More Than Ready scored his biggest victory in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes in 2000 at Saratoga. Two decades after his exploits on the track, the 23-year-old stallion hasn’t slowed down. Neither have his progeny.
More Than Ready, who stands at WinStar Farm, sired the most individual runners to record triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in 2019. According to DRF’s Beyer Sire Performance Standings, he led that list with six horses, outpacing Speightstown and Tapit with five each.
Few stallions have dominated their niche of the marketplace as thoroughly as Kitten’s Joy has over the last decade. Kitten’s Joy has been North America’s leading living turf sire every year since 2013, keeping that position last season with top-flight performers worldwide.
Take Charge Indy is the rare exception of a stallion who was sold to overseas interests and then returned to the United States to resume stud duties after being repurchased. A few others who preceded him were Empire Maker, the grandsire of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah who repatriated from Japan in 2016 after four years, and Kentucky Derby winner Dust Commander, who was sent to Japan in 1973 before his first foals raced and was returned to stand in Kentucky in 1980 after getting a number of top runners from his first several crops.
English Channel has been a model of consistency as a sire ever since his first foals raced in 2011. The son of Smart Strike has been a steady producer of top runners, especially of turf runners, though that should be expected of a horse who was one of the top grass runners in his day, winning 13 of 22 starts on turf, earning $5.7 million, and taking home an Eclipse Award as 2007 champion turf horse. At stud – starting at Lane’s End in 2008 before moving to Calumet Farm in 2015 – English Channel has sired six champions, 25 graded stakes winners, and 52 total stakes winners.
In a tumultuous year for Thoroughbred racing, synthetic surfaces again became a major point of discussion. A number of major racetracks switched to synthetic surfaces in the 2000s, including the Southern California circuit – which found itself in the center of the storm regarding equine welfare in 2019 – and Keeneland. However, most tracks eventually reverted back to traditional dirt surfaces, as they struggled with maintenance or faced complaints from a variety of racing groups, including breeders, handicappers, and trainers.
The Jockey Club announced in December that it is continuing consideration of its proposed rule to limit the annual breeding of individual stallions, a move that would have a major commercial impact on leading stallions.
The Jockey Club, the breed registry for Thoroughbreds in North America, announced in September that it was considering limiting the books of stallions to 140 mares, an unprecedented move in this industry. The limit would be phased in beginning in 2021, depending on the year in which a stallion first entered stud.
Cowtown Cat finished as Ohio’s leading stallion with state-sired progeny in 2019 – but a recent influx of Grade 1/Group 1 winners into the state, all of whom sired stakes horses while standing in larger markets, means that position may not be secure in coming years.
City of Light kicked off the year in style for his sire, Quality Road, by winning the Pegasus World Cup Invitational by 5 3/4 lengths, continuing the momentum from his win in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile the previous fall. However, the Pegasus was the career finale for City of Light, as he immediately shipped to Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky to join his sire in time for the 2019 breeding season. There were still more than 11 months remaining in the racing season.
It was an impressive debut. The young stallion, who stood for a modest fee in the fiercely competitive Kentucky market, put a pair of horses from his first crop in the 2013 Kentucky Derby – Santa Anita Derby winner Goldencents and Wood Memorial third-place finisher Vyjack. Although neither hit the board that first weekend in May, both went on to be millionaires and performers at a high level for multiple seasons.
And Into Mischief wasn’t joking around.
As America’s Thoroughbred industry goes, so go our regional breeding centers. Iowa’s Thoroughbred business certainly reflects the larger whole, only with more dire numbers. It is currently in a state of painful contraction – and has been for years. While neighboring Illinois’s parallel struggle has been attributed, in large part, to a lack of racetrack casino revenues, Iowa is here to tell you that such gaming centers, while helpful, are no cure-all.
