Spendthrift has two Breeders' Cup winners in flight of new stallions
Over its storied history since being founded in 1937 by Leslie Combs II – who named the property after the 1879 Belmont Stakes winner bred by his great-grandfather – Spendthrift Farm has been an industry leader as a stallion operation. The farm syndicated back-to-back Triple Crown winners Seattle Slew and Affirmed in the 1970s and also has been home to such standouts as Raise a Native, Nashua, Swaps, Gallant Man, Foolish Pleasure, Majestic Prince, and more.
B. Wayne Hughes purchased Spendthrift Farm in 2004. Since then, the farm has climbed back into prominence as one of Kentucky’s powerhouse stallion operations, with standouts such as classic sire Malibu Moon and leading sire Into Mischief anchoring the roster. Spendthrift’s success has been partially thanks to its innovative breeder incentive programs to popularize young stallions in a difficult economic climate. Taking advantage this season will be a vintage incoming class uncorked under Hughes’s leadership – featuring Vino Rosso.
Spendthrift had quite the pairing on Breeders’ Cup Saturday as Vino Rosso won the Classic and fellow newcomer Mitole took the Sprint. The Breeders’ Cup winners are two of five new stallions for Spendthrift in 2020. The incoming quintet is rounded out by versatile multiple Grade 1 winner Omaha Beach, who is still in training, the globe-trotting multiple graded stakes winner Coal Front, and Grade 2-winning juvenile Maximus Mischief. The group represents five different, and prominent, sire lines, putting something on the list for everyone.
“There is obviously a tremendous amount of history here at Spendthrift, and it’s long been a goal of Mr. Hughes to return this great farm to its better days as a premier stallion operation,” Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey said. “We believe we are doing that. The addition of these five new horses will greatly complement our stallion roster and is representative of our commitment. It is the finest group we’ve had the privilege to bring in, and the best this storied farm has seen in decades.”
Vino Rosso is by consistent classic sire Curlin, who, in turn, was sired by the versatile late classic sire Smart Strike. The colt hinted at his ability as a 3-year-old, when he won the Grade 2 Wood Memorial and placed in two other graded stakes for Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable. After getting some time to breathe, he came into his 4-year-old season poised for continued development.
“We sensed it early on this year that he was a little more mature, more focused, more into his daily training,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “I think it’s really a case of him getting time to develop and mature. We always felt he would be a better 4-year-old than 3-year-old. Just happy it turned out to be right.”
Right, indeed. Vino Rosso broke through with his first Grade 1 victory in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita, then returned to that track to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic by 4 1/2 lengths over McKinzie in his career finale. His Beyer Speed Figure of 111 in the Classic is tied for the second-highest number of 2019 at a route distance on the dirt, behind only the 112 City of Light earned in the Pegasus World Cup in January.
In the interim, Vino Rosso placed in two other Grade 1 events in New York, including, officially, the Jockey Club Gold Cup, in which he crossed the line first ahead of Code of Honor but was disqualified to second for interference.
“I think he’s got a big future,” Pletcher said of the stallion prospect. “He’s a very good-looking horse. He resembles Curlin a lot. He was able to win at 2, 3, and 4 and is a classy type of horse, which is what the people are looking for. He has a great disposition, he’s healthy and sound, and has all the attributes you look for in a stallion.”
Vino Rosso is from the immediate female family of current top 20 freshman sire Commissioner, who has four stakes horses in his first crop.
Even before Vino Rosso rolled in the Classic, it was already a brilliant Breeders’ Cup Saturday for Spendthrift, as Mitole concluded his own career in style with a 1 1/4-length victory in the Sprint, earning a 112 Beyer.
Mitole, who was campaigned by William and Corrine Heiligbrodt, also emerged from an extended layoff from his 3-year-old season into his 4-year-old season to be an even better horse. He began his 2019 campaign by winning his first four starts, including the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap, Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes, and Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, defeating McKinzie by three-quarters of a length in the Met Mile with two-time Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow another neck back in third in a salty field. Mitole stopped the clock for the Met Mile, long considered a stallion-making race, in 1:32.75, less than three-fifths of a second off the track record of 1:32.24 established by Najran in 2003. Spendthrift will be standing two of the last three winners of this historic race, as Mor Spirit won the 2017 Met Mile and entered stud at Spendthrift this year. Interestingly, both horses are by Giant’s Causeway’s son Eskendereya.
