Silver State looks to join elite company in Whitney

Silver State, who has already captured the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, will attempt to further burnish his résumé in this Saturday’s Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga Race Course. Not only has the Metropolitan long been considered a stallion-making race – with young winners of the race continuing to be sought after commercially as brilliance continues to be rewarded in the American marketplace – but stallions to pull off the Met-Whitney double have been on a roll as of late.

The Met Mile has been won by such prominent stallions as Tom Fool (1953), Native Dancer (1954), Buckpasser (1967), Tentam (1973), Cox’s Ridge (1978), Fappiano (1981), Gulch (1987-88), Ghostzapper (2005), and Quality Road (2010), as well as younger stallions Palace Malice (2014) and Honor Code (2015), both with Grade 1 winners in their respective first crops. Honor Code and fellow Met Mile victor Frosted (2016) both went on to add the Whitney and are in the midst of solid seasons at stud. Honor Code is the sire of Grade 1 winners in his first two crops, with last year’s Santa Anita Derby winner Honor A. P. joined by recent Coaching Club American Oaks upset winner Maracuja. Frosted, the sire of five stakes winners this season, is the second-leading second-crop sire by earnings, behind only Protonico, sire of embattled Kentucky Derby first-place finisher Medina Spirit.

Joining the fray are recent Met Mile winners Mor Spirit (2017) at Spendthrift Farm and Bee Jersey (2018) at Darby Dan Farm, both with their first yearlings coming to sale this year. Mor Spirit, who was also a Grade 1 winner as a juvenile to add to his appeal, has been an early commercial success. The son of the Giant’s Causeway horse Eskendereya was represented by 16 weanlings sold in 2020 for an average of $23,563, more than double his introductory stud fee of $10,000. At last month’s summer-fall yearling marketplace kickoff at Fasig-Tipton July, Mor Spirit was represented by five yearlings sold for a stellar average of $101,400. That included a $200,000 colt who tied for the third-highest price by a first-crop sire.

“What we were hearing from people early on as foals, and from them this year, is that they’re happy with their yearlings, and so far, the market seems to like them as well,” Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey said. “He’s a neat horse. He’s a big, strong, stout, athletic horse with tremendous bone. You put him up on that show ring and show him to breeders, he really fills it up, and I think he just seems to be throwing that.”

Silver State has now won six races in succession, including the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap and, most recently, the Met Mile on June 5. Finishing fourth in the Met and expected to face him again in the Whitney was Knicks Go, winner of another emerging stallion-making race, the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Since being added to the Breeders’ Cup program in 2007, the Dirt Mile has produced Tapizar (2012), sire of champion Monomoy Girl; Goldencents (2013-2014), a leading freshman, second-crop, and third-crop sire; and Liam’s Map (2015), sire of Grade 1 winners on both dirt and turf from his first crop.

In addition to the duo of Met Mile winners with their first yearlings this season, the Dirt Mile also has a representative in this first-crop class. City of Light – who, like Knicks Go, went on to win the Pegasus World Cup – stands alongside his sire, Met Mile winner Quality Road, at Lane’s End Farm.

“I think you see the frames that you see in the Quality Road [yearlings] from the City of Lights, but City of Light had more style,” Lane’s End director of sales Allaire Ryan said. “Quality Road can get you a big, imposing individual, but they can be rugged as well. The City of Lights, I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re more refined, but I’d say they’re more smooth-looking, and they’ve got good heads on them. They’ve just got a lot of the good qualities.”