Eclipse Award champions Vino Rosso and Mitole, multiple Grade 1 winner Omaha Beach, and Grade 2 winners Coal Front and Maximus Mischief gave Spendthrift Farm a formidable hand of incoming stallions two years ago. Now, that group’s first foals are stepping into the yearling sales arena. Omaha Beach and Vino Rosso, in particular, made a strong start this summer and are among the 15 first-crop yearling sires represented at this month’s boutique Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale and New York-bred preferred yearling sale. A strong start to a young stallion’s career in the commercial marketplace can be crucial. “We live in a game of perception and a game of momentum, and it certainly is encouraging when a horse has a good sale,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “It shows that they’re making individuals that have the conformation that buyers like, and which generally provides confidence that there’s a higher likelihood of those horses performing on the racetrack than those who really don’t meet the conformation requirements of the marketplace. “It’s certainly not a guarantee, but I promise you this – if you’re running a stallion operation, you’re really pleased when you have the first group go through there and sell” well. Omaha Beach was bred to be a star, by international standout War Front and a half-brother to Eclipse Award champion Take Charge Brandi. His second dam is Broodmare of the Year Take Charge Lady, dam of champion Will Take Charge and Grade 1 winner Take Charge Indy. He delivered on the racetrack, with multiple graded stakes wins around two turns, including the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. He was the morning-line favorite for the Kentucky Derby before a throat issue forced him to scratch. Omaha Beach returned to the races later in the year to become a multiple Grade 1 winner around one turn in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship and Malibu Stakes. He also finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile around two turns. Omaha Beach, who never missed the board and retired as a millionaire, is now beginning to deliver in the sales ring. The young stallion averaged $142,692 for 13 first-crop weanlings sold at public auction last year, against his introductory stud fee of $40,000. At the Fasig-Tipton July sale in Kentucky, five of his six yearlings offered sold, averaging $236,000. Those were led by a $410,000 filly who ranked as the sale’s most expensive filly and the third-highest price of the sale overall. Spendthrift stablemate Vino Rosso, by Curlin, won four stakes and placed in four others, with career-defining Grade 1 victories at 1 1/4 miles in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita and the Breeders’ Cup Classic to lock up an Eclipse Award as 2019’s outstanding older dirt male. He debuted for $30,000 at Spendthrift and was one of the season’s most popular stallions, with 238 mares, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred, ranking him as the busiest first-season stallion and No. 4 overall in 2020. He more than tripled his stud fee with his weanling average of $95,484 from 31 sold last year. He averaged $135,455 at Fasig-Tipton July, with 11 of his 13 lots sold. “You’ve got a horse like Vino who was a tremendous racehorse – we saw him put his head down in the Classic and just refuse to lose,” Browning said. “Omaha was a horse who had tremendous, tremendous talent and an amazing pedigree. I think there was great anticipation for horses like that.” Meanwhile, Mitole, who also never missed the board, won four Grade 1 events in 2019, including the Metropolitan Handicap and Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He earned the Eclipse as outstanding male sprinter and was a finalist against Vino Rosso for the dirt male title. Standing for $25,000 at Spendthrift in 2020, he also was just behind Vino Rosso in the class with 230 mares bred, according to The Jockey Club, making him the sixth-busiest in the country. The son of Eskendereya averaged $86,400 from 35 weanlings sold last year and $108,400 from five yearlings sold in July. All three of Spendthrift’s Grade 1 winners are represented at both Saratoga sales this month. Omaha Beach has six yearlings in the catalog for the selected sale, including a half-brother to Grade 2 winner and multiple Grade 1-placed Pappacap; a half-sister to multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Highway Star; and a half-sister to graded stakes winner Scalding. He follows up with four New York-bred yearlings in the statebred sale the following week. Vino Rosso has five yearlings in the selected sale, including a half-brother to Grade 3 winner Boardroom, and 10 New York-breds. Mitole has yearling groups of four and five, respectively, at the two sales. Spendthrift also will be keeping a close eye on several first-crop stallions this season who are sons of Into Mischief, the farm’s three-time reigning leading sire and an emerging