Stonestreet Poised for a Book One to Remember

Stonestreet Farm has had plenty of stacked rosters going into Book 1 of the Keeneland September Sale, but the farm's longtime bloodstock advisor John Moynihan estimates that this year's class of of yearlings is among the best that the operation has ever presented to the market.

“It's rare that you get the physical horse with these amazing pedigrees because so many times you get a physical and you don't have the pedigree or you get the pedigree but you don't have the physical,” Moynihan reflected. “We're very fortunate this year to have some absolutely amazing physicals that also have some of the best pedigrees you'll find at Keeneland this year. I hope people are as excited as we are about them because we think they're very, very special.”

Among the nine Book 1-bound Stonestreet yearlings, three are out of Grade I winners and six are siblings of Grade I winners.

Early in the first session on Monday Sept. 9, all eyes will be on Hip 25, an Into Mischief daughter of Stonestreet's Broodmare of the Year Dreaming of Julia (A.P. Indy). The Gainesway-consigned filly is the first of her dam's progeny to go to auction since two-time Eclipse champion Malathaat (Curlin) graced the same sales ring in 2019 and sold to Shadwell for $1.05 million.

Dreaming of Julia–herself out of one of Stonestreet's foundation mares in Grade I victress Dream Rush (Wild Rush)–is also responsible for MGSW Julia Shining (Curlin) and she has several other young fillies in the pipeline (more on Stonestreet's monarch mare here).

“The Into Mischief-Dreaming of Julia filly is out of one of our storied families in Dream Rush and Dreaming of Julia,” said Moynihan. “Rarely do we sell fillies out of this family. This filly has amazing value as a racing prospect. She has amazing value residually as a broodmare prospect. I would have to believe she's one of the most special filly offerings coming up this year at Keeneland.”

Yet another progeny of a Stonestreet-campaigned Grade I winner who went on to produce a Grade I winner, Hip 347 is a colt by Curlin out of three-time Grade I winner Cavorting (Bernardini). The earner of over $2 million on the racetrack, Cavorting has since produced three stakes horses from three horses to race. Stonestreet's three-time Grade I victress Clairiere (Curlin) leads the charge, followed by her younger siblings La Crete (Medaglia d'Oro) and Judge Miller (Curlin), who ran third in this year's GII Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes.

Cavorting's Curlin yearling will be consigned by Indian Creek.

“Cavorting is a 100% stakes producer,” noted Moynihan. “This yearling is a full to Clairiere and Judge Miller and he's a fabulous physical. I just can't imagine a horse with a better pedigree that stacks up physically to this horse at Keeneland.”

Moynihan explained that yearlings out of mares like Dreaming of Julia and Cavorting illustrate how the Stonestreet program has advanced since it was first founded by the late Jess Jackson and his wife Barbara Banke two decades ago.

“These are fruits that we planted 10, 15 years ago,” he said. “You take mares like Dream Rush and so on and you see what she's produced and what her daughters have produced with Dreaming of Julia and others. It's what we strove to do when Jess and Barbara started Stonestreet and it is now coming to fruition. Knowing the female families that we've had over the years and seeing the good horses that have come out of it, in my opinion every year it tends to get a little better. In a lot of businesses that's not the case, but we've constantly tried to replenish our broodmare band and we're constantly trying to make things better.”

It's impossible to think back on the early days of Stonestreet's racing stable without remembering Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro). At this year's September Sale, the champion mare will be represented by a granddaughter in Hip 175. By Quality Road, the Summerfield-consigned filly is out of Stonestreet's homebred GI Spinaway Stakes victress Rachel's Valentina (Bernardini). Last year, Rachel's Valentina was responsible for an Into Mischief colt that sold for $1.5 million to Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale. That colt has yet to race but has been named Valentinian.

An Into Mischief colt out of Catch the Moon keeps an eye on the camera as he comes in from turnout | Sara Gordon

Also selling in Book 1 next week, Stonestreet will offer a filly from the first crop of Charlatan out of Rachel Alexandra's full-sister Samantha Nicole as Hip 195.

Moynihan pointed to Hip 345 as another stellar physical with a pedigree to match. The son of Into Mischief is out of Catch the Moon (Malibu Moon), the dam of four graded stakes winners including Grade I victor and young sire Girvin (Tale of Ekati) and the late MGIP Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow).

“This colt looks like he could be super precocious,” Moynihan said. “He looks blazing fast to me. To have an Into Mischief colt that physically looks like this horse and is a half to an up-and-coming stallion in Girvin, I think the sky is the limit for success on the racetrack or for someone in the thought process of buying a horse that could end up being an amazing stallion prospect down the road.”

Other Stonestreet yearlings offered in Book 1 that are siblings to Grade I winners include Hip 161, a Curlin half-sister to champion sprinter Gamine (Into Mischief); Hip 318, a Curlin filly out of Grade II winner Authenticity (Quiet American), the dam of Grade I victor and sire Charlatan (Speightstown); and Hip 319, a full-sister to dual Grade I victor and young sire Cyberknife (Gun Runner).

