This Side Up: No Proxy For The One And Only

Unfortunately, they only have one Two Phil's (Hard Spun). If they had another, presumably making Four Phils in all, then they might yet have the consolation of a proxy in the big races through the second half of the season. As it is, we can only offer our sympathy to the heartbroken team around a horse that brought us such precious cheer during what is proving a challenging year for our sport.

Because that's the whole point, really. The big programs would be able to temper their disappointment, on losing the services even of a horse as accomplished as Two Phil's, with the likelihood that an equivalent talent will eventually come along. And it was precisely because the circle of friends who launched Two Phil's towards the top of his crop did so by such accessible investment–he's out of the only Thoroughbred ever purchased by the Sagan family, a $40,000 daughter of a failed stallion–that so many of us identified with their cause. They made us feel we all had a chance.

Two Phil's, moreover, had been progressing from a somewhat sentimental, blue-collar rooting interest to a perfectly credible candidate for what feels an open sophomore championship. He was the only contributor to the GI Kentucky Derby pace that managed to hang tough, and looked better than ever on his first start since in the GIII Ohio Derby last weekend. How maddeningly typical of this game, then, that even in opening up new horizons his owners should suddenly reach a dead end.

They must now regroup, clear their heads and find Two Phil's his best chance at stud. His maternal family contains its challenges, but that is true of a lot of good stallions and something, after all, is demonstrably functioning in his genetic make-up. There is an increasing burden on sons of War Front and Hard Spun to maintain the shortest available connection to their breed-shaping sire Danzig, and Two Phil's certainly bears an auspicious resemblance to his excellent sire. Both proved their adaptability by winning the same Derby trial on a synthetic surface, before proceeding to finish second at Churchill. On the right farm, I'm sure that Two Phil's has every chance of writing a new chapter in the fairytale; and his connections have played their cards too faultlessly to need any help in determining which farm might be the right one.

In the meantime, we must just thank them for introducing this authentic ray of sunshine into our present darkness. As I've noted before, that rogue apostrophe actually became part of what the horse stood for: a symbol of his quirky, aberrational advent among those who set expensive standards at the top of the market. He arrived as a defiant Chicago gesture, many in his entourage having been deprived of their natural habitat–and one of the jewels of the racing planet–by the closure of Arlington Park by the very people who host the Derby.

One of those cast adrift from Arlington was trainer Larry Rivelli, whose prospects of replacing the irreplaceable should at least be enhanced by having drawn national attention to gifts already well familiar on his home circuits. In this bittersweet week, indeed, Rivelli has saddled six winners from nine starters; and these included two “Derby” winners in one weekend, with Act A Fool (Oscar Performance) making it four off the reel in the Hawthorne Derby last Sunday. Hopefully Jareth Loveberry, also integral to the horse's development, will now be able to consolidate, as well, having earned his stripes all the way through from Great Lakes Downs.

Proxy (outside) wins the GII Oaklawn Handicap | Coady Photography

But if some of these guys end up never quite retrieving the same heights, at least they all seized their opportunity when it came. And they would surely choose the shorter ride they took with Two Phil's over the “better” luck experienced by many others, in being able to restore a horse to training after being derailed before the Classics?

It's not as though there's a piece of paper anyone gets to sign, but how would you choose between Two Phil's or a horse like, say, Proxy (Tapit)? Having disappeared for 10 months after trying to get to his own crop's Derby via the Fair Grounds trials, Proxy lines up for the GI Stephen Foster S. on Saturday as a mature horse, with every prospect of building on what for now remains a fairly marginal prizemoney edge over Two Phil's. Since his comeback, he has also availed himself of a Grade I (in the Clark last fall). He's an admirable creature, in a field replete with similar types. But if you were in a crew that might very well only ever have one shot at the big time, would you not be swung by the fact that every Thoroughbred foal, from the moment it slithers into the straw, has one chance–and one chance only–to take you on the walk over for the Derby?

In the winter of 2021-22, certainly, the McPeek barn wasn't dreaming of the 2023 Stephen Foster for Smile Happy (Runhappy) and Rattle N Roll (Connect). The former at least made it to the Derby before his disappearance, but I'm delighted to see him back thriving now. He was bred by the charming Xavier Moreau, from a $57,000 daughter of Pleasant Tap. That was about as much as Xavier had ever spent on a mare, and tragically he lost her almost as soon as Smile Happy had emerged.

That's the thing about this game. Yes, absolutely, your little guys can beat the billionaires by breeding a Smile Happy, or a Two Phil's. But nor will they get any special treatment from Lady Luck, just because all their eggs might be in a single basket.

The only answer is an old one: “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” If that can be in May, and get you anywhere near that blanket of roses, so much the better.

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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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Taking Stock: Danzig Legacy at Claiborne

Claiborne's been running an eye-catching ad on its two young sires War of Will (War Front) and Silver State (Hard Spun) that ties them to their illustrious Claiborne-based grandsire Danzig, under the heading, “The Danzig Legacy continues at Claiborne.”

