It’s a World of Mischief

As a year of unprecedented achievement draws to a close, the distribution of laurels among our champion stallions must first and foremost celebrate their sheer potency. For while we already know Into Mischief to be a phenomenon, he demands fresh admiration in sealing his third consecutive general sires' championship with a prizemoney haul just shy of $25 million, shattering the $22,507,940 record he set in his second; the work of 260 winners, similarly raising the bar giddily on the 221 who compiled his first. As the revelation of the year, equally, Gun Runner reached uncharted territory in the freshman's table, his tally of $4,209,350 surpassing the record of $3,717,490 set by Uncle Mo in 2015.

For these twin peaks to have been scaled simultaneously, however, also requires us to reflect on what such a historic coincidence might tell us about the changing nature of this business. Whatever else he achieves, Into Mischief is presumably going to end up the most prolific champion sire in the story of the breed, measured by simple volume of paternity. Yet that does not seem to have eroded his efficiency. His ratios, in producing elite stock this year, remain competitive or better with the other leading stallions, and best of all–if only just–in terms of black-type performers at almost precisely 16%.

(All figures, incidentally, are correct on TDN's database through Dec. 29. In any final analysis, minor updates will obviously be required to incorporate the final two days' sport of the year.)

On one level, you couldn't ask for better evidence of the functionality we seek–but rarely find–in every stallion prospect. In the axiom of one of the masters of this trade, John Sikura, the genetic switch is either “on” or “off”. Into Mischief famously overcame the modesty of his first covers, in both quality and quantity, to brandish an unmissable capacity to impart prowess to his stock. Gun Runner, as a Horse of the Year starting at $70,000, had all the advantages Into Mischief lacked at the outset. Nonetheless he appears to have cut straight through the kind of mitigations we would often expect to offer a two-turn stallion who reached his peak in his third campaign.

Gun Runner | Sarah Andrew

If his stock can still abide by original presumptions, and build higher yet on this foundation of unexpected precocity, then Gun Runner will surely join Into Mischief among that premier tier of stallions who sustain the commercial primacy of the “bull” over the “herd”. (Which is a question far more fundamental than their useful promiscuity, relative to the mares necessarily confined to a single progeny every year.)

But if the genetic “switch” has a primal quality, then the scale against which we measure stallions is not so absolute. It will fluctuate with an ever-changing environment. As champion freshman in 1984, Danzig had just 13 starters. These included 11 winners, nine stakes horses and three Grade I winners, including the champion juvenile colt. Two made the Derby podium the following May. Nowadays, in contrast, veterinary vision and commercial myopia together ensure that new sires constantly inundate the gene pool.

When that process discloses a Gun Runner, that's fine. He has had 62 starters from 115 named foals in his debut crop, the result of 171 covers; and we'll detail his success below. But Klimt, who has launched 79 juveniles without finding a stakes winner, has reportedly been exported to Turkey already. And obviously every intake will include Klimts by the dozen for every Gun Runner.

Pending The Jockey Club's attempt to restrict book sizes, however, the industry appears to be widely and wholeheartedly committed to volume. I guess the question is whether the damage done by prolific duds is adequately addressed by those whose switch is “on”. And that's why it's important for Into Mischief and others to demonstrate that the intensity of their impact is not diluted by its expansion.

The great Danzig | Claiborne photo

Who knows, conceivably Danzig's breed-shaping legacy around the world might have been still greater, had he covered mares on the same industrial scale as Into Mischief. Being additionally blessed by fertility and libido, the Spendthrift champion has been able to maintain huge books even as his fee has soared, with a staggering 250 mares at $175,000 in 2019, and 214 even at $225,000 last spring. He commands $250,000 for the coming season, but the fact is that his 2022 sophomores will be his first conceived even at six figures–and, pending the outcome of what has tragically become a posthumous saga about Medina Spirit (Protonico), this incoming Classic crop may well be seeking to give Into Mischief a third consecutive GI Kentucky Derby.

That would sit very nicely with this third general sires' title off the reel, a distinction shared most recently with Tapit (2014-2016) and, before him, Danzig himself (1991-1993). But the overall trajectory of Into Mischief's career is such that perhaps only the unaccountable bounties nowadays available in the desert inhibits sacrilegious speculation about Bold Ruler's streak of seven in the 1960s.

