Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm resident Curlin compiled one of the great résumés by a racehorse, and his flair for winning big races has carried to his time at stud.

Cherokee Rap, who was Illinois’s leading freshman sire and juvenile sire in 2010, died in 2012 at the young age of 11, dealing a major loss to William Stiritz’s Wildwood Farms. But the Bellevue operation has carried on. Not only is Cherokee Rap still posthumously a perennial leading sire in the Land of Lincoln, but Wildwood has two active stallions among the state’s top 10 sires of 2017, including young gun Ghaaleb.

There are good years for stallion operations, and then there are the “three of the state’s top four sires” kind of good years. Swifty Farms in Seymour, Ind., had the latter.

A pair of relocated horses standing their first seasons at Swifty Farms took Indiana’s top two spots by earnings, while a veteran to the state’s sire ranks came in fourth.

It’s not uncommon for a Kentucky stallion to become a regional program’s leading sire by earnings the moment he steps off the trailer to take up residence in that state.

Stroll found himself in that scenario early last year when he arrived at the Iowa State University Horse Farm in Ames, Iowa, after standing the first 11 seasons of his career at Claiborne Farm.

Cowtown Cat moved to Ohio from Florida in time for the 2015 breeding season – meaning his first Buckeye State offspring are juveniles of 2018. Their arrival on the track this year will give Mapleton Thoroughbred Farm much to look forward to, as the stallion keys a strong three-horse roster for the farm.

“I didn’t know how to breed, or at least how everybody else did it at the time,” legendary horseman John Nerud told Daily Racing Form in 2014. “So how did I do it? I owned a piece of the farm, and I bred them and trained them, so if they couldn’t run whose fault was it? I bred like a trainer, and it worked.”

Since 2000, nine stallions have gotten off the mark with a winner in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, or Belmont Stakes in their first crop, and two of them did it in 2017.

Always Dreaming did it first, winning the Derby with WinStar Farm’s Bodemeister, followed by Cloud Computing’s win in the Preakness for Maclean’s Music of Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm.

Raised a Secret, a Grade 3-placed stakes winner, will begin his stallion career at Oakhurst Equine Veterinary Services in Newburg, Ore., during the 2018 breeding season for an advertised fee of $1,000.

The 8-year-old son of Songandaprayer finished his racing career with five wins in 31 starts and earnings of $492,130, with a victory in the Harris Farm Stakes at Fresno. His six in-the-money efforts in stakes include a third in the Grade 3 Los Angeles Stakes at Los Alamitos.

Grade 2 winner Iliad will begin his stallion career at Battle River Stud in Camrose, Alberta, Canada, for the 2018 breeding season, standing for an advertised of $3,500 Canadian.

The 4-year-old Ghostzapper ridgling finished his on-track career with two wins in five career starts for earnings of $247,345, highlighted by a victory in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes and a runner-up effort in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes. He raced for owner Kaleem Shah and trainer Doug O’Neill.

Multiple Grade 1 winner and Eclipse Award finalist Lady Eli has officially been retired from racing and will be sold in foal later this year, her connections announced Tuesday.