Third-Crop Update

It's approaching the moment of truth for third-crop sires, which now have their first 4-year-olds racing; by the summer the market will be deciding whether it's thumbs-up or thumbs-down, so let's take this opportunity to look at the latest snapshot. Nothing's definitive as it's a deep group of prospects, and a fluid one; one or two good horses and everything changes in a day. Here are the current leaders 'in the clubhouse,' with brief pedigree notes on the five North American and two European F2012 sires who lead the cumulative third-crop lists.

Five third-crop sires which originally stood in North America have cumulative progeny earnings to date around or over the $5-million mark (click here). These sires have their second crops of 3-year-olds at the racetrack; none of the top four have a live GI Kentucky Derby contender this year, though the fifth–Eskendereya (Giant's Causeway), who has been exported to Japan (and is therefore not included on the list, but should be, with progeny earnings just over $4.99 million)–does have a live contender in GIII Robert B. Lewis winner and GII San Felipe S. second Mor Spirit, who is due to run back this weekend in a hot-looking GI Santa Anita Derby.

We hear (and say) a lot about the continuing dominance of two lines in North American racing, Fappiano (who is by Mr. Prospector but branched off onto his own line very quickly), and A.P. Indy. But none of the top five NA third-crop sires so far come from one of these lines; instead, bar Eskendereya (who is by Giant's Causeway), the other top four from this group so far all descend from the Raise a Native male line (though not via Fappiano). Cumulative North American third-crop number one, Ashford's Munnings (Speightstown), and cumulative #3, Lane's End's Quality Road (Elusive Quality), are both by sons of Mr. Prospector's distinguished son, Gone West; number four, Ashford's Looking At Lucky, is by Smart Strike; and cumulative number two is WinStar's Super Saver, who is by Maria's Mon, by Monarchos, by Wavering Monarch, by Majestic Light, by Majestic Prince, by Raise A Native (sire of Mr. Prospector).

The first foals by Gone West, winner of the 1987 GI Dwyer S. back when it was a Grade One, arrived at Mill Ridge Farm, where he stood his entire career, in 1989. Unfortunately for him, that meant Gone West was only the second best F1989 sire, behind a certain Storm Cat. Nonetheless Gone West wielded a huge influence; his major sons at stud included Juddmonte's Zafonic, from his second crop, the unbeaten Champion European 2-year-old of 1992 and winner of the 1993 G1 English 2000 Guineas; Mr. Greeley; Grand Slam; Elusive Quality; and Speightstown. Notable sire sons of Elusive Quality include Smarty Jones; Raven's Pass; top-three F2012 North American sire Quality Road; and the high-class, Australian-sired sprinter Sepoy, who has first runners now in Australia, and is about to have his first runners here, 'up north'.

Zafonic has left one son who is pretty useful, Darley's Iffraaj. But Speightstown, who has the current number one F2012 NA/EU sire by progeny earnings in Munnings, also has other strings to his bow in Airdrie's Haynesfield, who had his second Black-Type Winner (BTW) as a sire last weekend in Turfway Park's Rushaway S. winner He'll Pay; and Darby Dan's Jersey Town and Crestwood's Country Day, both of whom will be having their first runners this year. Munnings is not only the money leader, but also leads by number of cumulative Black-Type Winners (15) and Black-Type Horses (21); Super Saver is the leader in the Graded Black-Type categories with six GSW and eight GSH, of which three are Grade I winners and four are Grade I horses. Super Saver ($65,000 current stud fee) and Quality Road ($35,000) have maybe got a little more ink, but Munnings ($25,000) is very much holding his own and is maybe still a little bit under the radar.

Speightstown is also going to have plenty more sons go to stud, including 2015 GI Belmont Derby winner Force The Pass and 2015 GI Dwyer S. winner Speightster. Some pedigree students think this all constitutes enough to declare Gone West a separate branch of the Mr. Prospector line, but others, like myself, are still not quite ready to call it that. Either way, Gone West is definitely one of the most influential sire sons of the great Mr. Prospector.

The European turf racing season is of course only now getting underway, and among European third-crop sires, Ireland's Ballylinch Stud's Lope De Vega (Shamardal) and the Haras de Bonneval's Siyouni (Pivotal) are the two leaders by cumulative progeny earnings thus far. Lope De Vega ($4.7-million) leads Siyouni (just under $4-million) by cumulative worldwide earnings, though if we restrict the table to earnings just in North America and Europe (click here), Siyouni has a narrow lead, $3.95-million to $3.8-million. England's Whitsbury Manor Stud's Showcasing is third in both tables. Lope De Vega nominally represents the Storm Cat sire line, though that line's influence is increasingly happening through Giant's Causeway (sire of Shamardal), both on the sire and broodmare sire sides, especially in Europe, where Giant's Causeway's initial crop was sired, and which included Footstepsinthesand as well as Shamardal. For his part, Siyouni represents a small revival of the Nureyev line, as Siyouni is the best sire son to date by Pivotal, whose own sire, Polar Falcon, was a son of Nureyev. Lope De Vega, so far, seems to work with a wide variety of sire lines, including Danzig (his Group 1 winner, Belardo, is out of a Danehill mare) and Sadler's Wells (the promising 3-year-old Blue De Vega is out of a Montjeu mare). Siyouni, so far, is working well over Mr. Prospector-line mares (his Group 1-winning filly, Ervedya, is out of a mare by King's Best), though he also working over other branches of Northern Dancer as well. Both will undoubtedly be attracting a lot of mares now from both the Danzig and Sadler's Wells lines in particular.