“The Giving Tree,” a 1964 children’s book written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein, follows the lives of an apple tree and a boy as he grows. The namesake tree gives to the boy throughout his life, even as his needs change – from a place to play as a child, to her branches to build a house as a young man, to a place to rest when he is elderly. Like the apple tree, Into Mischief can do it all. Into Mischief was represented by his first classic winner in 2020 – but also sired top sprint performers and turf performers. He rewards grateful backers with picture-perfect commercial yearlings and rock-solid racehorses who regularly bring home paychecks. And, at a relatively early curve in his career, he is continuing to reward his connections, including B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm, as a sire of sires. “He’s paid for our farm, he’s paid for our kids to be able to go to private school,” said Machmer Hall’s Carrie Brogden, an early and ongoing supporter of Into Mischief who bred Vyjack, a graded stakes winner on both dirt and turf, from the stallion’s first crop, and last September sold a seven-figure yearling by the stallion. “And not only that, he keeps paying. “I think in general, Into Mischief is just – he’s The Giving Tree of horses,” Brogden continued. “Everyone who has touched him, who has been around him, who has bred mares to him, for the most part, he’s given them anything they wanted. And I can’t think of another horse like that in my lifetime.” Into Mischief rewarded Spendthrift Farm and his supporters by earning his second consecutive North American general sire title in 2020, topping the traditional earnings list in record-shattering fashion, and dominating the stallion ranks by a number of other metrics, as well. Into Mischief, a son of Harlan’s Holiday, finished 2020 with a progeny bankroll of $22,506,085, easily outpacing Gainesway Farm’s Tapit with $12,385,825. Into Mischief established a single-season earnings record for a North American sire, besting the $19,907,973 earned by Tapit in 2016 – the third consecutive year Tapit had broken the mark while leading the sire list three times. Into Mischief also led the continent by individual winners by a wide margin, with 184 to 154 for Coolmore’s Uncle Mo. Into Mischief’s top earner in 2020 was Authentic, the favorite to be named both Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male when the Eclipse Awards are presented Jan. 28. The colt earned more than $7.1 million while posting Grade 1 triumphs in the Kentucky Derby, Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Haskell Invitational; he was second in both the Preakness Stakes and Santa Anita Derby. The victories in the Haskell, Derby, and Classic earned Authentic a $1 million bonus, but Into Mischief would have broken the earnings record even without that additional sum. Authentic also posted Into Mischief’s top Beyer Speed Figure on the season, with a 111 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland. The colt was among those helping his sire become a leader on the Beyer Sire Performance Standings, Daily Racing Form’s exclusive stallion metrics. The standings provide totals and percentages for progeny who surpass specific Beyer benchmarks in North American races. Traditional sire lists based on earnings can be slanted by one or two major runners, particularly in lucrative high-profile races or on circuits with casino-inflated purses. The Beyer Sire Performance Standings look beyond these factors. Beyers are assigned to all runners in a race, allowing DRF’s sire lists to include all performances. Into Mischief was represented by 34 individual progeny who surpassed the benchmark Beyer of 90 or above, regardless of surface, distance, or age, in 2020. In total, those 34 horses accounted for 87 total Beyers of 90 or above. Into Mischief led both those categories, by individual runners and total Beyers to meet the threshold. He also led by triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures earned on the year, with 11. The rise of Authentic this season to become Into Mischief’s first American classic winner was a major breakthrough for the sire, whose progeny some thought had distance limitations. Into Mischief, who rose to national prominence as a perennial leading juvenile sire early in his career, claimed his first general sire title in 2019 on the heels of Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner and dual Eclipse champion Covfefe. “Into Mischief, as great as he’s been, it’s