These modern megaprizes, of course, permit a single horse's wild distortion of the overall standings: in 2017, for instance, Unbridled's Song would have finished 44th, not first, but for Arrogate. Down the line, perhaps, we must try to devise a way of levelling out the playing field. Otherwise we will someday end up with a champion sire long since exported to Uruguay, who happens to have left behind a standout who wins the G1 Saudi Cup and G1 Dubai World Cup.

As it is, much the most striking aspect of Into Mischief's record $24,945,619 earnings in 2021 is how widely his best performers have spread their contributions. His premier earner is Mandaloun, with $1,560,000 as things stand, though he may yet get that Derby windfall. That represents just 6.3% of his sire's overall bank for the year, compared with the whopping 45.5% contribution made by Mystic Guide to the $16.2-million haul of runner-up Ghostzapper.

Into Mischief admittedly owed 31.9% of his 2020 total to Authentic, but he would still have been champion even without his Horse of the Year. And the previous year Covfefe banked just 5.5% as the premier contributor to his sire's first title.

That looks the most instructive measure of both the legitimacy and the sustainability of the dominion established by Into Mischief. For while he may have fielded more runners than any other sire, at 444, they include not just that record-breaking number of individual winners but also 71 black-type horses. As noted already, no other sire surpasses that clip–quite.

Curlin | Sarah Andrew

But there are one or two who basically match it, while also exceeding his ratios in other indices. Constitution's third crop has elevated him to 13th in the general sires' table, for instance, and his elite percentages beat Into Mischief in all bar Grade I winners. And, you know what, there's a sire out there who has credible claims to be saluted as stallion of the year, even with Into Mischief again breaking so much new ground. Over at Hill 'n' Dale, certainly, they'll be making a very coherent case for Curlin. While confined to third in the prizemoney standings, he has unequivocally outperformed even the champion when their respective indices with elite stock are compared.

Both have had 13 graded stakes winners in 2021, but Curlin has done so from almost exactly half the number of starters: 224 against the remarkable tally of 444 already noted for Into Mischief. These represent just about 5 and 3% respectively of their starters. And while Into Mischief has 32 graded stakes performers overall, compared with 24 for Curlin, in percentage terms that again favors the less prolific footprint of one (9.3% of starters) over the other (7.2%). As the icing on the cake, Curlin has had five Grade I winners and 9 Grade I podiums, at 1.9% and 3.5% of starters; compared with four and eight for Into Mischief (0.9 and 1.8%). Their overall stakes action, meanwhile, is broadly in step: Into Mischief's 29 black-type winners and 71 performers represent 6.5 and 16% of starters; Curlin's 19 and 41, 7.3 and 15.8%.

That's not to diminish Into Mischief in the slightest. He still has a lot of stock out there conceived at lower fees and we've all seen how seamlessly he has entwined his rising mare quality with his arc of achievement, immediately establishing himself as a Classic influence the moment he covered mares like the dam of Authentic at a bare $45,000. (That same spring was Curlin's first as a six-figure cover.) To be fair, Into Mischief had got a couple of colts from early crops that finished strongly for Derby/Preakness placings, but he has now definitively shown himself capable, with the right partners, of stretching his trademark speed through a second turn.

Nonetheless Curlin merits a special mention for a magnificent year. And his achievements should not be swamped by those disproportionate elements that have exalted two others above him in the table: the lucrative endeavors of Mystic Guide, in one case, and sheer scale in the other.

Tapit | Sarah Andrew

We also need to mention Tapit, for his sheer, metronomic consistency. In adding the later-blooming Flightline to the relentlessly accomplished Essential Quality, notably as his fourth GI Belmont S. winner, Tapit mounted a late charge for fifth place. Heading to the wire, he needed less than $1,500 from one of his last runners of the year to catch Speightstown–and so extend a unique distinction, across the last 12 years, of 11 finishes in the top five. Let's remember that Tapit previously held the prizemoney records both for general sires, meanwhile claimed by Into Mischief, and for freshmen, now in the hands of Gun Runner (following the Uncle Mo interregnum).