What really hits home about this ad is that Danzig's legacy in North America is now limited to two stallions, Claiborne's War Front and Darley's Hard Spun, and their sons. In contrast, Danzig is a massive sire-line influence in Europe and Australasia through many different strains, led by Danehill but also including Green Desert (Danzig), through such as Cape Cross (Ire) (Green Desert), Invincible Spirit (Ire) (Green Desert), Sea the Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross), Kingman (GB) (Invincible Spirit), etc.

Abroad, Danzig has also been equally as powerful as a broodmare sire line, again headed by Danehill, whose daughters have had terrific success with Galileo (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) and other sons of Sadler's Wells.

The outstanding example of this cross is Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), from the Danehill mare Kind (Ire). In fact, Galileo is the sire of 58 black-type winners from Danehill mares–an outstanding 18% black type winners to foals–and there are many others bred on this pattern when including granddaughters of Danehill or mares by other strains of Danzig.

What is also notable about this nick is that it's a sire-line cross of Northern Dancer, because both Danzig and Sadler's Wells were sons of his. Statistically, sire-line crosses–when the sire and the broodmare are members of the same line–tend not to be the most successful, but that's not the case when Danzig and Sadler's Wells are involved.

Danzig was bred by Marshall Jenney's Derry Meeting Farm and Lane's End's W.S. Farish, but stood at Claiborne, which had a relationship to Sadler's Wells. Bred by Robert Sangster's Swettenham Stud and partners, Sadler's Wells's dam, Fairy Bridge (Bold Reason), was bred by Claiborne, which also bred Sadler's Wells's three-quarter brother Nureyev, another outstanding son of Northern Dancer. And speaking of the great Canadian-bred stallion, Claiborne also stood Northern Dancer's best racing son, Nijinsky II, who was an outstanding stallion in his own right.

It's common nowadays to find multiple crosses to Northern Dancer in pedigrees, and this is the case with both War of Will and Silver State. The former, who is out of a Sadler's Wells mare, has four strains (Danzig, Nijinsky, Sadler's Wells, and Northfields), while the latter has three (Danzig, El Gran Senor, and Dixieland Band).

Danzig is frequently the common thread in horses with multiple crosses to Northern Dancer, and that's probably because he injects more “trans-brilliant” speed–Franco Varola called that speed that blends with other aptitudes–than any other son of Northern Dancer. There are more than 1,000 Grade I/Group 1 winners that include Danzig with multiple strains of Northern Dancer in their pedigrees, and that about proves the point, doesn't it?

The puzzle, of course, is why Danzig, who started out with three Grade l winners in his first crop, including Gl Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and champion 2-year-old colt Chief's Crown, and who led the general sire list in 1991, 1992 and 1993, never found the continuing sire-line success in North America that he's had overseas, until War Front and Hard Spun appeared late in his career.

And these two, as the Claiborne ad notes, could be the source for rejuvenating the legacy of their grandsire on this continent.

War Front is a foal of 2002 and Hard Spun was born two years later–the year Danzig was pensioned after covering mares that spring. Both went to stud after many other sons of Danzig had fired their best shots, and though several Danzig stallions had had intermittent success over here, none rose to the level of their foreign-based counterparts until these two arrived.

War Front, who was bred and raced by Joe Allen, has been an exceptional stallion in particular. Coolmore was quick to recognize his potential, and the Irish farm sent Galileo mares to him after the early success their star sire Galileo was enjoying with Danehill. This reverse cross of Danzig/Galileo through War Front is responsible for 11 black–type winners (11% from foals), including several Group 1 winners. Most of the success for this combination has come in Europe, where turf is the main racing surface, which the Danzigs reveled.

Early on, War Front was quickly labeled a high-class turf stallion, but just as his own sire succeeded on North American dirt, so too has War Front, when given opportunity.

A prime example is War of Will. Bred by European entity Flaxman Holdings, War of Will is from Visions of Clarity (Ire), a daughter of Sadler's Wells, and she descends from blue hen Broodmare of the Year Best in Show. On a surface reading of his pedigree, War of Will was destined for success on the turf. War Front has sired seven black=type winners from Sadler's Wells-line mares (21% to foals), and all seven were stakes winners on turf, and one of those–Gl Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Hit It a Bomb, at stud at Spendthrift–was a stakes winner on all-weather, too.

War of Will is the exception. Though he was Grade I-placed on turf at two, he won the Gl Preakness S. at three on dirt, and at four he won the Gl Maker's Mark Mile S. on turf. Altogether, he won five of 18 starts and earned $1.9 million, and his success in a Classic on dirt gives him all the credentials he needs to succeed in North America on dirt. The same could be said for War Front's high-class Spendthrift-based son Omaha Beach, who was also a dirt horse and a multiple Grade l winner.

Hard Spun is a very good and reliable stallion, standing for about a third of War Front's fee. He was also a better racehorse than War Front, and he's shown an ability to get quality dirt horses, such as Grade l winners Questing (GB) (a champion), Wicked Strong, Aloha West, Hard Aces, Spun to Run (at stud at Gainesway), Zo Impressive, Out for a Spin and Smooth Roller in addition to Silver State.

