Of the 15 West Coast stallions bred to 40 or more mares in 2024, 14 stood in California. The exception was Washington-based Alternation, who was bred to 43 mares, according to Jockey Club statistics.
“We were really pleased with that,” said Debbie Pabst of Blue Ribbon Farm in Buckley, Wash., where Alternation stands.
In one of the closest duels on any stallion list for 2024, Vekoma edged McKinzie and Tiz the Law to claim the freshman sire earnings title.
It’s a big deal for a regional farm to unveil a Kentucky Derby winner at stud, and the addition of 2022 upset victor Rich Strike would have been enough to bring headlines to Rich Miller’s Mountain Springs Farm in Palmyra, Pa.
The king is dead, long live the king!
This seemingly contradictory proclamation is often made following the accession of a new monarch. It simultaneously announces the death of the previous monarch while also saluting the newcomer to the throne.
Into Mischief continues to reign supreme among North American stallions as he claimed his sixth consecutive general sire earnings title in 2024.
Into Mischief, by Harlan’s Holiday, stands at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky. He easily outdistanced Gun Runner, who stands at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., by 2024 earnings at $35,406,575 – smashing his own single-season earnings record – to $22,488,544.
Into Mischief also led the nation by individual winners, individual stakes winners, and Grade 1 winners.
Coal Front is new to Louisiana for 2025 just as his son Coal Battle is making some noise on the Kentucky Derby trail and his daughter Haulin Ice is coming off a season in which she won stakes at Gulfstream Park and Oaklawn Park to contend for 2024 Arkansas-bred of the year.
“It’s been really some nice advertising from his babies here lately,” said Jay Adcock, who with a group of partners purchased Coal Front and brought him to his Red River Farms in Coushatta from Kentucky.
Gun Runner got better as he got older, becoming a Grade 1 winner in three consecutive calendar years in a career that spanned more than 28 months. Justify’s meteoric career lasted less than four months but included a sweep of the Triple Crown.
Yet the two have plenty in common now.
It’s not far, as the crow flies, from the old River Downs outside Cincinnati to Churchill Downs. But metaphorically, the distance is vast.
Ohio-bred Harlan’s Holiday won a pair of stakes at River Downs in 2001 for trainer Kenny McPeek, including the Cradle Stakes, a notable event for several decades. Harlan’s Holiday went on to a career in which he was a multiple Grade 1 winner, was saddled by McPeek in the 2002 Kentucky Derby, and earned more than $3.6 million. That was a fine record for an Ohio-bred from a modest background, but what he left behind at stud is his real legacy.
There were several major storylines in the Canadian stallion ranks in 2024, including the deaths of popular T.C. Westmeath Stud Farm sires Souper Speedy and Old Forester.
Souper Speedy was Canada’s leading sire in 2024 when he died in October in a paddock accident at age 15. Old Forester, the sire of five-time Canadian champion sprinter Pink Lloyd, succumbed in November at 23.
It’s less than a half-hour from Journeyman Stud in Reddick, Fla., to Ocala Stud in the eponymous city. Khozan is taking a short trip from one farm to another – but while his barn is changing, his location atop Florida’s leading sire list has not.