All the way through, remember, Tapit's books have been managed with commendable restraint at Gainesway, yet in August he became the highest-earning North American stallion of all time when overtaking Giant's Causeway. He has now passed $178 million, and needs another six graded stakes winners to reach 100 in 2022.

If favored by good health and longevity, perhaps Into Mischief can challenge for that record, too. Even as Tapit reached his milestone this summer, Into Mischief was breaking the $100-million barrier, and he's meanwhile already raced past $109 million. Whatever happens, there's no mistaking him as a champion for our times, and a fitting bequest by the late B. Wayne Hughes. It was as a struggling young stallion by Harlan's Holiday, of course, that Into Mischief famously inspired the kind of incentive scheme by which Spendthrift have meanwhile transformed the entire commercial breeding landscape. We now have the incredible state of affairs in which the three busiest stallions of 2021, with 682 covers between them, were all sons of Into Mischief: Goldencents and Authentic in the same barn, and Practical Joke at Ashford.

The latter must count himself unlucky to have landed in the same intake as Gun Runner, as runner-up in the first-crop sires' championship. As it was, the Three Chimneys freak has almost doubled the tally of his nearest pursuer, with Practical Joke gasping in his wake on $2,339,717. As noted above, Gun Runner has banked $4,209,350. Sometimes the laurels in this category can be divided across different indices, but the son of Candy Ride (Arg) also dominates by individual winners (28 beats 26 for Connect), wins (39) and, inevitably, across-the-board in terms of stakes action.

Admittedly Gun Runner is one of those stallions to have started out with a useful propensity for landing his best punches where they make most impact. Of four graded stakes performers, all four have won at that level, two in Grade Is, from a total of six black-type scorers. Uncle Mo, in accumulating the previous record, had a very similar pattern. He, too, had 28 winners but from more runners (73 against 62); he also included among them two Grade I scorers; he had two more graded stakes performers than Gun Runner, but one fewer such winners.

Uncle Mo's fee was promptly trebled from $25,000 to $75,000, and he stands at $160,000 for 2022. Gun Runner, having been clipped to $50,000 last spring, now smashes into the six-figure club at $125,000. Hats off to Gonçalo Torrealba and his team, to their partner Ron Winchell, and to Steve Asmussen who continues to develop the legacy of the horse he trained so expertly.

Not This Time | Jon Siegel

Champion second-crop sire with $5,458,779 is Not This Time, whose 13 stakes winners represent 10.24% of starters: the best ratio in the general sires' list, an outstanding achievement that consolidates his persisting claims as a precious late conduit for his sire Giant's Causeway.

Runner-up Nyquist ($4,807,628), top freshman last year, sent out as many as nine graded stakes performers, representing 7.4% of his starters, but had to wait until Slow Down Andy's GII Los Alamitos Futurity to get one of them into the winner's circle. From very similar numbers (Nyquist 121 starters, Not This Time 127), Not This Time clocked 68 winners against 50 for his rival at Darley, but the pair were exactly in step in terms of overall stakes action, with 18 black-type performers apiece.

But Not This Time is really on his way, now, given the upgrade in mares he will have earned with his breakout. Best of luck to him in 2022, and to all those hoping to find the next one whose time has come.

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An Instilled Regard for Speed and Distance

Three months after it was announced that Larry Best's OXO Equine would venture into the stallion business with 'TDN Rising Star' Instagrand (Into Mischief) at Taylor Made Stallions, a second addition was made to the farm's 2021 roster in Best's leading earner Instilled Regard (Arch).

The 6-year-old will stand his first year at stud for a fee of $12,500 and Taylor Made's Frank Taylor said that demand has been high since his retirement was announced in December.

“We are very excited about having Instilled Regard added to our roster at Taylor Made,” he said. “You don't see horses like this come along very often. He's been very well-received and we're steadily booking mares to him.”

Bred by KatieRich Farms, Instilled Regard RNA'd for $110,000 at the Keeneland September Sale, but then brought the fourth-highest bid of the 2017 OBS March Sale when he sold to OXO Equine for $1.05 million.

Placed under the care of Jerry Hollendorfer, he broke his maiden by over four lengths in late October of his juvenile season before running second to eventual four-time Grade I winner McKinzie (Street Sense) in the GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity.

