Cistron

Harris Farms' GISW Cistron (The Factor) sired his first reported foal, a filly born at the California farm Jan. 30. A fourth-generation Harris Farms homebred, the filly is out of Patriot Mission (Acclamation). The mare's extended family includes MGISW and young sire City of Light (Quality Road). Cistron will stand his second season at Harris Farms for $3,500, live foal.

Grade I winner Cistron (The Factor--Major Allie, by Officer) has been retired from racing and will stand stud at Harris Farms in California. He is now available for inspection and a stud fee will be announced in the fall. Scoring his first black-type win in Oaklawn's Northern Spur S. in 2017, the Hronis Racing colorbearer's other career highlights include victories in the GI Bing Crosby S., GII Kona Gold S. and GIII San Simeon S. The $180,000 KEESEP buy retires with 30-6-7-6 and earnings of $768,719.

Reviewing the 2019 sires' championship, it was striking to observe such consistent correlation between fees and performance. Almost without exception, the top of the table was dominated by the most expensive stallions in the business. The big guns, in other words, had all found their range. Of the top 20 sires in Kentucky, in fact, only one is still standing for less than $40,000. Yet he is also younger than all bar one of that elite. (Uncle Mo is also just 12.) Those two distinctions are hardly unrelated, of course....

It was back in 1988 that John Sadler began his stake race winning spree at Del Mar, when the mild-mannered speedball Olympic Prospect took the then-$75,000 Bing Crosby H., prompting jockey Alex Solis afterwards to breathlessly exclaim, "I never rode a horse that fast in my life." When given this little factoid at his Del Mar barn one recent morning--a full 31 years after the event--Sadler assumed the look of someone who'd just been told that water wasn't wet. "I wouldn't think so--it's got to be before that," he said...

"Inside the Winner's Circle, Presented by Keeneland" is a series showcasing graduates of the Keeneland September sale who have gone on to achieve success on racing's biggest stages. Trainer John Sadler does a lot of things well. But give him a chance to get a feel for a horse, what it needs and let it develop at its own pace and there may be no one better. It's probably no coincidence that the two best horses he's ever trained, Accelerate (Lookin at Lucky) and Stellar Wind (Curlin) both had their...