More Than Ready has developed into a sire capable of getting a diverse spectrum of high-level runners among distances, surfaces, and hemispheres.
The stallion’s roots, however, are in dirt sprints. He saw his greatest success on the racetrack around one turn, highlighted by the Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes, and the distance and surface remains a strong point in his resume at stud.
Tricks To Doo’s dominant score Saturday in the Inaugural Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs earned an 89 Beyer Speed Figure, helping grow Into Mischief’s lead as the most prolific sire of juvenile runners with Beyers of 80 or higher in 2017.
Coolmore and Mike Repole will donate a total of $220,000 to the Thoroughbred Charities of America’s Horses First Fund following the sale of two no-guarantee seasons to champion Uncle Mo to benefit racehorses and their caretakers displaced by the wildfires that devastated California’s San Luis Rey training center earlier this month.
Fear the Cowboy won the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park to put his name into consideration for the $16 million Pegasus World Cup. In the process, he didn’t just earn the highest Beyer Speed Figure of his career, or the top number among this past weekend’s stakes runners – he earned the top figure of sire Cowboy Cal’s career.
The regally bred Principe Guilherme romped by 11 3/4 lengths in an optional-claiming event Saturday at Fair Grounds, moving forward toward the New Orleans track’s series of Kentucky Derby preps. The eye-opening performance served as an exclamation point as perennial leading sire Tapit closes the year strong with his juveniles.
Although Australia and New Zealand have hardly been fertile ground for producing American stallion prospects, the record of sires imported from the Antipodes is surprisingly good. As far back as 1894, New Zealand-bred Sir Modred, who stood at James Ben Ali Haggin’s Rancho del Paso in California, led the American sire list. In the 1970s, Noholme II, a champion in Australia and full brother to the legendary Todman, was highly successful despite beginning his stud career in Arkansas, siring champions Nodouble, Carnauba, and Shecky Greene.
Live in Joy, a stakes-winner, has been retired from racing, and will stand at Broughton Farm in Odessa, Texas, for the 2018 breeding season for an advertised fee of $1,500.
The 9-year-old son of Kitten’s Joy is also advertised with a $500 discount for Texas-bred mares. Ten percent of stud fees paid will be put in a trust fund for any foal bred on the farm toward future aftercare and retirement expenses.
It has been a big year for the sire class that debuted in 2013. The group’s first crop of 3-year-olds cleared two of the three Triple Crown races, with Always Dreaming winning the Kentucky Derby for Bodemeister and Cloud Computing taking down the Preakness Stakes for Maclean’s Music.
Hall of Famer Curlin proved himself able to sire an elite dirt runner early on, getting a Belmont Stakes winner in his first crop. In 2017, he has taken that skill to the next level, leading all sires by progeny Beyer Speed Figures of 100 or more in dirt races with 13.
Those three-digit dirt Beyer efforts were achieved by seven horses, giving Curlin the most to pass that threshold this year through Dec. 14.
