on the same cross as Ashford’s top-10 sire Practical Joke. Citizen Bull is from the family of multiple Grade 1 winner and successful young Ashford sire Tiz the Law, as well as the family of Horse of the Year Favorite Trick.