Coolmore sets 2021 stud fees for its Ashford stud; Uncle Mo to stand for $175,000

The international Coolmore group’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky on Friday released its stallion roster for 2021, with Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify among three six-figure stallions on the roster and Eclipse Award champion Maximum Security among three newcomers on the star-studded lineup.

Coolmore announced in January it had purchased a half-interest in Maximum Security from his owners and breeders Gary and Mary West. The four-time Grade 1 winner is listed on Ashford's 2021 roster with a fee to be announced, meaning he is likely to officially be retired following some of the major-money races of the coming months.

The New Year's Day colt, who moved to Bob Baffert's barn this year, is targeting the Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 7 at Keeneland. He most recently finished second in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes on Sept. 26 at Santa Anita.

Ashford has another Breeders' Cup candidate expected to join the 2021 roster in Echo Town, whose fee will also be announced at a later date. The Speightstown colt won the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens in August and most recently was third in the Grade 2 Phoenix Stakes at Keeneland, the local prep for the BC Sprint.

Rounding out the trio of newcomers is Caravaggio, who Coolmore announced Thursday would move from the operation's Irish headquarters to Kentucky following a strong commercial reception for his first yearlings.

Leading the Ashford roster price-wise for 2021 is Uncle Mo, whose fee rises to $175,000 from $125,000. Uncle Mo, who was the record-setting leading freshman sire of 2015, has continued his success as a stallion, and currently leads the nation by 2020 graded stakes winners, with 13, and sits second on the earnings list.

Uncle Mo was the busiest stallion in North America this year, according to The Jockey Club's Report of Mares Bred released Friday, and is also emerging as a sire of sires. His first sons have their first 2-year-olds this year, and Nyquist, Laoban, and Outwork all sit in the top five on the freshman sires list, all with Breeders' Cup candidates of their own.

Munnings will stand for $40,000, up from $30,000. He and Uncle Mo join a small group of stallions getting fee increases for 2021, as the trend that has emerged as farms release their fees is toward declining prices. The 11 other stallions on Ashford's roster all have declining or steady fees, including Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify.

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American Pharoah, who swept the series in 2015 and added the Breeders' Cup Classic, will stand for $100,000 next year. He debuted at stud for an advertised fee of $200,000 in 2016, stood privately for several years, and was listed at $175,000 last year, after his first crop placed him among the nation's leading freshman sires. American Pharoah recently was represented by his first Grade 1 winner in Harvey's Lil Goil.

After standing his first two years for $150,000, Justify, the unbeaten Triple Crown winner of 2018, will stand for $125,000. His first foals will come to the sales as weanlings next month.