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First-Crop Yearling Previews: Mitole

The 2022 class of first-crop yearling sires features a diverse batch of Kentucky-based young stallions including a pair of Breeders' Cup champions, two sons of reigning top sire Into Mischief, five graded stakes winners at two and five Grade I winners on turf. Throughout the course of the yearling sales season, we will feature a series of freshman sires as their first crop points toward the sales ring.

Mitole (Eskendereya – Indian Miss, by Indian Charlie) is a barn favorite for Spendthrift Farm's Stallion Sales Manager Mark Toothaker for several reasons, perhaps a big one being that, as Toothaker joked, “He's easy on a guy trying to sell stallion season.”

The 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint champion bred over 200 mares in each of his first few years at stud, including that tough third season where many promising stallions are lucky to get 100. What has made Mitole so extremely popular?

“I think with Mitole, the biggest thing with him was just how fast he was,” Toothaker explained. “Steve [Asmussen] even said that this is the fastest horse in the world. He was hard to beat at any distance and we feel like that's what breeders have gravitated toward is his speed. The demand for him has just been amazing through the first three years.”

Bred by Edward A. Cox Jr., Mitole was a $20,000 yearling turned $140,000 OBS April 2-year-old. Campaigned by William and Corinne Heiligbrodt and trained by Steve Asmussen, the colt out of future Broodmare of the Year Indian Miss (Indian Charlie) got his first win in his third start, defeating a field of maidens by 10 lengths as a young 3-year-old. He got his first stakes win two months later in the Bachelor S. at Oaklawn Park.

“We were chasing another stallion that day,” Toothaker recalled. “When I came back to the office, I told everyone that I may have seen the best 3-year-old in the country. They thought I was talking about the other horse, but I was talking about Mitole. This was April of his 3-year-old year and he got a 107 Beyer. This horse was just incredible.”

Mitole was sidelined after a win in his next start in the Chick Lang S. due to a splint injury, but returned at four to capture six of his seven starts in 2019, including the GI Churchill Downs S. on the Kentucky Derby undercard, the GI Runhappy Metropolitan H. over MGISW McKinzie (Street Sense) and the GI Forego S. in stakes-record time. He culminated his season with a career-high 112 Beyer Speed Figure in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint and retired with over $3 million in earnings as the 2019 Champion Male Sprinter and Horse of the Year finalist.

Launched with an initial stud fee of $25,000 in 2020, Mitole's fee was brought down to $15,000 the next year when Spendthrift reduced stud fees for most of their roster in 2021. Toothaker said that as the young stallion's first foals arrived, breeders started calling with the hopes of bringing their mares back to him.

“People have loved the way these things look,” Toothaker said of Mitole's first foals. “They have great hips on them, they look like him, and they just look fast.”

Mitole sent 56 weanlings and short yearlings through the ring at the breeding stock sales. 46 sold to average $80,608 and place their sire among the top 5 first-crop weanling sires in North America in 2021. His colt out of Rode Warrior (Quality Road) sold for $285,000 at Keeneland November to Spendthrift Farm and Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt while another colt at the same sale brought $200,000.

At the upcoming Fasig-Tipton July Sale on July 12, Mitole will be represented by 13 members of his first crop.

“I feel like as we go around and do our notes out there, it's going to be a lot of the same,” Toothaker said. “It will be a horse that looks like we could take to the 2-year-old sale and it could go fast and have a chance to hit a big lick, or, it could be a horse that trainers are going to take to the track saying that we could come out with this 2-year-old and mean business from the get go.”

Brookdale Sales will send Hip 9, a Mitole colt out of the Lonhro (Aus) mare Limit, through the sales ring at Fasig-Tipton July for breeder Mineloa Farm. Martin O'Dowd said that everyone at Mineola has been impressed by this colt from the start.

“He's very, very nice,” O'Dowd said. “He's correct and has a great mind and a lovely walk. In the paddock, he just moves beautifully with a fabulous, low stride. The mare has a very deep family and it's a family that runs on dirt and turf.”

At the same sale, Rosilyn Polan's Sunday Morning Farm will send a Mitole colt through the ring as Hip 51. The yearling is out of Sweetness Galore (Rock Hard Ten), a daughter of GISW Tribulation (Danzig). Polan's favorite thing about the youngster, she said, is his powerful stride.

“I love that he is not only so fluid when he walks, but he's so purposeful,” she explained. “He acts like he's planning ahead with every footfall and just reaching for the finish line. He's a fun one to have.”

Toothaker said that he is anticipating high demand for Mitole's yearlings from a wide variety of shoppers.

