In recent decades, America’s Thoroughbred breeding industry has been contracting – with fewer racetracks, smaller foal crops, and a declining number of active stallions. The decline in active stallions has been especially notable: Since 1991 the number of stallions used for breeding has dropped some 79 percent nationally. Illinois represents a microcosm of the trend, with a decline even more precipitous. The state’s roster has gone from 245 in ’91, when the mighty Zen and Bob’s Dusty dominated the state sire lists, to fewer than 30 today, a breathtaking 88 percent decline. The reason for this decline in a once-vibrant regional breeding industry has everything to do with money, or lack thereof. Neighboring Indiana long ago embraced casino gaming both on track and off track, to enhance owner and breeder awards and purse structures, and concomitantly watched its industry grow. By contrast, Illinois’s legislators allowed a proliferation of non-track-based casinos to siphon gambling dollars from racetracks hungry for funds. The issue of racetrack casinos remains on the table today, though last summer the industry did receive a $1.6 million state allocation to support incentives and plump up Illinois-bred stakes money. While the Illinois breeding industry has seen better days, as long as there is life, there is hope for a brighter future. Leading sire by earnings for 2018 is first-time leader Three Hour Nap, who entered stud in the state 11 years ago after a graded stakes-winning career. A presence on the sire lists for years, the son of Afternoon Deelites finally made it to the top last year when nine of his 13 runners won and banked a combined $621,301. Among them was the versatile speedball Wynn Time, a stakes winner on dirt and grass. Three Hour Nap, who stands for $1,000 at Oak Tree Farm near West Frankfort, is a working horseman’s stallion. He has 25 career starters and 21 winners, with $70,275 in average earnings. Three have earned more than $240,000 each. JB Stables’s Road Ruler checked in second on the state sire list after reigning as the state’s leading living sire from 2013 through 2017. The beautifully bred son of Unbridled’s Song brought $800,000 as a yearling and subsequently won his debut while trained by Steve Asmussen. But his career petered out early, and he was acquired by Jake Bryant and brought to Illinois. By 2012, Road Ruler, whom Bryant describes as built like a Quarter Horse, was getting runners who go both long and short, on all surfaces. His $2,000 advertised fee for 2019 is the state high. Three Hour Nap and Road Ruler are 2002 models, making them 17 this year. There is, however, a somewhat younger generation moving up the standings – and they seem to be concentrated at William Stiritz’s Wildwood Farm near Bellevue. Stiritz has been known regionally for his successful racing stable and as majority owner of Fairmount Park in southwest Illinois. Nationally, he may be better recalled as the former CEO and president of Ralston Purina who turned that pet food company around in the 1980s and 1990s before doing the same at Post Holdings, known for its cereals and snack foods. Stritiz’s 400-acre Wildwood Farm serves as a haven from the hectic outer world for the now-84-year-old. Ghaaleb, an 11-year-old by Unbridled’s Song from the female family of Smarty Jones, sold as a yearling for $650,000. He displayed ability in winning 2 of 4 starts before being permanently sidelined. Following his abbreviated career, the handsome gray was purchased by Stiritz as a stallion prospect, with the hope he would replace Wildwood’s successful Cherokee Rap, who had died months earlier at age 11. With only two racing crops on the books through 2018, Ghaaleb looks to be a worthy heir apparent. He led the state’s freshman sires in 2017, topped all second-crop sires last season, and finished 2018 third by total earnings. Ghaaleb has yet to sire a stakes winner, but that day will undoubtedly come as he has an impressive 25 percent stakes-placed runners from 16 starters. Ghaaleb’s Wildwood stablemate Well Positioned was the state’s leading third-crop sire of 2017, and last year ranked top five by earnings. The Canadian-bred son of Awesome Again won the Frisk Me Now at Monmouth in 2010.