Instilled Regard became a top consideration on the Derby trail after taking the GIII Lecomte S. and while he had to settle for fourth in the 2018 GI Kentucky Derby, Taylor said he believed it was one of the colt's best efforts.

“He performed amazingly in the Derby,” Taylor said. “He broke last and had a terrible trip, but he just closed like crazy and ran the fastest quarter of that Derby and was closing in on Justify (Scat Daddy) and some other top horses in Good Magic (Curlin) and Audible (Into Mischief).”

After transferring to Chad Brown's barn, the dark bay switched over to the turf and placed in the GI Hollywood Derby in his final start as a sophomore. He came back at four to win the GII Ft. Lauderdale S.

Following a third-place finish in GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. in January of his 5-year-old season, he won the GII Fort Marcy S., and turned in a come-from-behind performance in the GI Manhattan S. to defeat stablemate Rockemperor (Ire) {Holy Roman Emperor (Ire)}, as well as Grade I winners Sadler's Joy (Kitten's Joy) and Channel Maker (English Channel).

“It was absolutely amazing how he performed in the Manhattan,” Taylor recalled. “[Jockey] Irad Ortiz had so much confidence in the horse. I was scared; I thought he was going to run last the way it was looking. Then when he turned that horse loose, he exploded and shot through all the horses and finished up strong. It was just a turn of foot that you hardly ever see. It takes a superhorse to be able to do that.”

Instilled Regard retired with just under a million dollars in earnings, running in the money in a dozen of his 18 starts over his four-year career.

“It's very rare to see a horse run at all those ages and stay sound through all of that,” Frank said. “To go through the 2-year-old sales and then stay sound at two, three, four and five and have very little to no setbacks, to run steady that whole time and switch from dirt to turf, it takes a special horse to be able to do that.”

The son of Arch is out of the winning Forestry mare Enhancing, a daughter of Heavenly Prize (Seeking the Gold), an eight-time Grade I winner, champion and Hall of Fame inductee. Heavenly Prize is also responsible for the likes of dual Grade I winner and millionaire Good Reward (Storm Cat), graded stakes-winning dual-hemisphere sire Pure Prize (Strom Cat), as well as Just Reward (Deputy Minister), the dam of GI Personal Ensign S. winner Persistently (Smoke Glacken).

“Instilled Regard is a true Classic-bred horse,” Taylor noted. “That sire line, with Heavenly Prize on the bottom side, gets you distance. The Phipps family gets you distance. But he's also extremely fast. It absolutely amazes me that a horse bred like he's bred works that fast at a 2-year-old sale to bring a million dollars.”

Taylor also said he believes Instilled Regard offers a much-needed continuation of his sire line.

“I love the Hail To Reason line,” he said. “It's very interesting because we actually stood Kris S. (Roberto) with WinStar and he was a superhorse. Even going back to Halo (Hail To Reason), my father raised Halo so we were around him as a kid. That sire line, there's not a lot left of it and it's a strong strain that gets you the distance that we so desperately need in this country.”

Taylor added that he is encouraged by the similarities between Instilled Regard's pedigree and that of hot young sire Nyquist (Uncle Mo).

“If you look at Nyquist's pedigree, he's by Uncle Mo, who is out of an Arch mare. Then on the bottom side, he is out of a Forestry mare and she is out of a Seeking the Gold mare. So you've got Arch on both horses and then you've also got Forestry and Seeking the Gold on the bottom side for both horses.”

The first mare slated for Instilled Regard's book was three-time Grade I winner Blue Prize (Arg) (Pure Prize), the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Distaff heroine and $5 million purchase for OXO Equine. Blue Prize was bred to Into Mischief in 2020 and this year's mating with Instilled Regard will double up on champion Heavenly Prize.

“If that's any indication of how he's going to be supported by our team and by OXO Equine, that's a big plus,” Taylor said. “OXO believes in the horse for the long term and we just think he is a super horse. I mean, he is a specimen. Once people see him, they're going to want to sign a contract.”

Taylor said that balance is the key word when describing Instilled Regard physically.

“Everything about him is just balanced,” he said. “He's got a beautiful head and every time he walks out, he has that presence– that Grade I presence. He's got a beautifully clean neck that ties in perfectly to his shoulder and a deep heart girth. What amazes me is that he looks like a true Classic horse, but then the fact that he had as much speed as he did and could run at two just blows your mind. This horse could do it all.”

