Freshmen make impact at Del Mar, Saratoga

This summer’s marquee summer race meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar, which traditionally unveil promising 2-year-olds, provided a major opportunity for this year’s highly anticipated class of freshman sires led by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah to step up – and step up, they did.

Through Monday’s closing day for both meets, American Pharoah had emerged atop the freshman list by both winners and earnings, and he was one of several freshmen holding their own against established juvenile sires. Meanwhile, Liam’s Map put an exclamation point on the summer as the sire of Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes winner Basin, making him the latest in the class to record a stakes horse.

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American Pharoah, who is based at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, was represented by 12 individual winners from 35 starters through Monday, giving him a progeny bankroll of $865,186. Following him on the earnings list is WinStar Farm’s multiple Grade 1 winner Constitution, at $786,460. The latter is represented by 11 winners from 30 starters, tying him with Darby Dan’s Tapiture for the second-most winners among freshmen.

American Pharoah is the sire of three stakes winners and three stakes-placed runners – including, at Saratoga, Skidmore Stakes winner Another Miracle and P.G. Johnson Stakes runner-up Sweet Melania. He also is the sire of French Group 3 winner Maven; Four Wheel Drive, winner of the Rosie’s Stakes at Colonial Downs last weekend; Irish Group 1-placed Monarch of Egypt; and French stakes-placed Saggara King. Meanwhile, Constitution sired graded stakes winners at both major summer meetings, with Amalfi Sunrise winning the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar and By Your Side taking the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga.

Led by these runners, American Pharoah and Constitution rank second and third among all juvenile sires standing in North America. They trail only reigning leading juvenile sire Into Mischief, who has earnings of $1,224,323 this season in the category. Into Mischief, standing at Spendthrift, also leads the general sire list by earnings, at $12,011,730 to Tapit’s $10,709,422 and Quality Road’s $10,612,727. Tapit, who stands at Gainesway, leads the nation with 10 graded stakes winners and also leads Daily Racing Form’s Beyer Sire Performance Standings by benchmark Beyers of 90 or higher, with 68.

Among 2-year-olds, a Beyer of 80 or higher is considered a benchmark, and Constitution leads American Pharoah in that regard, 4 to 3. Constitution also is just one of two freshmen – along with Khozan, third on the earnings list – to record a Beyer of 90 or higher, with Tiz the Law notching that figure in his Saratoga maiden win.

Despite all those accomplishments, however, it was Liam’s Map, sitting eighth on the freshman earnings list with two winners, who broke through with the victory in the signature 2-year-old race at Saratoga. Basin won the historic Hopeful on closing day, making his young Lane’s End sire the 16th North American freshman this season with at least one black-type stakes winner. American Pharoah and Fast Anna (Three Chimneys) have three each; Constitution and Competitive Edge (Ashford) have two each; and Bakken (Stoneridge Farm, Canada), Daredevil (WinStar), Dramedy (River Oaks Farms, Oklahoma), Frac Daddy (Park Stud, Canada), Karakontie (Gainesway), Khozan (Journeyman Stud, Florida), Liam’s Map, Palace (Spendthrift), Palace Malice (Three Chimneys), Race Day (Spendthrift), Summer Front (Airdrie Stud), and Tapiture each have one. Tapit, who is bidding for his fourth general sire earnings title, is the sire of Constitution, Race Day, and Tapiture.