“It's exciting because Bill and Corinne were active at the sales supporting him and they're going to try to have these things ready to roll as well,” he said. “I feel that the 2-year-old pinhookers all the way to the people going to the races are going to want to have a Mitole. Everybody likes fast.”

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West Coast’s First Yearlings Show Classic Potential

While there are certainly some strong contenders vying for this year's Champion 3-Year-Old Colt title, it's still possible that the future recipient hasn't yet had his breakout win. Perhaps, he wasn't even seen in a Triple Crown race.

In the past 20 years, two colts have managed to earn the crown for Eclipse Champion 3-Year-Old Male despite having skipped the Triple Crown trail. The first was Arrogate, who did not make his graded stakes debut until his famed 13 1/2-length, record-setting GI Travers.

The second came the following year.

A $425,000 2015 Keeneland September Sale purchase, West Coast (Flatter-Caressing, by Honour and Glory) broke his maiden early in his sophomore year and then came within a head in the GIII Lexington S. before earning five straight wins. After victories in the Easy Goer S. at Belmont and the GIII Los Alamitos Derby, the Gary and Mary West colorbearer got his signature score in the GI Travers. Setting the pace early, the speedy bay was never passed, defeating a field that featured each 2017 Classic winner–Always Dreaming, Cloud Computing and Tapwrit.

“West Coast's Travers was really a coming-out party for him,” Lane's End's Bill Farish said. “He ran all three Classic winners from that year into the ground and the way he did it, pulling away from them, is what was the most impressive thing to me.”

West Coast returned to the winner's circle in his next start with an effortless performance in the GI Pennsylvania Derby.

After a third-place finish in the 2017 GI Breeders' Cup Classic, the reigning 3-year-old champ returned at four to run second to Gun Runner in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S., earning a 117 Beyer Speed Figure, followed by game second-place efforts in the G1 Dubai World Cup and GI Awesome Again S.

The son of Flatter retired to Lane's End Farm in 2019 with earnings of over $5.8 million as the leading earner for his sire. Out of Caressing, a juvenile Eclipse and Breeders' Cup champion, West Coast is also a half -brother to graded stakes-placed horses Gold Hawk (Empire Maker) and Juan and Bina (Indian Charlie).

“He just showed so much ability,” Farish said. “We love to see a 3-year-old with multiple Grade I wins. They generally have a great chance to make it at stud.”

Off at an initial fee of $35,000, West Coast bred 168 mares in his first year at stud, followed by an additional 103 the following season at the same fee. With first yearlings now preparing to see the sales ring, he stands this year for $20,000.

Lane's End has five West Coast foals on the ground this year including this youngster, a son of four-time stakes horse producer Rehear (Coronado's Quest). | Alys Emson

“West Coast has gotten off to a great start,” Farish said. “He had a full first book, so he has a good representative crop of yearlings this year. We're very optimistic about how they look and how they'll do at the sales.”

Farish explained how their goal from the start was to see West Coast thrive as a Classic-producing sire.

“West Coast is a well-made, good-sized horse with plenty of scope. He looks wonderful. I think people come and see him, and it's what they're hoping to see. With his pedigree in being an A.P. Indy-line horse, the possibilities are that he's going to get you a good Classic-type, two-turn horse.”

Farish confirmed that this first crop of yearlings reflect what they had visualized for West Coast's progeny.

“They really remind you of him,” he said. “They've got size, scope and really look like they're going to be two-turn horses. That's what we've always tried to breed for and that's what he has delivered.”

One West Coast yearling at Lane's End that received high praise from Farish is a filly out of the St. Elias Stable-owned mare Playtime (Street Cry {Ire}). The youngster is a half-sister to this year's GII Appalachian S. winner Jouster (Noble Mission {GB}).

“She's a super filly,” Farish said of the yearling. “She's bred by St. Elias and they're not sure if they're going to sell her or keep her. I think they may be thinking about keeping her. But she's really been a standout from right after she was born.”

Another West Coast yearling foaled at Lane's End has been on Farish's watch list from day one. Out of Irish Jasper, a daughter of First Defence raced to Grade II victory by W.S. Farish and David Mackie, the colt was foaled in March last year.

“He's one of the best colts we have on the farm,” Farish said. “He's one we're going to keep and race. We're excited to see him on the track, but he really is a nice-looking individual.”

Irish Jasper was bred back to West Coast and has another colt on the ground this year.

At last year's sales, 24 West Coast weanlings sold from 34 offered. As a group, they averaged $53,625. The top lot, a colt out of Joannie (Smart Strike), brought $200,000 at Keeneland November.