With hopes for that same versatility and durability to pass on to the new stallion's offspring, Taylor said he finds Instilled Regard's price point to be of great value.

“At $12,500, he is an absolute steal,” he said. “If you want to breed a 2-year-old that is fast, he can get that. If you want to breed a horse than can run a mile-and-a-quarter in the Derby, he can do that too. This horse has got a big shot in my mind. If you look at all the other horses standing for $15,000 and below, I think he's the best value out there.”

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Spun To Run Looks to Build Upon Dirt Mile Success

In just its first 14 years of running, the GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile has emerged as a stallion-making race and in recent years, its winners are making top headlines as they kick off their stud careers.

Goldencents (Into Mischief), winner of both the 2013 and 2014 edition, now leads his class of third-crop sires. The following year’s winner, Liam’s Map (Unbridled’s Song), is already a two-time Grade I producer with his first crop of 3-year-olds while 2016 champion Tamarkuz (Speightstown) now has a Grade III winner in his first crop of juveniles. The subsequent winners in the late Battle of Midway (Smart Strike) and City of Light (Quality Road) are still waiting for their first runners, but initial first crops are already turning heads both on the farm and in the sales ring.

 

Last year’s Dirt Mile Champion Spun to Run (Hard Spun) retired to Gainesway Farm this year and will stand his initial season at stud for $12,500.

“Spun to Run is a horse that we’re very excited about,” said Gainesway’s Director of Stallion Sales and Recruitment Sean Tugel. “Certainly his Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile win was his marquee victory and he did it very easily. He did it by widening lengths. On that day he ran a 109 Beyer and he certainly made everyone realize the type of talent he had.”

Spun to Run broke first at last year’s championship meet at Santa Anita and was never passed, besting a field that included Grade I winners Omaha Beach (War Front) and Improbable (City Zip), as well as Coal Front (Stay Thirsty) and Mr. Money (Goldencents).

Prior to his Breeders’ Cup victory, the Juan Carlos Guerrero-trainee blossomed in the later half of his sophomore season, finishing third in the GI Haskell Invitational S. behind Maximum Security (New Year’s Day) before taking the GIII Smarty Jones S. and later earning a 110 Beyer in the M.P Ballezzi Appreciation Mile S.

“It was a very strong 3-year-old campaign,” Tugel said. “He ran a `zero’ five times on Thorographs, which was very good. He’s a horse that showed brilliance, and brilliance makes sires.”

Following his Breeders’ Cup victory, Spun to Run wrapped up his sophomore season with a runner-up effort behind Maximum Security in the GI Cigar Mile H. While prepping for the 2020 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational, an injury forced the dark bay to scratch and ultimately retire.

“It was bad timing,” Tugel said. “[Owner Bob Donaldson] had a big 4-year-old campaign planned out for him. Unfortunately it didn’t go as the owner had hoped, but that allowed us to go out and get him. It was an injury that took time to come back from, and unfortunately he missed the breeding season and the racing season this year. But certainly he’s a young horse still, he’s turning five, and he’s let down beautifully in his time off from training. I think people are going to be very excited when they see him.”

The son of Hard Spun is out of the stakes-winning Grand Slam mare Yawkey Way and his half-sister Tap It All (Tapizar) is also a stakes winner.

“Certainly the Danzig sire line has been a sire line that has been dominant throughout the world, not only in America but in Australia and Europe,” Tugel said. “The fact that his first three dams are all juvenile winners and his first dam was a juvenile stakes winner at Saratoga makes it very exciting to think that speed and precocity is going to be passed on through his offspring.”

Tugel added that he finds Spun to Run to represent the best blend of Grand Slam and Hard Spun.

“He has a beautiful shoulder and a beautiful amount of bone,” he said. “You see a lot of that Grand Slam and Gone West in through his neckline and jaw. The strength of his hind leg is a great benefit that he gets from his bottom side. He’s a beautiful mover and he has a lot of leg to him. I think he’s a true miler, and milers make stallions.”

Tugel said that breeders have been impressed by the million-dollar-earning miler as he nears the start of his stud career.