“We know what this race meant, what a tremendous field it had,” trainer Steve Asmussen said of the Met Mile. “For him to come out on top against this field under the pressure that he had, he proved what we believed in him the whole time.”
Following the Met Mile, Mitole finished third when cutting back in distance behind Imperial Hint’s track record-setting performance in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga. He bounced right back to win the Grade 1 Forego Stakes at the historic track, running the seven furlongs in a stakes record 1:20.80, just two-fifths off the track record, in his final prep for the Breeders’ Cup.
In Omaha Beach, who is still in training for Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farm, Spendthrift adds a versatile son of standout sire War Front, who reigns as North America’s most expensive stallion, with an advertised stud fee of $250,000. Omaha Beach won a division of the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes this spring, followed by the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, to stamp himself as the morning-line favorite for the Kentucky Derby. However, he was scratched days before the race due to an entrapped epiglottis.
Omaha Beach returned from a layoff for a game victory in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, giving himself top-level scores both sprinting and routing this season. He finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in his most recent outing.
“He’s a throwback to those classic horses,” Omaha Beach’s regular rider Mike Smith said. “He can do anything. Three-quarters to a mile and a quarter. He’s extremely fast and he’s got tremendous stamina. . . . He can do it all.”
Omaha Beach is out of the Seeking the Gold mare Charming, making him not only a half-brother to Eclipse Award champion juvenile filly Take Charge Brandi, but he also is from the immediate family of two young stallions. Charming is out of multiple Grade 1 winner and Broodmare of the Year Take Charge Lady, who is the dam of Eclipse Award champion Will Take Charge and Grade 1 winner Take Charge Indy. Will Take Charge finished fifth on last year’s freshman sire earnings list, while Take Charge Indy has been returned from Korea for the 2020 breeding season due to his success with several graded stakes winners.
“We believe Omaha Beach is one of the best stallion prospects to come around in recent years and see him as a big part of the future at Spendthrift,” Hughes said upon acquiring the colt’s breeding rights this spring. “He is truly a rare package – elite looks, pedigree, sire power, speed, class, you name it.”
Coal Front, by A.P. Indy’s grandson Stay Thirsty, won the Grade 2 Amsterdam and Grade 3 Gallant Bob as a 3-year-old in 2017. More recently, he returned from a layoff of more than a year to be a multiple graded/group stakes winner in 2019 for Robert LaPenta and Head of Plains Partners. He won the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park and the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn Park before earning a signature victory in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile in Dubai.
Maximus Mischief won three of his four outings in a brief career highlighted by a score in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes as a juvenile and a third in the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes in February for Cash Is King LLC and LC Racing before being retired due to a soft-tissue injury.
The addition of Maximus Mischief to the roster gives Spendthrift another son of its Into Mischief, currently the nation’s leading general sire thanks to runners like Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Covfefe. Spendthrift already stands Into Mischief’s two-time Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Goldencents, who finished second on last year’s freshman sire list by earnings and continued on this season with runners such as multiple graded stakes winner Mr. Money. Spendthrift has continued to double down on the sire line by acquiring an interest in the latter, presumably as a future stallion prospect.
“Obviously, we believe in the sire line and know it very well,” Toffey said. “Mr. Money is a fantastic physical representation of Goldencents and Into Mischief, and he has that tremendous desire to compete, which we’ve come to know from this sire line.”
For now, though, there is the class of 2020. Spendthrift recently set stud fees for its newcomers, with Omaha Beach the most expensive new stallion in Kentucky at an advertised fee of $40,000, and Vino Rosso just behind him at $30,000. (See chart, page 3). And that could only be the starting point for Omaha Beach, as Spendthrift has noted that his fee is subject to change pending his final starts. The colt is targeting the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita, followed by the $9 million Pegasus World Cup in January at Gulfstream Park, in which he will be the latest top stallion prospect to make his swan song.
Perhaps Spendthrift could be raising another glass or two prior to breeding season.