Coal Front

Everybody understands the deal with new stallions. Most will never again command so high a fee, nor so potent a book, and many will complete their principal service to commercial breeders long before any of their stock has actually entered a starting gate. Once they reach that point, you need only browse the freshman tables of years past to get a chastening sense of how many "exciting" newcomers will establish a lasting eligibility to keep seeding the breed. On the other hand, their window of opportunity is ruthlessly brief. If...

5th-Saratoga, $83,000, Msw, 7-20, 2yo, 5 1/2f, 1:04.75, ft, 9 1/2 lengths. CRAZY MASON (c, 2, Coal Front--Izshelegal {GSP, $134,840}, by Maria's Mon) closed late to finish second following a slow start in his five-furlong unveiling at Monmouth June 17. The 7-2 shot, adding blinkers for this second start, rushed up to challenge Uncle Eddie (Nyquist) for the early lead and those two rivals battled through a quarter in :22.94. Crazy Mason took charge approaching the stretch and completed the half in :46.71 before gliding clear unchallenged to win by...

1st-Evangeline Downs, $28,100, Msw, 6-15, 2yo, 4 1/2f, :53.84, ft, 4 1/2 lengths. GOOD AND STOUT (c, 2, Coal Front--Ready Witted, by More Than Ready) failed to meeting his reserve on a final bid of $117,000 at this April's OBS Sale but was attained privately and earned heavy 3-5 favoritism in this scratched-down debut facing just a pair of rivals. Second of the three through the early running, he began to eat into Hymn for Carlos's (Custom for Carlos) advantage with a furlong to run, and took over from that...

A filly by Nyquist, who is half-sister to leading GI Kentucky Oaks contender Affirmative Lady (Arrogate), turned in the fastest quarter-mile work of Friday's penultimate session of the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, while a daughter of Speightstown and a colt by Into Mischief shared the fastest furlong time of the week. The daughter of Nyquist (hip 1024) turned in the day's fastest quarter-mile breeze--and second fastest of the week--when covering the distance in :20 2/5. The dark bay filly, consigned...

Spendthrift Farm's Coal Front (Stay Thirsty--Miner's Secret, by Mineshaft) sired his first reported foal Jan. 26 when a filly was born at Shade Tree Farm in Ocala, FL. Bred by Tracy Pinchin & Kenneth D'Oyen, the flashy bay filly is out of the Wildcat Heir mare Defying Gravity. "This is a good foal. Nice, big, strong filly with a lot of leg, good shoulder and hip. I like her best of the three foals the mare's had," said Bert Pilcher, owner of Shade Tree Farm. "She was quickly up and...

Thursday, Chris McGrath covered the first half of the Kentucky stallions with first weanlings. Click here to read about Omaha Beach, Vino Rosso, Mitole, Audible, Catholic Boy and Yoshida. Part II appears below. Unusually enough, this intake includes a third Grade I winner on both dirt and grass in WORLD OF TROUBLE (Kantharos--Meets Expectations by Valid Expectations), held at $15,000 by Hill 'n' Dale. This was an unusually efficient machine for the chaotic environment of the sprint division. His only defeat in his final eight starts measured by the neck...

Spendthrift Farm's multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Coal Front (Stay Thirsty--Miner's Secret, by Mineshaft) had his first mare confirmed in foal. The Wildcat Heir mare Defying Gravity scanned in foal Mar. 10 for breeder Ken Doyen at Sparks View Farm in Paris, KY. She hails from the immediate family of multiple graded stakes winner and sire Too Much Bling. Bought for $575,000 as an OBS April 2-year-old in 2016, Coal Front was named a 'TDN Rising Star' a year later at Keeneland and went on to win five stakes over his...

Two 'TDN Rising Stars' have found their way onto the growing stallion roster at Spendthrift Farm. Coal Front (Stay Thirsty) and Maximus Mischief (Into Mischief) earned the 'Rising Star' title in their first and second starts, respectively, and both went on to become graded stakes winners. Both of these new sires will be a part of Spendthrift's Share the Upside program, allowing breeders to have a continued breeding right throughout a stallion's career. Spendthrift's Stallion Sales Manager Mark Toothaker spoke to us about how the two were settling in and...