Jerry and John Amerman

Pop quiz: which North American third-crop sire leads his contemporaries by individual graded stakes winners in the Northern Hemisphere in 2024? It's not Justify, nor Good Magic, who are each tied with three and are the runaway leaders by 2024 progeny earnings. The correct answer is Mill Ridge Farm's Oscar Performance, who has four graded winners in 2024 and also leads the top third-crop sires by percentage of black-type winners to runners at 6.6%. In addition, Oscar Performance secured his first career Grade I winner as a sire Saturday with...

Headley Bell has run Nicoma Bloodstock for 40 years, planning matings for clients at his Mill Ridge Farm and beyond. "It's like being an artist," says Bell. "You're crafting, and planning matings is part of that whole creation." Bell said he uses various tools for his matings, including TDN's statistics on percentages of black type to foals, mare produce records, five-cross pedigrees, and examines patterns of broodmare sires with certain families. Finally, he takes physical traits of mares into consideration to determine, he said, "who that mare really is." He...

Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy), a four-time Grade I winner, including the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, will stand the 2022 season at Mill Ridge Farm for $12,500 LFSN for first-time breeders, and $10,000 for repeat breeders or multiple mares. Bred and raced by Jerry and John Amerman and trained by Brian Lynch, Oscar Performance won Grade I stakes at two, three, and four, and broke a 20-year course record at Belmont Park, covering a mile in 1:31.23, all with no Lasix. Oscar Performance has proven outstanding fertility with 90%...