Lookin At Lucky was a champion as a juvenile, and improved enough the following season to bring home a second title. If his progeny take after their sire, it could be an exciting year for the young stallion.
Into Mischief is a young stallion with many years remaining in the breeding shed, but he is already putting himself in elite company. The 10-year-old Harlan’s Holiday horse, who stands at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., led all Kentucky stallions by average progeny earnings last year. Into Mischief’s runners won an average of $69,497, easily outpacing breed-shaping sire A.P. Indy – pensioned in 2011 – whose progeny averaged $56,371. Rounding out the top five by average earnings were Ghostzapper, leading sire Tapit, and Pioneerof the Nile, all of whom were represented by Eclipse Award winners in 2014.
Opportunities to race on synthetic surfaces have dried up quickly in North America, with Santa Anita, Del Mar, and Keeneland replacing their main tracks with dirt and Hollywood Park closing its doors in recent years. With no North American Grade 1 races scheduled on all-weather surfaces for 2015, Candy Ride likely will serve as the bookend among Kentucky’s leading sires during the era of elite-level synthetic-surface racing.
As Stormy Atlantic begins to settle into his 20s, he remains a stallion for the young at heart. Since his first foals hit the track in 2002, runners by Stormy Atlantic, a 21-year-old son of Storm Cat, have shown a knack for starting fast as juveniles. That trend continued last year, as Stormy Atlantic led all Kentucky sires by 2-year-old stakes wins and stakes winners.
In 2014, Road Ruler ranked second among Illinois sires by progeny earnings, with $634,776, and the only horse ahead of him, Cherokee Rap, died in 2012. In 2013 (the most recent year for which the Illinois Department of Agriculture has published such records), he had the most named foals of any Illinois stallion, 15, and his popularity has since grown.
Strong Contender stood in Florida in 2014, but his progeny earnings of more than $1.34 million would have topped the Indiana sire list.
The addition of Cowtown Cat to Ohio’s stallion roster near the end of 2014 automatically put him at the top of the state’s general sire list by progeny earnings, and he stands a strong chance of remaining in that spot until he can defend the title with his own Ohio-sired runners in 2018.
Standing multiple generations of a sire line can go a long way in establishing the reputation of a stallion, his sons, and the farm at which they stand. Repeated achievement in that area creates the foundation for a successful stallion operation and a coveted brand name for the horses themselves.
Grade 2 winner My Best Brother has been retired from racing and will stand the 2015 breeding season at Stonewall’s Prestige Stallions in Ocala, Fla.
Elite broodmare Kind, dam of champions Frankel and Noble Mission, will be among the mares in reigning Cartier European Horse of the Year Kingman's first book in 2015, Juddmonte Farm, which bred and owns both horses, announced Friday.
