Spendthrift's young guns represented at OBS March sale

Mitole, Maximus Mischief, Vino Rosso, and Omaha Beach, all standing at Spendthrift Farm, finished in the top four places on the 2023 freshman sire earnings list, with all four of them recording multiple stakes winners.

All four have second-crop offerings at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co’s March sale of 2-year-olds in training, the first 2-year-old auction of the season. Mitole has 14 in the catalog, Omaha Beach has 10, Maximus Mischief has nine, and Vino Rosso has four.

The four stallions were separated by less than $500,000 on the freshman sire list. As their respective runners have turned 3, some new stakes performers have emerged, indicating they can sire more than just precocity, and perhaps adding some value to their second crops.

Through Feb. 17, Mitole was a close second to WinStar Farm’s Audible on the second-crop earnings list, with earnings of $565,601 to Audible’s $607,634.

Mitole was the 2019 Eclipse Award champion male sprinter, with his biggest wins coming in the Metropolitan Handicap at a mile and the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. However, his pedigree – he is by Eskendereya and is a half-brother to classic-placed Grade 1 winner Hot Rod Charlie – indicates Mitole’s runners might be able to go longer if out of the right mare, and his progeny have hinted at that ability.

V V’s Dream won the Grade 3 Pocahontas going a mile at Churchill Downs and was second in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at two turns at Keeneland. Ice Cold won the one-mile Year’s End at Oaklawn Park. Mitole added a new stakes winner on Feb. 17 as Halina’s Forte won the Ruthless at Aqueduct going seven furlongs, the longest start of her career. The filly is being considered for the Grade 1 Ashland at 1 1/16 miles.

“He’s clearly demonstrated the ability to get horses that’ll stretch out a little bit – it’s early days yet,” said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift. “He’s demonstrated that he’s able to get horses that are fast and sound, and I think people have sort of tried to breed a type to him that could maybe add a little stretch, a little scope, maybe add a little stamina . . . . He’s been well supported by our breeders.”

Omaha Beach ($493,914), Maximus Mischief ($463,429), and Vino Rosso ($435,264) are next on the second-crop earnings list.

Omaha Beach, who never missed the board, did his best work at age 3, winning the Grade 2 Rebel and Grade 1 Arkansas Derby around two turns, and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship and Grade 1 Malibu around one turn.

That résumé gives high hopes for the 3-year-old campaigns of his offspring this season. Spendthrift campaigns his top runner to emerge in 2024, Kopion, winner of the Grade 3 Santa Ynez in January and second in the Grade 3 Las Virgenes in February.

Maximus Mischief, by Spendthrift’s reigning leading sire Into Mischief, won all three of his starts at 2, including the Grade 2 Remsen. It was thus no surprise that he has sired precocity.

Maximus Mischief finished third, beaten just more than a length, in the Grade 2 Holy Bull in his lone start at 3 before injury ended his career.

Vino Rosso, by breakout sire of sires Curlin, somewhat surprised with the precocity of his first crop, including two stakes-winning sprinters. Although Vino Rosso did win on debut late in his 2-year-old season, and won the Grade 2 Wood Memorial in the spring of his 3-year-old year, he blossomed at longer distances as an older horse.

He won the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, both at 10 furlongs, to secure an Eclipse Award as outstanding older dirt male. Thus, there is anticipation for his progeny, including later-emerging runners, to go longer distances this season. Spendthrift may have an exciting one in Tuscan Sky, who won his debut at six furlongs in January at Aqueduct before defeating Nash while drawing away in a Fair Grounds allowance going 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 17 and earning a solid 95 Beyer Speed Figure.

Trainer Todd Pletcher “took his time with him, got him where he wanted him, and wasn’t really eager to run him at six furlongs, thought he might need a little farther,” Toffey said of Tuscan Sky. “And he drew off and won. He was just fine at six furlongs – and at the same time, it looks like Todd may be right. He may be even better as he goes farther.

“I think he’s a little bit of a microcosm of what we’ve seen from Vino Rosso so far. It’s exciting to think that he’s done as much as he’s done right out of the gate – and yet, I think things are only going to improve with time.”

Justify should keep rolling

Triple Crown winner Justify was North America’s leading 2-year-old sire of 2023, with champions worldwide. He could he sitting on another huge year with a well-bred group of juveniles sure to be in demand as the sales season opens.

Justify followed his internationally successful sire Scat Daddy at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud and has followed in his late sire’s footsteps with success around the world and on multiple surfaces. Justify finished a close third on the 2022 freshman sire list, then led the overall 2-year-old sire list by a wide margin last year.

He sired six Grade/Group 1 winners on the flat in 2023, tied for the most by a North American sire with leading general sire Into Mischief. Justify’s versatility was underscored at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita, as he was represented on dirt by Juvenile Fillies winner Just F Y I and also by Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Hard to Justify. Just F Y I was honored as the Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old filly at the awards ceremony in January, with Hard to Justify among the other finalists.

Justify also swept the Cartier European 2-year-old championships with unbeaten City of Troy, a Group 1 winner in England, taking the male title, and French Group 1 winner Opera Singer taking the filly award.

Justify’s other two Grade 1 winners last year came at Belmont Park, and demonstrated his versatility, with Arabian Lion winning the Woody Stephens around one turn on dirt and Aspen Grove winning the Belmont Oaks routing on the grass.

In addition to his Grade/Group 1 winners, which came in the United States, England, and France, Justify, who shuttles to Coolmore’s Australian farm for the Southern Hemisphere season, was represented by multiple group stakes winners in Australia, including the exciting 2-year-old Storm Boy, recently the subject of a multimillion-dollar deal.

As he looks to defend his title as leading 2-year-old sire, Justify has 120 2-year-olds in the Northern Hemisphere, according to Equineline statistics. Eight of those are cataloged at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s 2-year-olds in training sale. The group includes a full brother to his Grade 1 winner Aspen Grove; a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Sippican Harbor; a half-brother to Group 3 winner Sizzling; and a half-brother to multiple stakes-winning millionaire Necker Island.

Justify’s other well-bred juveniles waiting in the wings this season include a half-sibling to Eclipse Award champion and prominent young sire Vino Rosso; a half-sibling to Kentucky Oaks winner Princess of Sylmar; half-siblings to Grade/Group 1 winners Above the Curve, Classic Causeway, Danza, Majestic Harbor, Mo Town, Restless Rider, Roly Poly, and U S Navy Flag; and juveniles out of Grade/Group 1 winners Damson, Sarah Lynx, Together, Turbulent Descent, and Winter.