The pattern many breeders follow in the contemporary big-book era of stallion management can be a major problem for all but the most elite prospects. It is generally easy to get plenty of quality mares to a first-year stallion who starts his career in the $20,000 to $40,000 range, but for his second through fourth crops, commercial breeders looking to cash in on the premium buyers pay for first-crop stallions move on to the next similar prospect, and then the next. That often leads to a substantial decline in the quality of a sire’s offspring from his first crop to the second through fourth crops. By then, their reputation has taken something of a hit, and if Grade 1 winners and champions fail to emerge from his fifth crop, his reputation – and his stud fee – takes a permanent hit. That has not been the case for 2010 champion 2-year-old male Uncle Mo, who made the most sensational debut of any American stallion of the last 20 years with his first crop of in 2015 and 2016. That first North American crop of 157 named foals included an astonishing 25 black-type winners, headed by 2015 champion 2-year-old and 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist (out of Seeking Gabrielle, by Forestry) and Grade 1 winners Unbridled Mo (Unbridled Waters, by Unbridled), Outwork (Nonna Mia, by Empire Maker), and Gomo (Gentle Audrey, by Elusive Quality). Inevitably, Uncle Mo has not been able to maintain that 15.9 percent black-type winners-to-foals ratio, but the quality of the best of his two subsequent crops is undeniable. His second North American crop of 92 named foals includes eight black-type winners, including Grade 1 Hollywood Derby winner Mo Town (Grazie Mille, by Bernardini). And his third North American crop, 3-year-olds of 2018 has already added another eight stakes winners from 124 foals, led by Grade 1 Starlet Stakes winner Dream Tree (Afleet Maggi, by Afleet Alex). There may well be another Grade 1 winner to come out of that third crop in Hot Springs, who scored an impressive victory in the Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs last weekend. Bred in Kentucky by Bo Hirsch, Hot Springs is the third foal and third winner out of the stakes-placed Victory Gallop mare Magical Victory. She has since produced an unraced 2-year-old filly, Bye By Bully’s, by Stay Thirsty; a yearling colt by Declaration of War; and was bred to Dialed In this year. Hot Springs was the highest-priced yearling by Uncle Mo at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale, when Bill Farish’s Woodford Racing bid $750,000. That price was justified by the quality of Magical Victory’s female line, which has been nurtured by the Hirsch family since Bo Hirsch’s father, the late Clement L. Hirsch, founder of Santa Anita’s Oak Tree meeting, purchased her second dam, Magical Maiden, by Lord Avie, for only $26,000 at the 1990 California Thoroughbred Sales yearling sale at Del Mar. Clement Hirsch also had raced Magical Maiden’s half-brother by J.O. Tobin, Magical Mile, winner of the Grade 2 Hollywood Juvenile Championship, and stakes-winning half-sister Magic Sister, by Mr. Redoy. A tough and talented racemare, Magical Maiden won 8 of 26 starts over five seasons, including the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes and Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes. Magical Maiden bred Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante winner Miss Houdini, by Belong to Me, for Bo Hirsch, and he named her 2009 Grade 2 Arkansas Derby and 2010 Grade 2 San Fernando Stakes winner Papa Clem, by Smart Strike, in honor of his father, who died the year Miss Houdini was born. Miss Houdini also is the second dam of Grade 3 Canadian Derby winner Ready Intaglio, by Indygo Shiner. Uncle Mo has not been as successful in three Southern Hemisphere excursions to Australia, siring only two black-type winners. Despite that lack of success on Australian grass and American buyers who believe that dirt horses like Uncle Mo are incapable of siring grass horses, Hot Springs is the seventh black-type winner on the turf for Uncle Mo, a number that includes Grade 1 winner Mo Town and three other Grade 3 winners. Uncle Mo’s numbers from his North American-conceived foals, though, are clearly those of a high-class sire. His 41 black-type winners in his first three crops amounts to a stellar 11 percent of his 373 named foals. Uncle Mo’s current crop of 159 2-year-olds (138 named to date) was conceived the year after Nyquist’s championship juvenile season and already includes Grade 3 winner Forty Under (Argent Affair, by Black Tie Affair), and stakes winners Galilean (Fresia, by El Prado) and Monkeys Uncle (Humor Section, by After Market). With the better mares his success has earned, there will be more Grade 1 winners to come.