Fact of the Week: Indy Blood

[Wandering Eyes]

Daughters of the great A. P. Indy produced more North American stakes winners in 2018 than any other sire. He has sired the dams of 24 stakes winners so far this year, but is finishing 2018 with a real flourish through triple Grade I scorer and GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile hero Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}) and the recent GI Los Alamitos Futurity winner Improbable (City Zip). A. P. Indy’s tenure as one of the foremost broodmare sires in recent years may be coming to an end, but it looks like his influence–and that of his great sire Seattle Slew–among young broodmare sires is set to continue for some time yet.

The youngest sire on our list is A. P. Indy’s son Bernardini, whose daughters have produced 13 stakes winners this year, including Grade I scorer Catholic Boy (More Than Ready). What’s really impressive so far about Bernardini’s performance is his career strike rate. Although it’s early days, his 9.5% stakes winner to runner score is hugely impressive. It’s a number the vast majority of sires struggle to attain with their own offspring, never mind as a broodmare sire. It’s the best on our list and higher than A. P. Indy’s 8.7%. Remarkably, it’s even better than Bernardini’s own strike rate as a sire. But we should not be surprised. Bernardini, after all, was bred to some of the finest broodmares throughout his career, particularly in the early part of it.

A. P. Indy’s other younger broodmare sire sons Mineshaft–with 11 stakes winners–and Malibu Moon also did well in 2018, as did the Seattle Slew sire Vindication. Special mention must be made of Unbridled’s Song, whose daughters produced five Grade I winners in 2018, three more than any other sire.

 

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