The makeup of the general sires earnings list has shifted in recent years thanks to multimillion-dollar purses for events such as the Pegasus World Cup and Dubai World Cup. Tapit is among the elite sires fighting an uphill battle against those statistics, as his three-year run atop the general sires earnings list, in which he established a single-season record for a North American sire each year from 2014 to 2016, ended with the advent of the Pegasus in 2017.

The longest of long shots in the Jan. 26 Pegasus World Cup is likely to be Cuadra San Jorge’s Kukulkan, despite the fact that the Mexican-bred colt is undefeated in 14 starts, including a 10-length romp in the Caribbean Classic at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 8.

WinStar Farm and Blazing Meadows Farm, which have campaigned several stakes-winning Ohio-breds together in recent years, have launched a formal partnership entitled WinBlaze LLC to stand graded stakes winner National Flag at Blazing Meadows in North Jackson, Ohio.

In conjunction with the opening of Santa Anita’s marquee winter meeting, our annual California Stallions special edition, presented by CTBA Sales, takes a look at leading and incoming sires in the Golden State, plus the changing sale scene in the region.

COMPLETE INSERT PDF: 2019 California Stallions, presented by CTBA Sales

I'll Have Another returns to where it all started

The regally bred Boisterous is doing his best to fly the flag for his family, emerging as California’s leading freshman sire of 2018.

Boisterous, who stands at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds, was represented by five individual winners from 20 first-crop starters – by far the most runners for a freshman in the state – for earnings of $275,627 through Dec. 19, making him the category leader by both earnings and winners.

Square Eddie was a breakout success with solid early runners from smaller crops, and has continued to emerge as a perennial leader in California’s stallion ranks.

Square Eddie, standing at Ocean Breeze Ranch, is poised to finish 2018 as California’s second-leading general sire among those with California-sired progeny, behind Bluegrass Cat; ranks as the state’s leading juvenile sire; and also leads California’s turf sire standings.

The new stallions at California farms for the 2019 breeding season are led by a horse who made racing history – I’ll Have Another, the 2012 Kentucky Derby winner.

Recently repatriated from Japan, where he began his stallion career, I’ll Have Another will be based at Ballena Vista Farm in San Diego County.

Throughout the state there are new stallions who are beginning their stud careers and others who have been relocated from other states or provinces. Breeders with a wide range of budgets will have new names to consider for 2019.

The well-traveled Bluegrass Cat has made himself right at home in California.

Bluegrass Cat stood at several farms in Kentucky and New York before landing at Ballena Vista Farm in Ramona, Calif., beginning with the 2015 season. He had prior progeny accomplishments that figured to make him a leader in his new state. That has come to fruition, as his California-sired runners began racing in 2018, and he comes to the end of the season as the state’s leading general stallion with locally sired progeny.

I’ll Have Another was a Kentucky-bred, but California claimed him as its own. Based in the Golden State throughout his career with trainer Doug O’Neill, I’ll Have Another won the state’s major Kentucky Derby prep, the Santa Anita Derby, and then made a Triple Crown run that infamously ended on the eve of the Belmont Stakes.

Regally bred champion Champs Elysees has died of an apparent cardiac event at Castlehyde Stud in County Cork, Ireland.

The Danehill horse, who was 15, raced as a homebred for Juddmonte Farms and originally stood at its Banstead Manor Stud in Newmarket, England, entering stud in 2010. He was purchased by Coolmore in a deal announced in November 2016 to stand at its Castlehyde under the Coolmore National Hunt banner.