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By Chief Stipe · Posted
There's 6 horses running around in Perth on Saturday in a BM72 for $88k AU gold coins. -
By Chief Stipe · Posted
The way Orchestral came back initially this season she isn't a racecourse certainty. -
By Chief Stipe · Posted
I really don't understand what the problem is here. It happens on a regular basis at Metro tracks in Australia had often for a lot more dosh than $65k NZ Pesos! As for @Huey and his mythical Mafia who is the capomandamento aka The Boss aka The Godfather? -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Obviously this is too wide a category, at $60,000 and upwards, to be always comparing like with like. And really those at the very apex have earned their monster fees by excellence too blatant for contention. Most of that will instead be reserved for those sires that remain somewhat more accessible, relatively speaking–especially given the Uncle Mo-sized hole that has tragically appeared in this sector. La creme de la creme is divided between a trio in the evening of their careers–Into Mischief, Curlin, Tapit–and those aiming to supplant them, led by Gun Runner, Justify and Not This Time. None needs introduction but let's just remind ourselves that it was actually CURLIN who proudly topped the 2024 yearling averages at $585,636 for 55 of 66 sold. (At this level, of course, many programs will gladly retain horses if the price doesn't match their expectations.) He actually slipped out of the top 10 on the general sires' list, but had another three Grade I winners and his 5.2% graded stakes scorers (to starters) was unmatched. INTO MISCHIEF, whose rise has been underpinned by exceptional libido and fertility, received 193 mares last year–aged 19, and charging $250,000! He processed 60 of 82 yearlings at $552,500 en route to a sixth consecutive championship, breaking his own prizemoney record. He'll soon overtake Tapit as the richest stallion in American history, and his stakes percentages have advanced with the caliber of his mares. No established/active stallion, indeed, beat the 7.6% clip at which he produced another 36 black-type winners (five Grade I) in 2024. Into Mischief has no fewer than four of T.D. Thornton's opening Derby Top 12. Into Mischief | Sarah Andrew The venerable TAPIT is being respectfully managed, confined to 79 mares last year at $185,000. His diminishing output told at 27th in the general sires' table but he still got six graded stakes winners (including a 32nd Grade I scorer) at basically the same clip as Into Mischief's 17. (They respectively fielded 186 and 475 starters!) This remains a modern great, whose latest yearlings brought $442,030 for 33 of 41 sold. GUN RUNNER broke into the top three at the sales, averaging $525,987 for 82 of 97 sold (conceived at half his current fee of $250,000). He also got closest to Into Mischief's total, with four Grade I winners among 24 graded stakes performers, representing a superb 9.4% of starters. The only horse to beat that (25 at 9.8%) was the still younger JUSTIFY, who'll have both quantity and quality behind him in the years ahead. Only neighbor Practical Joke exceeded Justify's latest book of 256. He processed his yearlings (conceived at his bubble fee of $100,000) at $326,254 for 59 of 76 sold. Value remains a factor at this rarefied level, too, and NOT THIS TIME must be the pick even at $175,000, up from $150,000. His yearlings, conceived at just $45,000, graduate from the monster crop he assembled as an emerging star, and no fewer than 132 entered the ring. Of these, 113 sold at $357,787, up sharply from $287,025 the previous year. The real quality is yet to cycle through, with the next crop conceived at $135,000, but Not This Time continues to produce at stellar ratios. Remember Epicenter, Up to the Mark and now Cogburn all resulted from $15,000 covers. GOOD MAGIC has joined Man o' War and Gallant Fox as the only sires of a Classic winner in each of their first two crops. Obviously he must divide some credit with the mare who produced both, but Dornoch was only one of three Grade I winners in 2024 and that pretty well vindicated his hike to $125,000. Admittedly his new fee eroded his 2024 book to 138 (179 the previous year) but the 61 of 77 yearlings sold from his fourth crop at $226,618 were conceived at just $30,000. Good Magic has absolutely earned fidelity, pending his upgraded matings coming through on the track. Good Magic | Sarah Andrew The big mover for 2025 is NYQUIST, after four Grade I winners in 2024, soaring to $175,000 from $85,000–at which fee we put him on our podium last year. It feels a long time ago, now, since he mustered a single graded stakes winner the year after winning his 2020 freshman