Of Hip 319, Moynihan said, “Cyberknife won the Haskell and the Arkansas Derby. I had seen him and he was a very nice physical. We bought the mare carrying this filly and I was hoping that the foal would be of similar quality. She's absolutely gorgeous. She's a little bit of a later foal, but she still looks like she'd be precocious. Amazing presence, amazing athleticism. For me, she's as good as it gets for a filly.”

When it comes to presenting their yearlings to the market, Moynihan said it is the processes leading up to the sale and the events that come after the drop of the hammer that matter most.

“We raise our horses to be racehorses,” he said. “They spend the majority of their time outside. Robert [Turner, Stonestreet Yearling Manager] and his crew have done an amazing job, as they do every year, in bringing the horses to market and letting every horse develop at their own pace. A huge sales price is great, but our main objective is to breed these horses so they're successful on the racetrack. That's the most important thing.”

A Breeder's Philosophy

A full-sister to Grade I victor and sire Cyberknife (left) poses with a Charlatan filly out of GSW I'm a Looker (Henny Hughes) | Sara Gordon

At the helm of Stonestreet's prolific operation, Barbara Banke is eager for the Keeneland September Book 1 action to begin next week.

“I'm proud of the fact that we're bringing the best to the market and the best for Keeneland, helping make Book 1 of this year a really fantastic book,” she said. “It's one that is a must for anybody that is in the horse business.”

The art of choosing which yearlings to sell and which horses to campaign in the Stonestreet silks is something that Banke and advisors like Moynihan have been working to perfect over the years. Some fillies are retained to go to the farm's broodmare band someday, but the vast majority of Stonestreet's yearlings, both colts and fillies, go to auction.

“People ask us sometimes why some of these fillies are coming to auction and why wouldn't we be keeping them,” said Moynihan. “If we have fillies out of families, we may retain a filly here and there to replenish our broodmare band because that's what keeps Stonestreet's breeding program going, but we sell roughly 90% of the yearlings that we produce every year.”

Moynihan explained that oftentimes fillies with world-class pedigrees are sold in order to diversify the female families represented within the broodmare band and to allow maximal opportunities for Stonestreet to support its stallion interests.

“Our philosophy is that with our current stallion interest, a lot of those fillies can't be bred back to the same stallion that they are by, so we can sell those fillies,” he said. “We're more apt to keep an Into Mischief filly than we are a Curlin filly.”

Stonestreet continually supports its perennial leading sire Curlin and has interests in other sires on the rise like Good Magic and Charlatan. Along with the Curlin half-sisters to Gamine and Charlatan, Stonestreet will also offer Hip 10, a Curlin filly out of Grade I-placed Dawn the Destroyer (Speightstown), in Book 1.

“I like seeing our horses compete on the racetrack and I have sold some wonderful champions like Malathaat and Gamine,” Banke said. “I sold Good Magic and retained part of him. I'm proud of all of our horses that compete on the racetrack, whether we have a part of them or not.”

“All the yearlings that we bring to market we stand behind to the point where I'm sure people realize that we've liked them so much that we've kept parts of them,” added Moynihan. “That's how much we believe in the product that we produce, so I think that says an abundance of things in respect to prospective buyers and how they should look at our horses.”

In recent headlines, Stonestreet bred and later retained a piece of Prince of Monaco (Speightstown), a $950,000 yearling at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale. The winner of the GI Del Mar Futurity at two, the colt has placed second in the GI Woody Stephens Stakes and GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes so far this year.

Continuing the Legacy

A morning at Stonestreet Farm's yearling division in Versailles, Kentucky | Sara Gordon

On the eve of ship-in day for the Book 1 yearlings, Banke was out at the Stonestreet yearling division for one final at-home inspection. By her side was her son, Chris Jackson.

Jackson followed in the footsteps of his parents with his own passion for wine-making, but over the years he has also developed an interest in the Thoroughbred side of the family business. Jackson said the launching point for his own passion for the sport was Curlin's Hall of Fame-worthy career.

“It's a lot of fun when you get to watch champions compete, when you think about Curlin or Rachel Alexandra or some of the homebreds that we've been able to compete like Good Magic and Lady Aurelia,” he said. “Watching them has been what has got me hooked in the sport.”

Jackson spends the majority of his time in California, where he is the Proprietor and Family Ambassador for Jackson Family Wines. His role encompasses everything from sales and marketing to production and the wine-making itself.

Jackson said there are plenty of comparisons between raising Thoroughbreds and producing wine.

“Both wine and Thoroughbreds take a long-term vision,” he explained. “In the instance of Thoroughbreds, you're breeding top mares with top stallions and trying to build the integrity of your genetic pool. With wine-making, you're working with top vineyards and trying to make the best wine that you can. Both take patience and an eye towards quality.”

Jackson will not be in Lexington for much of the Keeneland Sale as September is the heart of harvest season in California, but he will be supporting from afar.

“It has been a lot of highs and a lot of lows, but I am so proud of my mother,” he said. “My mother is a big believer in the fact that if you have a horseperson's attitude and you invest in the Thoroughbred first, quality shows over time.”