Agent Renee Dailey found a weanling by the Lane's End sire at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale that she couldn't leave without. She purchased the filly for $65,000.

West Coast filly out of Fixate sells as Hip 156 with the Four Star Sales consignment at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale.

“The filly was the second foal out of the young mare Fixate (Bodemeister), who is a half-sister to MGSW and sire Air Support (Smart Strike) and is from the family of MGISW and sire Coronado's Quest,” Dailey explained. “She was a beautiful physical, I loved her walk, she was a good-sized, strong filly and was very straightforward.”

The owner and operator of Dailey Bloodstock purchased the filly for $65,000 and, according to Dailey, the youngster has blossomed this year.

“She has a lot of stretch and she's very racey, but with a powerful hip and shoulder and a lovely head and neck. We put her in the July sale because we thought she would be a good representation of the sire for the first showing of his yearlings.”

Dailey said she has been excited by the prospecting of selling West Coast's progeny since she first saw the horse in person.

“I was a huge fan of West Coast when he was on the track and won impressively in the Pennsylvania Derby and I was so excited to get to see his foals,” she said. “I was impressed with his physical every time I saw him in the paddock and that's how I picked this filly. I thought she looked so much like her daddy. I think he's stamping his foals. The filly, as well as many of the other ones I've seen, have his strong body, big hip and lovely topline.”

Dailey's pinhook prospect will sell as one of seven West Coast yearlings in the upcoming Fasig-Tipton July Sale on July 13. The filly will be offered as Hip 156 with the Four Star Sales consignment.

Other notable pedigrees from West Coast's Fasig-Tipton yearlings include Hip 12, a filly out of GII Adirondack S. winner Designer Legs (Graeme Hall), as well as Hip 77, a filly out of SW Sharp Sally (Posse), a full sister to dual GISW Annals of Time (Temple City). View West Coast's full Fasig-Tipton roster here.

“Buyers are going to appreciate that he's an A.P Indy-line stallion, that he had brilliance and that he's getting good-looking yearlings,” Farish said. “I'm very optimistic.”

Miss one the first four features from our 2021 First-Crop Yearling Sire series? Click here for the full archive.

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Bolt d’Oro Yearlings Predicted to Be in High Demand

Tim Hamlin, owner and operator of Wynnstay Farm, is high on the filly by first-crop yearling sire Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro-Globe Trot, by A.P. Indy) his consignment will be presenting at the upcoming Fasig-Tipton July Sale.

“One word to describe her is athletic,” he said of the youngster that will sell as Hip 94 on July 13. “She's a later filly out of a mare called Wall of Worry (The Cliff's Edge). She's been athletic from the day she was born. She does everything we want her to do and she's been healthy, straightforward, good-minded and everything you could want.”

Hamlin has already had good luck with Bolt d'Oro and his first crop. At last year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale, his Wynnstay Sales consignment sold the co-highest weanling by the Spendthrift sire when a filly out of Clarendon Fancy (Malibu Moon) and from the family of GISW Girvin (Tale of Ekati) and GISP Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow) brought $280,000, selling to Spendthrift Farm.

“All three of them that I have had have been super, super athletic,” Hamlin noted. “I wish I could have had more, but they would only let us have so many because everybody wanted them. The ones we have are rock stars. We love them and have more mares bred to him. We think he's going to be a hit.”

Hamlin isn't the only one wishing he had another Bolt d'Oro yearling or two in his barn. According to Spendthrift's Mark Toothaker, demand for the dual Grade I winner was high from the start.

“In his first year, we had twice as many applications as we had spots,” he shared. “We were able to go through and really take our pick of the mares we wanted, so he got an outstanding group.”

Retired to stud in 2019 with a $25,000 initial fee, Bolt d'Oro bred 214 mares in his first book. Held steady at the same stud fee the following year after shuttling to Spendthrift Australia for a season, he bred an additional 146 mare. Toothaker said the smaller book size was due in no part to decreased demand.

“We started trying to control it to where we were only breeding him a couple times a day. We found that to be a little bit better fit for him.”

This year, Bolt d'Oro's stud fee was adjusted to $15,000 with across-the-board fee cuts at Spendthrift due to Covid-induced uncertainties for breeders.

Bolt d'Oro filly out of Wall of Worry sells as Hip 94 at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale.

At last year's weanling sales, Bolt d'Oro ranked amongst the top five first-crop stallions in North America by average when 30 of 36 of his progeny sold to average $76,966. Along with Wynnstay's $280,000 filly at Fasig-Tipton's sale, another Bolt d'Oro weanling brought the same price days later at the Keeneland November Sale. The colt out of stakes winner C. S. Incharge (Take Charge Indy) from Clarkland Farm sold to Sand Hill Stables.

