More Than Ready to be remembered for extending success of Halo line

The weekend following internationally successful sire More Than Ready’s death, his legacy was evident. His son Funtastic sired his first winner, and More Than Ready recorded a stakes winner as a broodmare sire.

The legacy of More Than Ready, a Grade 1 winner who went on to become one of the most successful sires in the history of the Breeders’ Cup, will be as the most prominent keeper of the Halo line in the United States.

More Than Ready was euthanized Aug. 26 at WinStar Farm in Kentucky due to the effects of old age at 25.

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The horse burst onto the scene more than two decades ago as a precocious juvenile who was among the early standouts in the career of trainer Todd Pletcher. He won his first five starts at 2 in 1999, including the WHAS-11 Stakes, Flash Stakes, Grade 3 Tremont Stakes, and Grade 2 Sanford Stakes, and ended the season running third in the Grade 1 Futurity at Belmont Park and fifth in the Grade 1 Champagne there. As a 3-year-old, he won the Grade 1 King’s Bishop at Saratoga and the Grade 3 Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park and placed in four other graded stakes. Retired after his 3-year-old season, More Than Ready earned just more than $1 million.

More Than Ready initially stood at Tom Simon’s Vinery Farm in Kentucky before being transferred to WinStar when Simon announced he was closing his U.S. breeding operations in 2012. More Than Ready also shuttled from Kentucky to Vinery Stud in Australia for the Southern Hemisphere season, making his initial trip in 2001. His final Australian foals are yearlings.

Meanwhile, More Than Ready was still an active stallion in Kentucky this year, meaning he will have additional crops on the racetrack. According to Equineline statistics, More Than Ready through Saturday had sired 2,098 winners, including 223 stakes winners, with 107 of those being graded/group winners. His progeny earnings stand at more than $219.5 million.

More Than Ready has sired the winners of seven Breeders’ Cup races, giving him more wins than any other stallion in the history of the event, inaugurated in 1984. More Than Ready’s progeny won a pair of Breeders’ Cup races in 2010, with More Than Real in the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Pluck in the Juvenile Turf. They helped make him the leading 2-year-old sire that season. He went on to sire 2011 Turf Sprint winner Regally Ready, 2017 Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Rushing Fall, Roy H, who won back-to-back editions of the Sprint in 2017 and 2018, and, most recently, 2019 Mile winner Uni.

Roy H, Rushing Fall, and Uni all earned Eclipse Award championships in North America for More Than Ready. In Australia, More Than Ready’s multiple champions are led by More Joyous, an eight-time Group 1 winner who bankrolled more than $4.5 million to rank as her sire’s leading career earner. More Than Ready’s other Australian champions are Phelan Ready, Samaready, and Sebring.

More Than Ready was a grandson of Grade 1 winner and multi-time leading sire Halo, best known for siring 1989 Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Horse of the Year Sunday Silence. Halo also sired 1983 Kentucky Derby winner Sunny’s Halo, Eclipse Award champion Devil’s Bag, Canadian champion Glorious Song, and Kentucky Oaks winner Goodbye Halo.

American breeders showed little interest in Sunday Silence, and he was purchased by Shadai Farm founder Zenya Yoshida. In Japan, Sunday Silence found his perfect gene pool and established his dynasty as a leading sire even beyond his death two decades ago, with his sons and grandsons continuing to dominate Japan’s sire list. With the Japanese bloodstock industry experiencing a largely insular period as it grew, few of Sunday Silence’s sons stood out of the country or made their way to North America.

Many of Halo’s sons in the U.S. found their niche as regional sires, including Sunny’s Halo in Texas. Among the stallion’s sons in Kentucky, Devil’s Bag was a useful if not spectacular sire, with his best U.S. runner multiple Grade 1 winner Devil His Due. Devil His Due’s Grade 1-winning son Roses in May was snapped up to stand in in Japan. Halo’s Grade 1 winners Lively One and Jolie’s Halo both eventually went to stand in Japan as well.

Poor luck befell the line of Halo’s son Saint Ballado, who died early, at age 13. Saint Ballado’s best son, Horse of the Year Saint Liam, was euthanized after breaking his leg in a freak accident while being led to his paddock, and although his lone crop included Horse of the Year Havre de Grace, he did not leave a quality son behind.

The preeminent keeper of Halo’s flame in the United States has been More Than Ready, by Halo’s late son Southern Halo, a leading Argentinian sire who shuttled to Kentucky.

More Than Ready is represented by six sons at stud in the U.S. The most accomplished on a national level is Daredevil, who from his first crop sired 2020 Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil and 2020 Preakness Stakes winner and divisional champion Swiss Skydiver. Daredevil had been acquired by the Turkish Jockey Club, but after his first-crop success was repatriated to stand at Lane’s End Farm. His first return crop arrived this year.

More Than Ready’s freshman son Funtastic (Three Chimneys Farm) recorded his first winner on Saturday, a day after his sire’s death, when Funtastic Again won an off the turf maiden at Saratoga. More Than Ready’s sons Catholic Boy (Claiborne Farm), who won two Grade 1 stakes, and Copper Bullet (Darby Dan Farm), a graded stakes winner, both have their first yearlings this year.

More Than Ready recorded his 149th stakes winner as a broodmare sire on Saturday, as Aspen Grove won the Group 3 Irish EBF Stakes. In the U.S., the stallion’s top performers out of his daughters include 2022 multiple Grade 1 winner Regal Glory, and Breeders’ Cup winners Structor and Four Wheel Drive.