Silver State was bred by Stonestreet, one of the best breeders in Kentucky; raced by Winchell Thoroughbreds, in partnership with Willis Horton; and trained by Steve Asmussen. Winchell and Asmussen combined to race Gun Runner, and now they are behind the success of most of his 2-year-olds. Winchell is also behind Tapit. Stonestreet's list of sire successes begins with Curlin but also extends to several others, including Maclean's Music and Kantharos.

Silver State is from the black-type winner and Grade lll-placed Empire Maker mare Supreme from the immediate family of Gl Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos. He's a winner of seven of 14 starts and $1.9 million, including the Gl Metropolitan H., long considered a sire-making race.

Claiborne, therefore, has two Grade l dirt winners from the Danzig line, by Danzig's only two major sons currently at stud in North America, and both of them are highly credentialed.

These two young horses put Claiborne very much in position to continue Danzig's legacy in North America.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

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Perfect Fit for ‘Old-School’ Silver State at Claiborne

According to Walker Hancock, Silver State (Hard Spun – Supreme, by Empire Maker) has been an easy sell as breeders have stopped by Claiborne Farm in the past few weeks to see the new, Grade I-winning arrival.

“Everyone who has come to see him has absolutely loved him,” Hancock reported. “They can't get enough of him. We've even sold shares to him just with people who have come out to see him. The comments we get are that people didn't realize how big he is. He's 16'3 and is dappled out right now, so he looks fantastic.”

“He's a really smooth-walking horse and he has this presence about him,” Hancock continued of the Stonestreet-bred who brought $450,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September Sale. “He just kind of knows that he's a cool dude and he had the miler speed, which is what breeders are looking for, so there's a lot to like about Silver State.”

Campaigned by Winchell Thoroughbreds and Willis Horton Racing, Silver State won on debut at two for trainer Steve Asmussen and was competitive on the Triple Crown trail at three with a runner-up performance in the 2020 GIII Lecomte S. and third-place finish in one division of the GII Risen Star S., but he incurred a setback in the GII Louisiana Derby and was forced to watch from the sidelines until the fall.

The strapping bay reemerged at Keeneland's fall meet with a seven-length romp against allowance company that proved to be the start of a six-race win streak. After another dominating performance at Churchill Downs, the colt kicked off his 4-year-old season with a pair of wins at Oaklawn Park in the Fifth Season S. and Essex H.

Returning to graded company, Silver State took the GII Oaklawn H. by half a length before earning his signature win in the GI Metropolitan H., defeating the likes of MGSWs By My Standards (Goldencents) and Mischevious Alex (Into Mischief), plus future GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Knicks Go (Paynter).

“He had been on our radar for quite a while, but his win in the Met Mile solidified him as a serious stallion prospect for his,” Hancock explained. “He had the miler speed, but he was a big horse that was able to carry that speed, which I think says a lot about him.”

After running in the money in the GI Whitney S. behind Knicks Go and GISW Maxfield (Street Sense) and again in the Parx Dirt Mile S., Silver State retired with earnings of nearly $2 million.

“He had five six-figure Beyer Speed Figures and was only off the board twice, so he was a model of consistency,” Hancock noted. “His six-race win streak was something you hardly ever see anymore.”

As a grandson of Claiborne legend Danzig, Silver State was a natural fit for the farm's stallion program.

Silver State wins the 2021 GI Metropolitan H. | Coglianese

“He's by Hard Spun, who I think is a tremendously-underrated sire, and we look forward to him carrying on his grandfather's legacy,” Hancock said. “His dam [Supreme] is by Empire Maker, who is obviously a great broodmare sire.”

Supreme (Empire Maker), a full-sister to 2001 GI Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos (Maria's Mon), was a stakes winner on turf and was runner-up in the GIII Royal North S. She sold for $800,000 to Stonestreet at the 2013 Keeneland January Sale and has since produced two additional winners who have both achieved six figures in earnings.

“One of the reasons that we really thought he could be a successful stallion here is that we think he will nick really well with a lot of our mares,” Hancock explained. “The Danzig over Blame and Arch nick is one that we're really high on, so we think Silver State will complement them really well.”

Hancock added that Winchell Thoroughbreds and breeder Stonestreet Farms are committed to supporting the young stallion as he begins his stud career.

“We're thankful to partner up with Ron Winchell. They know how to make a great stallion obviously, as Gun Runner is one of the hottest freshman sires that we've seen in quite some time. They have a great program and are going to support Silver State just like they did for Gun Runner. Stonestreet is going to be a big supporter of him as well and they definitely know what they're doing, so we're glad to have them on board. He will be well-supported by a lot of great breeders.”

Silver State joins Claiborne's cornerstone stallion War Front, proven sire Blame and War Front's young son War of Will as ancestors of Danzig in the stud barn of the historic Paris, Ky. farm. The new addition will stand for a fee of $20,000 in 2022.

“Someone mentioned to me that he's a bit of a throwback-type horse,” Hancock said. “He is kind of an old-school horse and he's at an old-school farm, so he seems like a perfect fit.”

To catch up on all TDN features for new stallions in 2022, click here

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