Yaupon dominated the freshman sire list in 2025 by more than a million-dollar margin, becoming the fourth consecutive leading freshman sire for Spendthrift Farm. His task in 2026 will be to keep rolling, as the farm’s other recent young sires have done, with a pair of classmates behind him appearing poised to hit their best stride. Yaupon, the latest standout son of the late Uncle Mo, had 30 individual 2-year-old winners from his first crop to the races in 2025 for seasonal earnings of $2,905,612. Darley homebreds Maxfield and Essential Quality checked in second and third, respectively, with 22 winners and $1,623,532, and 19 winners and $1,574,733. Yaupon, who was bred to the second most mares in North America in his first year at stud, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred, had 82 runners to Maxfield’s 60 and Essential Quality’s 58. Yaupon didn’t just have quantity – he also had quality, recording eight individual stakes winners to lead his class by far. Several were multi-time stakes performers, helping to boost his bankroll. The New York-bred Arctic Beast won a local prep, the Aspirant Stakes, before taking the New York Breeders’ Futurity at Finger Lakes, one of the richest races for statebred juveniles. Arctic Beast went on to finish a fine second against open company in the Springboard Mile. A daughter of Yaupon, Letmecounttheways, captured another rich New York-bred prize, the Maid of the Mist. Another regional standout, Crown the Buckeye, won the Best of Ohio Cleveland Kindergarten and Best of Ohio Juvenile before venturing out of state to finish third in the Gun Runner at Fair Grounds. Mohaven won the Golden State Juvenile Fillies and was second in the Generous Portion in California. The fleet Sassy C W took the Astoria Stakes and Prairie Gold Lassie, while Woodstock won the E.L. Gaylord Memorial at Remington and was third in the Myrtlewood Stakes at Keeneland. Solitude Dude won the Inaugural at Tampa, while across the Atlantic, Yaupon de Replay won the Blenheim Stakes in Ireland. Yaupon is also the sire of stakes-placed juveniles Bellanova, Fly Strong, Papa Ken, Prosecco Rita, and Stradale. Although Yaupon’s progeny have mainly excelled in sprints, the placings of Arctic Beast and Crown the Buckeye while stretching out could bode well for the stallion, who was an elite sprinter himself. He won the Grade 3 Chick Lang and Grade 2 Amsterdam as a 3-year-old, and the following year scored his signature win in the Grade 1 Forego despite a dueling Firenze Fire attempting to savage him down the lane. An injury while training for the Breeders’ Cup forced his retirement. He concluded his racing career with six wins from eight starts. Yaupon is the latest in a juggernaut of young stallions for Spendthrift, becoming the fourth consecutive leading freshman sire for the operation. Bolt d’Oro started the run by leading the list in 2022. The following year, Mitole, Maximus Mischief, Vino Rosso, and Omaha Beach, in that order, swept the superfecta. Vekoma led the way in 2024. All of those stallions have gone on to do well with their following crops. Bolt d’Oro finished 2025 third on the fourth-crop sire list behind Justify and Mendelssohn, both of whom have additional shuttle crops and international runners. On the 2025 third-crop sire list, the Spendthrift stallions shuffled their order, with Omaha Beach, sire of Grade 1 winner and Eclipse Award finalist Kopion, outpacing Mitole, sire of Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner and multiple Eclipse finalist Shisospicy. Maximus Mischief, led by Grade 1 winner Raging Torrent, was third, with Vino Rosso in fourth. Vekoma dominated the second-crop sire list for the season. “We are now seeing the emergence of young stallions like Vekoma, Omaha Beach, and Yaupon, who are also No. 1 in their respective sire crops,” said Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey, while reflecting on the farm’s roster, which is led by kingpin Into Mischief. “You could make the argument that we’re in the best of times at Spendthrift, which certainly has a long history that I greatly respect and don’t take lightly. It is extremely humbling and gratifying, and it makes you proud of the work that is being done here by the entire team from the top down, starting with [owners] Eric and Tammy Gustavson.” If Yaupon is going to follow his stablemates with continued success, he will have to fend off the Darley duo of Maxfield and Essential Quality. Both were Grade 1 winners as 2-year-olds but emerged in the fall of those respective seasons. Both took the Breeders’ Futurity around two turns at Keeneland, with Essential Quality going on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to take the first of his two divisional titles. Maxfield was a Grade 1 winner as a 4-year-old, while Essential Quality won the Belmont and Travers Stakes to lock up a 3-year-old championship. The racing records of both would suggest that their offspring will move forward with age and distance. Essential Quality’s progeny are already showing that ability. All three of his juvenile stakes winners came in the second half of the year, including My World, who captured the one-mile Nashua in November and started his sire’s second-crop campaign by taking the one-mile Jerome in January. Essential Quality recorded seven new individual winners from Nov. 1 through the close of the year, his progeny just beginning their best work. Maxfield had just one stakes winner on the season, Max Ciao in the I’m Smokin at Del Mar. However, he was knocking at the door with nine other stakes-placed runners, including the ill-fated Grade 1-placed Five Bars.