title. That caused him to be throttled back to $55,000–but the resulting yearlings soared to $293,959, for 65 of 86 sold, a six-figure increase on the previous crop. After various peaks and troughs, we'll just have to see where the graph-line settles. QUALITY ROAD had a bumpy couple of years at $200,000 and sensibly returns to the $150,000 fee at which he conceived his latest yearlings. These made $303,009 for 51 of 61 sold, rather a slide since topping the averages in 2021 (second in 2022); while he only mustered 109 and 82 mares during his two years at an inflated fee. He kept himself in the game on the racetrack, however, as many as eight of his 10 stakes winners in 2024 obliging at graded level (notably in the GI Met Mile). His lifetime indices remain excellent. His celebrated new neighbor FLIGHTLINE will do well to put together a resume like that, but trades at the same fee in preparing to launch his first yearlings. However astonishing his talent, we obviously have no idea whether he can replicate it. But eight weanlings certainly capitalized on his glamor, vindicating a $200,000 introductory fee with the eye-watering average of $655,896. LIFE IS GOOD is meanwhile down to $75,000 from an opening $100,000, despite eight of just a dozen weanlings fetching $325,625. His second book held up strongly (186 after 192). CODY'S WISH, who shared Elite Power's outlier Curlin speed, opened for business last year at $75,000 but takes the familiar second-year trim to $65,000 despite being fully subscribed for his debut (165 mares). MCKINZIE was so warmly received, in mare traffic and then at the sales, that he maintained a $30,000 fee through to the appearance of his first juveniles last year–and he's now up to $75,000 after two of them won Grade Is, missing the freshman title by cents. Curiously, these two remain his only stakes scorers, and his winner ratio falls below those around him in the freshman table; on the other hand, his six black-type performers also included another pair placed at Grade I level. Looks like his good ones can be very good, and he duly topped the second-crop averages at $156,159 for 88 sold of 100. A national high of 277 mares locks in catalogue competition, but it's easy to understand a continued vogue for PRACTICAL JOKE at $75,000 (up from $50,000). With a $30,000 stallion son starting out, he's leading the Into Mischief pack (again ninth in the general sires' table, his seven graded stakes winners including two elite scorers at Saratoga) and his black-type ratios are highly respectable given the sheer volume of his output. Having averaged $156,901 for 82 of 97 yearlings (conceived at $35,000), at this fee he'll obviously need continued momentum to sustain his sales offering. Studmate MUNNINGS continues in a correction after a single season at $100,000 in 2023, now $65,000 from $75,000. If he overshot somewhat at six figures, he looks pretty fairly priced now. While 68 of his 98 yearlings sold at $174,558, down a little on the previous year, on the racetrack he maintained a top 10 foothold via another 14 stakes scorers. These arrive at a lifetime clip of 8.6%, and now include an unbeaten GII Remsen Stakes winner. So long a wiseguy pick, Munnings has arguably now found his niche as a rock-solid second-tier stallion. Now turned 26, CANDY RIDE (ARG) is sire of 19 Grade I winners and two top six stallions. That makes him one serious horse to be standing at $75,000 and he maintained standards in 2024 with another seven graded stakes winners. He's suffering the same neglect as so many older sires, his latest yearlings down to $140,546 (43 of 52 sold) from $200,657 the previous year. But class should never go out of fashion. Which makes the same fee about the great WAR FRONT feel almost insulting. Still $250,000 as recently as 2020, he has long required restrained management of his books and his diminishing footprint might nourish the illusion that his powers may be waning. But overall his ratios are simply off the charts: one-in-four named foals a stakes horse, one-in-six a graded stakes performer, one-in-30 a Grade I winner. Like Hard Spun, he offers priceless access to Danzig, who was himself actually 24 when conceiving War Front. For a breed-to-race program, War Front is unmissable, even if his commercial profile is no longer robust enough to complement that status. War Front | Sarah Andrew VALUE PODIUM Bronze: CONSTITUTION Tapit–Baffled, by Distorted Humor WinStar Farm, $110,000 Our pick at this level last year duly broke into the top five in the general sires' list. If he did so with breadth, rather than garish headliners, remember that his 2024 sophomores were still only conceived at $40,000 yet included two placed in Triple Crown races. The next bunch