come more at a mile, a mile and an eighth, and under,” Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey said. “So it probably wasn’t totally unfair.” Into Mischief was far from this point when he entered stud for Spendthrift, which purchased him as a juvenile and campaigned him to a career highlighted by a victory in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity. He opened for a fee of $12,500 in 2009, during the market crash that especially hampered unproven stallions. He covered 61 mares that first year, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred, a number Spendthrift attempted to bolster for him, and other young stallions, in ensuing years by introducing its “Share the Upside” program, in which breeders can earn a lifetime breeding right to a stallion after supporting him in his first two years. Hughes, who purchased the historic Spendthrift property in 2004, also has incentivized breeders to support his young stallions with programs such as “Safe Bet” and “Breed Secure.” Those programs have altered the landscape in the highly competitive Kentucky stallion market as a number of other farms, with Hughes’s blessing, have adopted versions of them as well. Into Mischief’s fee dipped as low as $7,500 at a book of 50 mares in 2012, the crucial year that his first foals raced, then began to climb steadily upward. The stallion first stood for six figures in 2018, at $100,000, then was advertised at $150,000 in 2019. Following Covfefe’s exploits, his fee rose to $175,000 for the 2020 season, and he covered an outstanding book. The 248 mares included Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Blue Prize; Eclipse Award champions Groupie Doll and My Miss Aurelia; and proven producers Bubbler, the dam of champion and leading money winner Arrogate, and Indian Miss, the dam of champion Mitole. Flawless, the dam of Authentic, and Peggy Jane, the dam of multiple Grade 1 winner Gamine, also revisited him. Bucking a national trend due to the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Into Mischief’s fee again rises for 2021, to $225,000, making him the most expensive stallion in North America. “I don’t know if we’ve seen anything quite like Into Mischief. It’s truly remarkable the things he’s doing,” Toffey said. “Aside from amounting results on the track and in the sales ring, he’s the consummate professional and loves his job. This year, over 96 percent of his mares checked in foal. “We think Into Mischief is making a positive impact on the breed that will be felt for years to come, particularly with the heart and durability that are signatures of his offspring.” In addition to Authentic, Into Mischief’s record-setting 2020 season was led by Gamine, who dazzled with Grade 1 victories in the Acorn and Test stakes over the summer, earning Beyers of 110 and 108, respectively. She finished third in the Kentucky Oaks, then rebounded to win the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, posting another 110 Beyer. Like Covfefe the season before her, she is a finalist for two Eclipse Awards. Gamine demonstrated Into Mischief’s commercial prowess when she sold for $1.8 million in 2019, setting a record at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale. In the midst of his 2020 success, Into Mischief’s commercial stock continued to skyrocket. At the Keeneland September yearling sale, a bellwether for the Thoroughbred marketplace and a powerful measuring stick for sires, Into Mischief topped all stallions by gross sales, with his 57 yearlings sold totaling $25,401,000. He was represented by five seven-figure yearlings, including the most expensive filly of the sale at $1.9 million. She was purchased by OXO Equine’s Larry Best, a longtime supporter of Into Mischief who will debut the stallion’s sons Instagrand and Rowayton at stud in 2021. “The sire is unreal,” Best said. “I just put Instagrand into stallion duty, so I’m betting big on Instagrand. I didn’t sell him – I had offers to sell him. I put him to stud because I believe he has the potential to be an elite sire son of Into Mischief. So I’m obviously one of the biggest fans of what Spendthrift has done with Into Mischief, and my luck with Into Mischief has been quite good, starting with Instagrand. “I have a horse named Rowayton who’s a Grade 1 performer. I do have other sires in my portfolio for this [upcoming] 2-year-old crop, but I didn’t have any Into Mischiefs. I had some Practical Jokes, but I’m a big fan of Into Mischief. I think he’s probably one of the best sires