“The breeders that have seen him so far have really liked him,” he said. “He’s a horse that kind of grabs your imagination as soon as you see him. He has a personality and an intelligence. He’s a horse that captivates the breeders when he walks out and that’s what drew us to him.”

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Global Campaign and Tom’s d’Etat at WinStar Farm

With 18 stallions already standing at stud, WinStar Farm already had one of the largest stallion rosters in Kentucky, but they will be busier than ever in 2021 after having welcomed five new recruits for the upcoming season. Laoban (Uncle Mo) will stand his first year in Kentucky after becoming a Grade I-producing sire this year, while Grade I winners Improbable (City Zip) and Promises Fulfilled (Shackleford) will start off their career at the Versailles farm.

Today, we speak with WinStar’s General Manager Dave Hanley on Global Campaign (Curlin) and Tom’s d’Etat (Smart Strike), who round out the list of new additions and who both rank among the top earners for their respective trainers.

 

Tom’s d’Etat (Smart Strike), $17,500

While it would be difficult to top the career of Horse of the Year Blame, Tom’s d’Etat comes close as trainer Al Stall Jr.’s next-highest earning Grade I winner.

“You could tell by listening to Al that he had really high regard for Tom’s d’Etat,” Hanley said. “He’s the coolest horse to be around. Really laid back with the most beautiful head and demeanor about him. I think he’s got a lot of class. You know, Al had trained Blame, but you could tell Al really loved this horse.”

Tom’s d’Etat was a $330,000 Keeneland September buy for Gayle Benson’s G M B Racing. From the family of top sire Candy Ride (Arg), the SF Bloodstock-bred son of Smart Strike is out of stakes winner and Grade III-placed Julia Tuttle (Giant’s Causeway).

“Being by a sire that’s a proven sire of sires and having a sire like Candy Ride in his pedigree is quite extraordinary,” Hanley said. “What’s interesting about his pedigree is his dam is by Giant’s Causeway, who was out of a Rahy mare. Rahy is by Blushing Groom (Fr) and Candy Ride’s broodmare sire is also by Blushing Groom. Northern Dancer on top of Blushing Groom gives you sires like Awesome Again, who is out of a Blushing Groom mare. Carson City was also out of a Blushing Groom mare and was obviously the sire of City Zip. So it’s a very strong sire-making cross.”

Hanley said that in terms of conformation, Tom’s d’Etat is a reflection of both Smart Strike and Candy Ride.

“He’s put together much like his sire and also has a little bit of Candy Ride in his make and shape,” he said. “He’s a beautifully balanced horse in that everything works for him. He’s got great use of his shoulders and carries his head and neck in a good position. He’s a beautiful mover and really opens his shoulder when he moves. His mechanics work really well and when he’s galloping, you can see what good use he has of himself.”

On the track, Tom’s d’Etat broke his maiden at Saratoga as a sophomore before adding four more wins in optional claimers at four and five. Stepping up into stakes company, he won the Tenacious S. at Fair Grounds to cap off his 5-year-old season.

After running second to four-time Grade I winner McKinzie (Street Sense) in the GII Alysheba S., the fleet-footed bay added the Alydar S. at Saratoga to his resume last summer as he reached top form. WinStar started to take notice of the stallion prospect.

“From May of 2019 to August of 2020 he ran nine-straight triple digit Beyers,” Hanley said. “He was such a dominant racehorse and was so talented, he really took our attention.”

His next win came in the GII Hagyard Fayette S. at Keeneland, his first graded stakes success, followed by his signature Grade I victory in the Clark S.

“His win in the Clark was another example of one of his dominating performances,” Hanley said. “He sat mid-division and then made an unbelievable move. He didn’t just go to the front, he flew.”

After defeating Improbable (City Zip) in the Oaklawn Mile S., Tom’s d’Etat added another win in the GII Stephen Foster S. where he earned a career-best 109 Beyer and just missed the track record by 0.02 seconds.

“It was quite a brilliant performance,” Hanley recalled. “Actually, he was eased down that day. Had they ridden him to the line, he might have even broken the track record.”

After two troubled trips in the latter half of his 2020 season in the GI Whitney S., where he still fought to finish third, and the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic, Tom’s d’Etat retired with earnings of over $1.76 million, having run in the money in all but five of his 20 starts.