sire of sires with the likes of Goldencents and Practical Joke. In addition to Maximus Mischief, who stands alongside his sire at Spendthrift, Into Mischief has another son with first yearlings in Saratoga in Audible, who stands at WinStar Farm. Audible won the Grade 1 Florida Derby and was third in the 2018 Kentucky Derby behind Triple Crown winner Justify. The young stallion averaged $108,065 from 31 weanlings sold last year, more than quadruple his introductory stud fee of $25,000 at WinStar, then ticked that figure upward to $136,667 at Fasig-Tipton July, with nine of his 10 offerings sold. Audible now has seven yearlings selected into the elite Fasig-Tipton Saratoga catalog, the most of any first-crop sire, followed by nine at the New York-bred sale. His offerings at the boutique select sale include half-siblings to graded stakes winners Miss Sunset and Mutasaabeq. “For me, it’s Audible,” breeder and consignor Carrie Brogden of Machmer Hall said of selecting this year’s first-crop stallions to watch. His offspring “can walk, they’re middle-sized, they’re correct, they’ve got great brains. . . . For me, personally, it would be Audible.” Maximus Mischief, who won all three starts as a juvenile, including the Grade 2 Remsen, will be represented in the New York-bred sale after a smashing success with his weanlings last year. Those first-crop offerings sold for more than 19 times his advertised debut stud fee. “We pinhooked and raised Maximus Mischief ourselves,” Brogden said. “He was the coloring of Into Mischief, but he had the stretch and scope and length of [broodmare sire] Songandaprayer. So when we had him at Saratoga, you could have, quote unquote, ‘faulted’ him for being maybe a little long, but that was coming from the Unbridled’s Song part of him. “My only worry about Into Mischief is that they’re too good!” Brogden added. “There’s gonna be too many. . . . But the good thing about that whole line is it throws correct, and good vetting.” Maximus Mischief is one of several first-crop yearling sires this season who retired to stud without a crucial Grade 1 victory on their résumé. However, history shows that Grade 1 success on the track is not the sole indicator of a stallion’s ability to produce top progeny. Prime examples include the late sires Danzig, Malibu Moon, Mr. Prospector, and Not For Love; current Kentucky sires Distorted Humor, Kantharos, Maclean’s Music, and War Front; the pensioned Stormy Atlantic; and prominent regional sires Central Banker, Friesan Fire, Freud, and Khozan. Allaire Ryan, director of sales for Lane’s End, which stands five-time Grade 2 winner Catalina Cruiser, said that buyers may be “critical” of a stallion without a Grade 1. However, a horse’s quality in other areas, such as a strong physical, can help outweigh that. “I think when horses have a good physical and are as consistent as he was, people can appreciate it,” Ryan said. “The same with those other stallions [this year]. He just doesn’t have that ‘G1’ next to his name – he doesn’t know that. I think the other qualities can kind of outweigh, and that’s where you’re seeing support from people who are willing to give horses like him a chance.” Catalina Cruiser’s solid support is evident in his offerings at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga, with well-pedigreed individuals including a colt out of Private Feeling, dam of two-time Eclipse champion Lookin At Lucky, as well as graded/group stakes winners Kensei and Shahama. He also has a filly out of graded stakes winner Frolic’s Dream, dam of stakes winner Bode’s Dream. “He was really well-supported in his first year, and I think that’s a testament to a couple of different things – one being the talent that he had,” Ryan said. “And also, where he was priced – he was priced very fairly in the market. He’s a very good-looking stallion, from day one a very forward individual. He was so correct, a lot of size, a lot of substance. He filled your eye whether you were looking at him as a foal, as a weanling, as a yearling. That’s the other thing – I think breeders were really taken by him.” Solomini, despite being an Eclipse Award finalist as a juvenile, retired without a stakes victory while placing in six graded stakes, including four Grade 1 events. He did cross the line first in one of those, the Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity, but was disqualified to third for interference. The son of Curlin stands at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in New York and is the most well-represented first-crop sire in the New York-bred sale catalog, with 22 yearlings bred in his adopted home state. “We’ve gotten good feedback on all the reports of how his foals look and his yearlings” said Najja Thompson, executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders. “Everyone’s very excited. This is a horse that had some success on the racetrack, but also had a little bit of bad luck. He always competed well in graded stakes.”