Freshmen sires of 2019 keep rolling

Last year’s strong freshman sire class seems to have picked up right where it left off with the turn of the calendar, as 3-year-olds from their first crops won two of the three Kentucky Derby points races contested last Saturday, as well as two of the weekend’s three Kentucky Oaks points races.

Max Player, by champion Honor Code, won the Grade 3 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct, and shortly afterward, Tiz the Law, by Constitution, won the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream. Tiz the Law won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes last fall to become one of the four first-season graded stakes winners for Constitution. The young stallion has another Derby hopeful in that group in Independence Hall, who won the Grade 3 Nashua Stakes before opening this season with a win in the Jerome Stakes last month at Aqueduct.

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First-crop sires just missed a sweep of Saturday’s Derby preps, as Royal Act, by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, was second by three-quarters of a length to Thousand Words – by American Pharoah’s sire, Pioneerof the Nile – in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita. However, American Pharoah picked up a victory the following day on the Kentucky Oaks trail when Harvey’s Lil Goil rolled by 7 1/2 lengths in the Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct. She was the first stakes winner on dirt for American Pharoah. In addition to Royal Act, the stallion’s stakes-placed offspring on dirt include American Theorem, second in the Grade 1 American Pharoah stakes last fall, and Prince of Pharoahs, second in the Jerome.

Tonalist’s Shape became the first graded winner for sire Tonalist when she picked up Oaks points in the Grade 3 Forward Gal Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream. Belmont winner Tonalist is, like, Constitution, a son of Tapit.