Saturday Sires: Goldencents

If you're in this business, chances are you're seeking 'Saturday afternoon horses.' In this new series, we will select a stallion from the previous weekend whose runners particularly impressed. We start with the sire of the most coveted prize of all: this year's GI Kentucky Derby winner.

Spendthrift Farm has long called Goldencents “Into Mischief's value sire.” As a member of the five-time leading sire's first crop, he was conceived on a $12,500 cover and, while quietly plying his trade with solid runners and numbers that put him at or near the top of all of his respective sire crops, he hadn't come up with a truly big horse. Meanwhile, Into Mischief had flashier sons like Horse of the Year Authentic and triple-digit Beyer sensation Life Is Good retire to the breeding shed and quick-success sire sons like Practical Joke grab the headlines.

That all changed Saturday.

Mystik Dan captured a thrilling rendition of the Derby, catapulting Goldencents into the rarefied air of sire of a Kentucky Derby winner. If Goldencents was somewhat in the background among an ever-growing smorgasbord of Into Mischief sons at stud, he won't be any more.

“I think it just adds that much more to the legacy that Into Mischief is building as a sire, first having sired two Derby winners of his own and now to have a son sire one, it cements his legacy as a sire of sires,” said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift Farm. “When you talk to the public, no one ever asks you if you won a Breeders' Cup. Everyone always asks if you have a Kentucky Derby winner.”

Goldencents was a $62,000 purchase by Dennis O'Neill at the 2012 OBS June Sales of 2-Year-Olds after working a quarter in :21.1. He broke his maiden first time out in September that year over 5 1/2 furlongs on what was then Del Mar's all-weather surface. Trainer Doug O'Neill–whose assistant Leandro Mora was sometimes listed as conditioner–thought enough of him to ship to Belmont for the GI Champagne S., where he finished second, before shipping again and capturing the GIII Delta Downs Jackpot S.

That Delta Downs win would mark Into Mischief's first graded win as a sire. Goldencents would go on to win five more graded races, including back-to-back editions of the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and a stretch out to nine furlongs in the GI Santa Anita Derby. He retired after his second Breeders' Cup victory at the end of 2014 with a record of 18-7-7-0 and earnings of $3,044,000.

Goldencents was one of just 41 named foals in Into Mischief's first crop. That number would drop to 26 in his second year, numbers that seem preposterous now with the hindsight of Into Mischief's prowess as a sire. He's had unprecedented success since, has led the North American sire lists for the past five consecutive years, and now stands for $250,000.

“It's very special because when we brought Into Mischief and Goldencents to the farm, they were both offered on a program that B. Wayne Hughes developed called 'Share the Upside',” said Toffey. “Both of these horses were offered at a very, very low price. Now Into Mischief stands for $250,000 and he started at $12,500.”

The late Spendthrift owner B. Wayne Hughes pioneered the innovative 'Share the Upside' program. In short, breeders who use new stallions selected to participate in the program for two consecutive years receive a free lifetime breeding right. Not every stallion pans out–that's just the nature of the game–but Into Mischief and Goldencents certainly have.

Like almost all young sires, Goldencents's fee has fluctuated depending on the season. When Spendthrift acquired his breeding rights, approximately five months before his second Breeders' Cup win in 2014, the farm announced he would start at $15,000. While he's been in demand in the breeding shed and has 27 black-type winners with his seventh crop headed to the races this year, he hadn't had that breakthrough horse a stallion needs to propel him into the next stratosphere. Until now, that is.

Mystik Dan wears the roses | Renee Torbit/Coady Media

“Mystik Dan was bred on the year that Goldencents was $20,000,” continued Toffey. “It just fits with something we're trying to do, which is to offer breeders value at all levels. I think it really shows the value and quality we offer doesn't necessarily always mean more expensive. That very much fits with our legacy and with what Wayne Hughes tried to do.”

Breeders recognized that value, sending Goldencents 179 mares in his initial crop and 204 in the year Mystik Dan was conceived. It paid off, too, as Goldencents came up with runners like Going to Vegas, back-to-back victress of the 2021-22 GI Rodeo Drive S. at 1 1/4 miles on the grass. Then there was By My Standards, winner of the GII Louisiana Derby and three other graded races, who also placed in the GI Met Mile and GI Whitney S. while banking over $2 million. Mr. Money was a MGSW & GISP, Wildman Jack won graded stakes in both the U.S. and Dubai, and the list continues.

Goldencents's seven graded winners have been split evenly between dirt and turf (three on each, plus one on both surfaces) and while his overall runners average sprint wins, his graded winners have trended more on the routing side (five of the seven at nine furlongs or greater).

“He gets hard-knocking, good, useful racehorses that are like Goldencents himself,” said Toffey. “He was a very good sprinter and miler who also stretched his speed into a win in the Santa Anita Derby. We've certainly seen his offspring have that toughness and that tractability. They're honest horses and they also have good minds.”

Goldencents was sent 144 mares in 2023. His fee was listed at $10,000 this year. Without Mystik Dan, who also won the GIII Southwest S. and placed in the GI Arkansas Derby, he would currently still be ranked 20th among all 2024 North American sires by combined North American and European earnings. But he does have Mystik Dan, and that puts him third by that same metric, behind only his own sire and the mighty Gun Runner. The latter finished second in this year's Derby with Sierra Leone, while the former finished sixth with Resilience.

“During the Derby,” said Toffey, “my eye was on Resilience, a son of Into Mischief, who was making a move on the outside at the same time Mystik Dan was on the inside. My eye was drawn there. But Mystik Dan–what a gutsy horse! What a ride by [Brian] Hernandez, [Jr.]. You can have a courageous jockey, but you also have to have a courageous horse. Mystik Dan is a gritty racehorse, because there was no hole. They made the hole. He had the tactical speed to put himself in that position.

“You have to give the horse credit; he was tactical enough to put himself off the fast pace and take the opportunity. It was a really remarkable race. We're very happy for all of the connections and it's an honor for us to be a small part of it.”

It isn't lost on Toffey what ramifications another Kentucky Derby win for one of the Spendthrift sires means. Hughes had bought the historic farm in 2004. No one, except perhaps the visionary Hughes himself, could have foreseen what has been accomplished a mere two decades in. Into Mischief was the first stallion Hughes offered through the 'Share the Upside' program and, along with Giant's Causeway, has become the sport's greatest conduit of the Storm Cat sire line. In addition to all of his other achievements, Into Mischief became the first sire in the 150-year history of the Kentucky Derby to have back-to-back winners with Authentic (2020) and Mandaloun (2021). Now, at 19, he has cemented Goldencents as the latest rung on Spendthrift's ladder of success.

“It's a credit to what Wayne Hughes started for three of the last five Derby winners to be by a Spendthrift sire,” said Toffey. “We feel very fortunate.”