Saturday Sires

It's not often a stallion based outside the continent gets graded winners in the U.S. keeping pace with the leading sires here. Ireland's Lope De Vega (Ire) is not only keeping pace, but more than holding his own. When Carl Spackler (Ire) won Sunday's GI Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga, he became the second U.S. Grade I winner in 2024 for his sire, joining Program Trading (GB), who won Churchill's GI Turf Classic Stakes on Derby day. For comparison, only one stallion (Gun Runner) has three Grade I winners in the...

When City of Light won the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in 2018, it was one of the more impressive performances of the day. Although it had already been announced he would enter stud in 2019 at Lane's End Farm near Versailles, Ky., he had one race remaining on his dance card: the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes the following January. He romped that day as well, besting a slightly favored GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner with a 112 Beyer Speed Figure, which topped his 110 Breeders' Cup mark,...

If there has ever been a quintessential Saturday afternoon sire--as well as Breeders' Cup sire and champion sire--Curlin would have to be at the top of the list. He tends to churn out top-level horses at a dizzying rate. "Not to take anything away from other great stallions, but I don't believe Curlin is second to anybody when you speak of Grade I performers and accomplishments," said John Sikura, who stands the 2007-08 Horse of the Year at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa. "If you think of the Breeders' Cup,...

At this point in the season, a freshman sire can hardly do better than to win Saratoga's--and the nation's--first graded stakes of the year for 2-year-olds. When that young stallion also leads the nation's first-crop sires in winners with 12 (75% of starters), he's signaling he might be something special. With that kind of start, it's no surprise Airdrie Stud's Complexity, a son of Maclean's Music, is firmly on top of the freshman stallion list at this early juncture. He's also currently leading all sires, regardless of number of crops,...

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...

Every now and then, a horse comes along who never seems to set a foot wrong. From record-setting freshman sire to perennial top 10 stallion, Uncle Mo is one of those horses. Additionally, it seems every time the Coolmore America/Ashford Stud sire reaches a new benchmark, he moves the bar just a little--or a lot--higher. The first-ever stakes winner for Repole Stables was a 'TDN Rising Star' on debut himself and has since been represented by 18 'Rising Stars' of his own, including three since May, and sired his 15th...

The mighty Curlin's heir apparent might be a son standing alongside him at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa. Your average young stallion doesn't usually follow up a first-crop Classic winner with another one in his second crop. To be fair, your average young stallion doesn't often have a Classic winner at all. Good Magic is quickly proving he is not your average young stallion. "Classic horses are certainly the peak, the goal of anyone who breeds, sells, or owns, or even stands stallions," said Hill 'n' Dale's John Sikura, who...

While Ashford young gun Justify was busy making waves over the pond this weekend, it was Gainesway's time-tested sire royalty who quietly added to his legacy on American shores. No matter how you slice it, one stallion in North America--and only one--leads all active lifetime sires by every major category, be it earnings, black-type winners, graded winners, Grade I winners, and even lifetime starters and winners. Unmatched among living active sires, Tapit hasn't had bigger crops than the other stallions on the list (he ranks third among the top 10...

It was inevitable Into Mischief would be featured early on in our 'Saturday Sires' series, as his picture would probably be next to the phrase in the dictionary if the term appeared there. The five-time leading sire has now surpassed the remarkable threshold of 150 stakes winners with yet another graded winner this past weekend. Maybe it's a coincidence the phrase 'Saturday afternoon horses' came in vogue around the rise of Into Mischief, but maybe it isn't. After all, he practically invented the term. More than any other horse in...

The much-missed Arrogate continues to add 'Saturday afternoon horses' to his tally with his final crop. Seize the Grey captured Saturday's GI Preakness S., giving Arrogate a second Classic winner in just three crops.  A Kentucky Oaks winner in his first crop. A Belmont and Travers winner in his second. A Preakness winner in his third. Three additional Grade I winners, two of them at age two. Like a streaking star, Arrogate's racing career blazed brilliantly--leaving all who witnessed it in awe--and now his all-too-brief stud career is doing the...

'Saturday afternoon horses' are every breeder's goal. We continue our new weekly series with a young sire who got his first graded win in a high-profile race this past weekend. At this time last year, an unheralded colt parlayed a sole maiden win into victory in the GIII Peter Pan S., which led to Classic success in the GI Belmont S. This year, Antiquarian (Preservationist) is following the same blueprint put in place by Arcangelo (Arrogate): a maiden win early in his sophomore campaign before bursting onto the national scene...

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...