This year’s freshman sires are an accomplished group, with Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year Justify leading a class that includes three other Eclipse Award champions and three other American classic winners. However, City of Light – a talented horse who perhaps simply raced in the wrong year to earn a championship – has been stealing the thunder thus far. The young Lane’s End Farm stallion has recorded blockbuster sales thus far, including siring the topper at the Keeneland September yearling sale. His first crop is hotly anticipated on the racetrack this season. “Everyone believes in that horse,” said Mark Taylor of prominent consignor Taylor Made Sales. “I’ve never seen a horse so universally embraced. I’ve never heard anybody knock City of Light.” City of Light was a $710,000 yearling purchase by the Warren family and was trained throughout his career by Michael McCarthy. The son of Quality Road debuted as a 3-year-old and won the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs in his fifth career start, kicking off a streak of seven consecutive triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures. In his 4-year-old debut, City of Light won the Grade 1 Triple Bend. He then stretched out to win the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap by a neck over fellow California shipper Accelerate. Accelerate then got the better of his foe as City of Light was third in the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita. City of Light was second in his next start to another future champion, Whitmore, in the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga. City of Light capped his 2018 season with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs. Later that same day, Accelerate won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, his fifth Grade 1 victory of the season, helping him to outpoll City of Light in the voting for Eclipse Award champion older dirt male, with the previously retired Justify earning the Horse of the Year title. City of Light ultimately got the last laugh, besting Accelerate in the Pegasus World Cup the following January in the final start for both. City of Light posted a career-best Beyer of 112, topping the 110 he had earned in the BC Dirt Mile. Both City of Light and Accelerate retired to Lane’s End, with City of Light joining his own sire, Quality Road, in the stallion complex. Quality Road is a perennial leading sire in his own right, with Eclipse champions Abel Tasman, Caledonia Road, and now Corniche to his credit. In City of Light, breeders saw a talented son of a successful sire, with the same ability to carry his brilliance a distance – but in a physical package that was appealing in a different way. “I think you see the frames that you see in the Quality Roads from the City of Lights, but City of Light has more style,” said Allaire Ryan, Lane’s End director of sales. “Quality Road can get you a big, imposing individual, but they can be rugged as well, and the City of Lights, I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re more refined, but I’d say they’re smooth-looking. They’ve got good heads on them. They’ve just got a lot of the good qualities. I’ve always said that I think City of Light is a better-looking version of his sire, and I think that rings true of his foals – they’ve got that style factor. “To me, they just come out and they look like very classic, two-turn, quality individuals,” Ryan added. “It’s very hard to pick them apart.” That physical assessment was echoed by Taylor, whose consignments have included several City of Light weanlings and yearlings over the past two years. “There’s some Quality Road there, but to me, they’re not quite as big, and they’re just a little bit more polished,” Taylor said. “The Quality Roads are rugged, big, tough horses. These are maybe just a little bit more compact. They’re perfect sale horses. If he gets runners, the sky’s the limit. They’re balanced, they’re correct, they’re classy, just a lot of quality to them. “And I’m a fan of Quality Road, but I think when you’re breeding to him, you’ve got to breed a mare that’s not overly big and can kind of pretty him up a little bit. The City of Lights are like a prettier version of that, I think.” City of Light was represented by 12 weanlings that sold for an average of $216,000 in his debut sales season in 2020, more than six times his introductory fee of $35,000, even in the pandemic-hampered marketplace that year. That group included a $600,000 colt who led all weanlings at the Fasig-Tipton November sale. Last year, City of Light’s results with his first yearlings improved from that strong point. He averaged $318,017 from 75 yearlings sold at public auction. Those included the $1.7 million Keeneland September topper, a colt purchased by the partnership of Woodford Racing, Talla Racing, and West Point; and a $1.05 million colt sold at the same sale to Repole Stables and St. Elias Racing. Rosilyn Polan, who bred and consigned the sale-topper via her Sunday Morning Farm, said she selected City of Light as a match for her mare, Anchorage, because of his refinement compared to his sire. “It was a no-brainer,” Polan said. “I booked sight unseen, because he wasn’t at the farm, he was at the racetrack. . . . Because as much as everybody loves Quality Road, he doesn’t have all the physical qualities that every mare needs.” The Keeneland September topper, who is still unnamed, was sent to Mayberry Farm in Florida for his early training and will eventually join John Sadler’s string in California. Meanwhile, City of Light is represented by 10 juveniles from his first crop cataloged for the first sale of this season, the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale of 2-year-olds in training. Those include a colt from the immediate family of versatile Grade 1 winner Sidney’s Candy, and a filly from the family of multiple Grade 1 winner Palace. City of Light has six juveniles at the boutique Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream selected sale, including a filly from the immediate family of Eclipse champion Mitole and classic-placed Grade 1 winner Hot Rod Charlie. His lots also include a colt from the family of Grade 1 winner and sire Eskendereya.