Kitten's Joy now leads sire earnings list

Gun Runner won the world’s richest race, the $16 million Pegasus World Cup, in January, and his $7 million share of the purse gave his sire, Candy Ride, a big leg up in the 2018 stallion race. Candy Ride is no one-hit wonder, either, with Grade 1 winners Game Winner and Separationofpowers also adding to his tally over the summer.

But Kitten’s Joy has kept barreling along – and surpassed Candy Ride atop the general sires earnings list Saturday, thanks to Grade 1/Group 1 winners Roaring Lion and Oscar Performance. He now leads North American sires with international earnings of $14,552,944 to Candy Ride’s $13,761,374.

Roaring Lion won the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes on Saturday in Ireland, his third consecutive Group 1 triumph after taking the Coral Eclipse and Juddmonte International. Just hours later, Oscar Performance won the Woodbine Mile for his fourth Grade 1 victory and a redemption run after being pulled up in the Arlington Million. He is now a Grade 1 winner at ages 2, 3, and 4 after winning the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and last year’s Belmont Derby and Secretariat Stakes.

Kitten’s Joy stood the majority of his career for Ramsey Farm, which bred and campaigned him to an Eclipse Award, before relocating to Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm, which purchased a 50 percent interest in him, starting this season. Kitten’s Joy, who led Kentucky’s general sires list in 2013, is well on his way to his sixth consecutive season atop the continent’s turf sire ranks, with other runners this year including Hawkbill, winner of the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic; Grade 2 winner Sadler’s Joy, who is multiple Grade 1-placed this year; and Catapult, a dual Grade 2 winner during the summer meeting at Del Mar.

According to Daily Racing Form’s exclusive Beyer Sire Performance figures, Kitten’s Joy, who has 176 North American winners this season to Candy Ride’s 157, has 23 individual runners who have earned Beyer Speed Figures of 90 or higher this year, or 9 percent of his runners. Five individuals by Kitten’s Joy have earned Beyers of 100 or higher, led by the 104’s posted by both Catapult and Oscar Performance.

Gun Runner’s Beyer of 120 in the Pegasus still leads the way for Candy Ride, who stands at Lane’s End. Thirteen percent of his progeny this year have cracked the 90-Beyer threshold.