ever.” Into Mischief’s other top runners of 2020 included Grade 1 winner and Eclipse finalist Dayoutoftheoffice, who was second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies; Mutasaabeq, a Grade 2-winning juvenile on turf; additional dirt graded stakes winners at both sprint and route distances with Cool Arrow, Frank’s Rockette, Go Google Yourself, Into Chocolate, and Mischevious Alex; and additional turf graded stakes winners Bemma’s Boy, Largent, and Sombeyay. Thanks to Dayoutoftheoffice and Mutasaabeq, Into Mischief again finished as the nation’s leading juvenile sire by earnings, besting Tapit on that list. Into Mischief is off to a fast start in 2021. Mutasaabeq successfully moved to dirt to win the Mucho Macho Stakes at Gulfstream Park, while, on the same first Saturday of the year, Life Is Good emerged to win the Grade 3 Sham Stakes. Although his graded stakes-performing progeny, understandably, receive the lion’s share of attention, Into Mischief also sires hard-knocking racehorses at a number of levels. This was exemplified by one of the overall winningest horses of 2020, Hunka Burning Love. The gelding won 8 of 14 starts during his 6-year-old season, making him one of five individual horses tied atop the leaderboard with eight 2020 victories in North America. Hunka Burning Love, who has earned more $500,000 in his career, raced at Oaklawn, Will Rogers, Lone Star, Remington Park, and Delta Downs on the season. He captured the Lone Star Mile and Delta Mile, as well as the Governor’s Cup, David M. Vance Stakes, and Jeffrey A. Hawk Memorial Stakes at Remington. “He throws correct, he throws the vetting, he throws pretty, but the biggest thing he throws is heart,” Brogden said. “Heart and soundness and try. “They just try,” Brogden continued. “If they’re $10,000 claimers, they try. If they’re graded stakes winners, they try. Some of these ‘Saturday stallions,’ they’ll say, ‘Well, you either get a graded stakes winner, or they can’t win for 20.’ But with Into Mischief, you know you have a chance. You know you have a chance at a racehorse, no matter what.” Goldencents, Into Mischief’s best son with foals of racing age to date, has gone a long way to proving that those attributes will be passed down through the sireline as well. The two-time Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner has gotten off to a flying start for Spendthrift, which has doubled down on investing in the line. Goldencents was the leading freshman sire by individual winners and runner-up by earnings in 2018. He was 2019’s leading second-crop sire as By My Standards won the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby and Mr. Money, who had been his leading juvenile earner, captured four consecutive Grade 3 events in the Pat Day Mile, Matt Winn, Indiana Derby, and West Virginia Derby. Mr. Money also finished second in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby. In 2020, Goldencents again led his class on the third-crop sire list by earnings, with By My Standards capturing a trio of Grade 2 events in the Oaklawn Handicap, New Orleans Classic, and Alysheba Stakes. Mr. Money won the Grade 3 Ack Ack Stakes, and, continuing to show the versatility of the sireline, Wildman Jack was a multiple graded stakes-winning turf sprinter. The various branches of Into Mischief’s sireline look poised to continue to grow and flourish. Multiple Grade 1 winner Practical Joke, who stands for the international Coolmore group, will have his first foals on the track this season. Meanwhile, first foals are arriving now for several sons of Into Mischief, including classic-placed Grade 1 winner Audible and Grade 2-winning juvenile Maximus Mischief. “The foal looks like [Maximus Mischief], who has certainly moved up the mare,” said Angela Ingenito, breeder of Maximus Mischief’s first foal born in January in Florida. “I see a lot of Into Mischief. He has a nice hip, a lot of bone, a good front end, and good head and neck. It’s a nice representation of the sire.” Goldencents and Maximus Mischief both stand alongside their sire at Spendthrift. In addition to debuting Authentic on that powerhouse Kentucky roster, the farm also has an interest in Goldencents’s first son to stud in 2021, as Mr. Money will stand at Journeyman Stud in Florida for Spendthrift and owner Allied Racing. “People have asked us, ‘How many sons of Into Mischief do you want?’ and we say, we want them all!” Spendthrift stallion sales manager Mark Toothaker said. “It’s the best blood out there right now in American racing.”