Hanley said that their team is not at all phased that Tom’s d’Etat retires at the age of seven. It’s not their first time retiring older horses to stud.

“Some people are against that or think it’s a disadvantage to him,” Hanley said. “But you know, we’ve had two very good horses go through our stud barn here in Speightstown and Distorted Humor that both came to stud at age six and stood their first year as 7-year-olds. So, it doesn’t bother us at all. I think he’s going to be a good stallion regardless. Tom’s d’Etat’s pedigree is really stacked with sire-making potential. We’re going to support him really well together with our shareholders like Fred Hertrich, Siena Farm and Taylor Made. We really believe in his chance of becoming a top stallion.”

Global Campaign (Curlin), $12,500

Big names jumped off Global Campaign’s pedigree from the start with the likes of his half-brother, dual Grade I winner Bolt d’Oro (Medaglia d’Oro),  as well as another stakes-winning half-brother in Sonic Mule (Distorted Humor). His family also includes ‘TDN Rising Star’ Recruiting Ready (Algorithms), plus three-time Grade I winner and sire Zensational (Unbridled’s Song).

“Global Campaign is probably the best-bred son of Curlin,” Hanley said. “He’s a very good-looking horse for his sire line. He has very clean lines and is a smooth horse. He’s beautifully made, very well proportioned and is a really good mover. It’s hard to fault him. He’s a really exceptional physical.”

The WinStar-bred was a $250,000 Keeneland September purchase for Sagamore Farm and was given to trainer Stanley Hough to race in partnership with WinStar.

“About a month before the September Sale, he got a bang on his knee that fired up physitis in the knee,” Hanley said. “So going into the sale, I think that took a number of people off him. But we really liked him and were anxious to stay in for a piece. Stanley Hough and Hunter Rankin were very gracious to allow us to do that.”

Global Campaign was sent to Ocala Stud to undergo training, and Hanley said he remembers visiting the youngster.

“Elliott [Walden] and I went down in the spring of his 2-year-old year and they were already excited about him,” he said. “He was starting to separate himself from the others and they thought he was one of the nicest horses they had down there. He was a beautiful mover, a very positive horse in his work, and looked like he was going to be something.”

In January of his sophomore season, the colt turned heads on debut when he broke his maiden by almost six lengths and then earned ‘Rising Star’ status in his next start. Later in the season, he defeated eventual GI Belmont S. winner Sir Winston (Awesome Again) in the GIII Peter Pan S. followed by a third-place effort in the GII Jim Dandy S.

“Unfortunately in that race, he grabbed himself coming out of the gate and took a chunk out of his heel,” Hanley relayed.

After a nine-month layoff, the bay returned with a victory at four in a Gulfstream optional claimer before stepping back into graded stakes company and taking the GIII Monmouth Cup S.

“He made the running and had his ears pricked in front,” Hanley recalled. “The other horse, Bal Harbour (First Samurai), went to go by him and he just rallied and put the race away. He was the kind of horse that I think always ran with a bit more in the tank than you saw. He’s a horse that liked to get on the front end, relax, and could finish up really well.”

Global Campaign made his Grade I debut this summer in the Woodward H., breaking first and never looking back to defeat the likes of Grade I winner Math Wizard (Algorithms) and multiple graded stakes winner Tacitus (Tapit).

He earned a career-best 106 Beyer in his final start this year, fighting to place third after a troubled start in the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic behind Horse of the Year favorite Authentic (Into Mischief) and fellow WinStar studmate Improbable.

Hanley spoke about the meaning the horse had for his connections in taking co-owner Sagamore Farm on their probable final trip to the Breeders’ Cup as they phase out of racing and becoming trainer Stanley Hough’s leading earner.

“It was really nice for Sagamore to have a really good horse like him as they get out of the business,” he said. “Both Hunter Rankin and Stanley Hough did a marvelous job managing the horse. Stanley is a real all-time horseman and you could tell being around him how excited he was about this horse.”

While WinStar had initially announced that they were considering pointing the Grade I winner towards the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S., they later decided that he would not resume training following the Breeders’ Cup.

“When we took him back to the farm, he was going down so well with the breeders and looked so good,” Hanley said. “We’re very happy that he’s here. He’s been very, very popular. I think he’s already booked to 80 mares and people really like him.”

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