Winning the Kentucky Derby practically guarantees that the victor will have a leg up against his contemporaries when it comes to attracting quality and quantity for his first book at stud.

The Queen’s Plate is more of a mixed bag as a stallion-making race.

The first leg of Canada’s Triple Crown has its share of notable sires – names like the breed-shaping Northern Dancer as well as Awesome Again, With Approval, and Victoria Park. However, the past decade has seen the race’s sire-making power trail off.

Leavem in Malibu
(Malibu Moon–Leaveminthedust, by Danzig)

Leavem in Malibu could be considered a late bloomer since he didn’t make his racing debut until April 16. However, there is something to be said about peaking at the right time, and there are few better opportunities to do so than in the Queen’s Plate.

While his résumé may be light, with only three starts prior to his stakes debut in the Queen’s Plate, the North American classics are not uncharted territory for Leavem in Malibu’s family.

New York-based stallion Midas Touch has been sold to Haras Rapetti in Uruguay, and will be joined for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season by shuttlers Posse and Trinniberg.

All three stallions reside at Rockridge Stud in Hudson, N.Y. Posse and Trinniberg will return to the farm for the 2017 breeding season, and will remain with their current ownerships.

Discreetly Mine, who had stood at Lane’s End in Kentucky for six years, has been sold to stand at Norman Fox’s Haras Lascala in Uruguay. The deal was brokered by Chad Schumer of Schumer Bloodstock in association with Diego Mitagstein of Perhaps Bloodstock and Pablo Núñez.

The champion Untapable has been retired following a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Handicap on Saturday night at Churchill Downs, owner-breeder Ron Winchell confirmed Sunday. Future broodmare plans for the mare were not immediately discussed.

“After having a truly great 3-year-old season and currently the No. 1 U.S. earner for Tapit – it’s time!” Winchell posted on his Twitter account Sunday night.

Following a year of optimism and record returns in nearly every segment of the market, the 2-year-olds in training season of 2016 saw the buyers and sellers become more discriminating with their bids and reserves, while figures generally declined for all but the top offerings.

“When they say it’s been a roller-coaster ride, that’s been true for this year more than any other,” said David Scanlon of consignor Scanlon Training and Sales. “The highs are really high, and that middle-to-lower market has just been a very tough place this year.”

Three years after Fort Larned won the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs, his younger half-sister Walkabout won her maiden in her fourth start, taking a maiden special weight by 4 1/2 lengths on last Saturday’s Foster card.

Walkabout, by Stroll, runs for owner-breeder Janis Whitham and is trained by Ian Wilkes, just as Fort Larned was.

“It’s been slow, but she’s coming into her own,” Wilkes said of the 3-year-old filly’s development. “She takes a lot more training than her brother, but she’s turning into a nice filly.”

Holy Bull, the 1994 Horse of the Year who is now a pensioner at Darley, never sired a runner who came close to his own brilliance, although he was represented by 2005 Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo. His true mark has been as a broodmare sire, with 722 winners, including 53 stakes winners and 61 more stakes-placed runners, produced by his daughters.

The latest of those standouts came at Royal Ascot, where the 2-year-old Caravaggio turned in an impressive performance to win the Group 2 Coventry Stakes.

On an international stage at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting last week, five Kentucky-bred runners emerged victorious to fly the flag for the “Thoroughbred Capital of the World.”

The assault was led by Eclipse Award winner Tepin, as the daughter of the late Bernstein became the first American-based horse to win the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes. Bred in Kentucky by Machmer Hall, the mare is out of the Stravinsky mare Life Happened, who is also the dam of multiple Grade 2-winning millionaire Vyjack and graded-stakes-placed Prime Cut.

Royal Ascot is widely considered the world’s highest-class Thoroughbred race meeting, and it lived up to its billing once again last week. With six races a day spread over five days of unmatched pageantry and pomp at the Queen of England’s racecourse, 23 of the 30 races earn their winners black type, 18 are group races, and eight are Group 1 races.