“The pinhookers were really wanting to buy them,” Toothaker said. “Anytime you have the pinhookers talking about how, 'We need to land a Bolt,' or 'We chased a couple of Bolts but weren't able to have enough money to get it done,' that's what you're looking to hear on the sales ground. He's a very exciting horse. He's got the looks, he's got the pedigree and I look for him to be a serious sire for us.”

A WinStar Farm-bred half-brother to GISW Global Campaign (Curlin) and SW Sonic Mule (Distorted Humor), Bolt d'Oro was a $630,000 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling purchase for Mick and Wendy Ruis. Originally trained by Ruis, the son of Medaglia d'Oro broke his maiden on debut before taking the GI Del Mar Futurity and GI Frontrunner S.

“The Frontrunner was just an unbelievable race,” Toothaker recalled. “He absolutely demolished that field and I thought that was his best race. This horse was just so brilliant with his stride; he was able to leap. It was so amazing how much ground he could cover.”

Bolt d'Oro ended his juvenile season with a third-place finish in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile and came back at three in the GII San Felipe S. After a stretch battle with fellow GISW McKinzie, he was awarded the win via disqualification. He then ran second to future Triple Crown winner Justify in the GI Santa Anita Derby and, after unplaced finishes in his next two Grade I starts, retired with earnings of over $1 million.

Toothaker recalled a story of watching the horse train at Keeneland, “The kid that was on him, I don't want to say he messed up, but he broke off too far behind. Mick had put a rabbit in there as a workmate and when they broke, you're thinking he's never going to be able to catch that horse because they had separated themselves too much. But not only did he catch him, it was one of the most unbelievable works I had every seen. He worked :1.10 and change, at Keeneland, and I mean I can count on one hand how many horses I've seen ever work that fast. It was an amazing morning and one of those that I'll never forget.”

Bolt d'Oro's effortless speed combined with a Classic pedigree has Toothaker excited for the stallion's first progeny to hit the track.

“The thing about Bolt is, we just haven't seen many horses by Medaglia d'Oro out of A.P. Indy mares that are so good as 2-year-olds,” he explained. “Here's a horse that is bred to run all day long and has two Grade I wins at two. With his pedigree, it's kind of freakish. You feel like with his progeny, he'll have every chance to sire a Derby horse. He's got the pedigree to get the Classic distances, no doubt.”

Taylor Made Sales has four Bolt d'Oro yearlings pointing towards the Fasig-Tipton July Sale.

Bolt d'Oro filly out of Moment of Speight (Ire) sells as Hip 227 at Fasig-Tipton July.

Mark Taylor agreed that based on the yearlings he has seen, they should be able to stretch out with ease.

“These Bolts to me look like they'll be fast, but they don't look like one-dimensional horses that are going to be done early in their 2-year-old year,” Taylor said. “I think you're going to see plenty of Bolts run early, but I think they're going to be more Classic-type horses at the end of the day.”

Taylor said that one of Taylor Made's July-bound yearlings, a filly out of the Speightstown mare Moment of Speight (Ire) selling as Hip 227, fits the description.

“She's a long, stretchy filly that looks like she can run two turns,” he said. “She's got a good hip to her and is very well balanced with a lot of strength over her top line.”

Of the trends he's seeing in Bolt d'Oro's progeny overall, Taylor added, “I've seen consistently good horses popping up at the different farms I go to. I think he's a prepotent stallion. He seems to be dominating his mares a little bit and he's throwing a lot of length with plenty of strength behind, which is a great tandem to have in the market and on the racetrack. I'm very bullish on what I've seen so far.”

Toothaker said that many breeders have honed in on Bolt d'Oro's physical to best compliment their mares.

“The breeders are so smart and they want to breed a really strong-hipped mare with a good hind leg to him,” he noted. ” We were happy to see him getting strong-hipped horses, but with Bolt's leg and they stand over some ground. The breeders are very happy with what they got, the response has been great so far and I think they are going to be rewarded very well.”

Bolt d'Oro has six yearlings cataloged in the upcoming Fasig-Tipton July Sale including Hip 43, a colt out of a winning half-sister to GISW Yellow Agate (Gemologist), as well as a filly selling as Hip 161, the first foal out a half-sister to dual GISW Mind Control (Stay Thirsty). View Bolt d'Oro's full Fasig-Tipton July roster here.

“I look for him to have an absolutely great sales season,” Toothaker said. “Most everyone we run into is very excited about these Bolts. This July sale will be a great start for him. We're very excited to kick off sales season and then head to Saratoga with a great group.”

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