Munnings enjoys career season in 2022

A distinctive face in the barn at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud for more than a decade now, Munnings had a career year in 2022, which included siring North America’s winningest horse.

Munnings, a multiple graded stakes-winning son of Speightstown, entered stud in 2011, and was fourth on the 2014 freshman sire list. He has made a steady ascent through the general sire rankings since then.

A top 10 sire each year since 2020, Munnings has amassed a progeny earnings bankroll of $13.3 million and $13.2 million in the last two seasons. In 2022, he recorded career-highs of 163 individual winners and 15 stakes winners. Only Into Mischief – who entered stud two years earlier and had 164 more runners on the season – was ahead of him on those lists.

As a result of his success, Munnings’s stud fee has steadily climbed in the past five seasons, from $20,000 in 2019 to $85,000 for 2022, and now $100,000 for the upcoming season.

Beverly Park, by Munnings, won more races than any other horse in North America in 2022. After winning nine of 10 starts in 2021, the stalwart continued on to win 15 of 30 starts in his 5-year-old campaign in 2022 for owner-trainer Lynn Cash. He had victories at Charles Town, Mahoning Valley, Belterra Park, Churchill Downs, Thistledown, Timonium, and Fair Grounds. Overall, the horse has won 25 of 47 career starts for earnings of $536,730.

“He’s just a blue-collar horse. He’s a tank,” Cash said. “If you leave him in the stall, he’s mad. He just wants to get out and go. He’s the most healthy horse I’ve been around or seen. I think he won once on four days’ rest, and a couple of times on five. Granted, those were softer spots, but he puts it out there every time. With a couple of exceptions, he’s always right there. He’s just an amazing animal.”

At higher levels, Munnings was represented in 2022 by Jack Christopher, who won the Grade 1 Woody Stephens Stakes and Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial, adding those to his top-level victory in the 2021 Champagne Stakes. The flashy colt retired with five wins from six starts, his only loss being a third when going two turns in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational. He takes up residence alongside his sire, whom he strongly resembles, for 2022 at Ashford.

Munnings was also represented in 2022 by graded stakes winners Eda, Jaxon Traveler, Kimari, Scaramouche, and Shahama.