were sired at $85,000, thanks to his breakout star Tiz the Law, and the market has bought into the whole project enthusiastically: his last three crops of yearlings averaged $244,242, $281,125 and last year $330,171 for 64 sold of 81. It just feels like the quality is going to cycle through over the next couple of years, after which he might leave even this fee behind. Silver: TWIRLING CANDY Candy Ride (Arg)–House of Danzing, by Chester House Lane's End Farm, $60,000 As intimated at the outset, this horse isn't really competing directly with the superstars. But you'd hardly know it, looking at the general sires' list, where Twirling Candy climbed to a giddy sixth. He has got here by unobtrusive, consistent achievement, hitting this fee in 2022 only by steady increments from $10,000 (when sending out his first runners in 2015). Yet Iscreamuscream in 2024 became his ninth Grade I winner. As the steady upgrading of his mares filters onto the racetrack, he could also keep progressing in commercial clout: his latest yearlings retailed at $143,894 for 78 of 104 sold. This was the leading domestic earner on grass in 2024, but his versatility as a runner is echoed by sons having won dirt Grade Is as varied as the Bing Crosby Stakes, Preakness and Santa Anita Handicap. His fourth dam is actually the result of allowing Alydar to cover the dam of his nemesis Affirmed, and the seeding of the family to that point has persuasive balance: dam by the beautifully bred Chester House, second dam by Danzig, third by Seattle Slew. Gold: MEDAGLIA D'ORO El Prado (Ire)–Cappucino Bay, by Bailjumper Darley, $75,000 Gold by name, gold by nature. We've noted with a due affront a couple of other veterans at this fee. But the difference with this paragon is that even now he keeps producing, both on the track and in the ring. His book doubtless requires sensitive management nowadays, but breeders who share the self-fulfilling prejudice against ageing stallions are being offered strong grounds to repent. From his latest juveniles Medaglia d'Oro produced Grade I winner East Avenue, firmly on the Classic trail along with unbeaten GII Golden Rod Stakes winner Good Cheer. And he's still getting gorgeous horses, too, retailing 29 of 38 yearlings at $290,068. His career record actually remains uncannily in step with Into Mischief, whose bigger books mean that they have fielded almost precisely the same number of starters (1,412/1,402) despite four fewer crops. Both have 80 graded stakes winners and 52 Grade I performers; while the senior stallion has 156 graded stakes horses against Into Mischief's 154. The one and only reason Medaglia d'Oro has sunk to this undignified level is ageism. If anything, access if anything should cost you more, not less. Hurry while stocks last! The Breeders Speak: Peter Bradley, Bradley Thoroughbreds Gold: MCKINZIE Street Sense–Runway Model, by Petionville Gainesway Farm, $75,000 Peter Bradley | Keeneland Even though his stud fee more than doubled, McKinzie may be the best bang for the buck at $75,000 this season. A Grade I winner at two, three and four, he completed his racing career at five with a Grade II win. His precocity, soundness and class are all evident in his first crop to race. Narrowly missing out on the Champion First-Crop Sire title, he has already produced four Grade I performers including Grade I winners Chancer McPatrick and Scottish Lassie. His yearling average topped $150,000 off a $30,000 stud fee and is certain to improve with the success of his first crop to race. Silver: LIFE IS GOOD Into Mischief–Beach Walk, by Distorted Humor WinStar Farm, $75,000 Life Is Good was one of the best racehorses of his generation, despite having to compete in the shadow of Flightline. This horse is an A+ physical and is stamping his foals with balance and quality. With a weanling average of $325,625 and a median of $325,000 in 2024, Life Is Good offers plenty of value at a $75,000 stud fee. He bred 378 high-quality mares across his first two books, giving him every opportunity to succeed at stud. Two years from now, $75,000 could look very inexpensive. Bronze: CANDY RIDE (ARG) Ride the Rails–Candy Girl (Arg), by Candy Stripes Lane's End Farm, $75,000 Candy Ride provides great value for the breeders whose focus is to produce top quality race horses at a reasonable fee. He is as underrated as they come and no other stallion at this price point can boast a resume with 19 Grade I winners and as a sire of sires, has a list that already includes Gun Runner, Twirling Candy and newly crowned Champion First-Crop Sire, Vekoma. The post Value Sires For Kentucky Part 7: The Big Guns appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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