by George Adams, Housatonic Bloodstock
Wasabi has been focused on upgrading the quality of the foals that it's breeding over the last few years, and to that end will be using some higher-end stallions in 2024 than what we've bred to in the past.
A stallion that we'll be patronizing heavily this year is Maclean's Music. He's about to jump from a crop of 2023 2-year-olds numbering 41 and conceived off of a $20,000 stud fee (out of which he already has nine winners, three of whom have also picked up black-type), to a crop of 2024 2-year-olds numbering around 182 and conceived off of a $25,000 stud fee, which will be followed by two more triple-digit crops conceived off of $50,000 stud fees.
His 2024 2-year-olds include 113 that sold at yearling sales this year for an average of $118,636 (up over last year's average of $100,857 for 21 sold), including individuals that brought $625k, $500k, $460k, $400k, $350k, $310k, $300k (x4), etc. Purchasers of Maclean's Music yearlings in 2023 include the likes of the “Avengers” group, Stonestreet, Klaravich, WinStar, Rigney Racing, Cherie DeVaux's Belladonna group and Mike Ryan.
Wasabi will be sending four young mares to Maclean's Music, including their first stakes winner Why Not Tonight (as a daughter of Tapiture, her foal will be bred on one of Maclean's Music's most successful crosses, that with A.P. Indy-line mares), as well as Floral Hall (half to three black-type winners, one of which is the granddam of '23 GISW Wet Paint) and American Thriller (by American Pharoah from a deep Michael Tabor family), who are both Unbridled-line mares, and the Juddmonte-bred Kitten's Joy filly Paw Prints.
A year ago, Wasabi purchased a Gun Runner filly named Gun Slingin with the hopes that her full-brother Disarm could make some noise on the Triple Crown trail this year. After a solid fourth in the Kentucky Derby, he won the GIII Matt Winn S. and finished second in the GI Travers S., and will hopefully make plenty of noise in 2024 when Gun Slingin will visit Authentic. He's another that had a great sales year in 2023, with an excellent average and individuals purchased by some of the top connections in the industry, and we'll be shocked if he's not at the top of the Freshman Sire List at this time next year. He's a gorgeous individual who will suit her physically, and he was a heck of a racehorse by the best stallion in the country. There's really nothing not to like about him.
One of the incoming stallions of 2024 that we were very impressed by–both as an individual and his race record– was Gunite, and Wasabi will be sending their newly acquired Justify filly Itgetsgreaterlater to him after she delivers a Practical Joke foal this January.
We also believe very strongly in the chances of Up to the Mark to become an important stallion. Despite his success as a turf horse, Up to the Mark has an undeniably dirt pedigree, being a son of leading sire Not This Time out of a mare by leading sire Ghostzapper, who is herself a full-sister to a dirt sprint stakes winner, the pair of them, in turn, out of the wickedly fast GI Test S. winner Capote Belle. Given that he himself was a winner at six furlongs on dirt at Saratoga in his debut before eventually scoring top-level wins on turf at eight furlongs, nine furlongs and 10 furlongs, plus an excellent placing against the highest company at 12 furlongs, Up to the Mark possessed a dazzling amount of versatility in addition to his obvious quality and turn of foot. We think he has every shot to make it, and the package he brings to stud makes him strong value at his first-year $25,000 fee.
Wasabi will be sending four mares to Up to the Mark, including a pair of well-bred maiden mares in Calling All Angels (Ire) (a Dark Angel half to a Group 2 winner by Lope de Vega) and Saucily (a Curlin filly bred by Stonestreet from the family of Uncaptured and Interstatedaydream), as well as the Juddmonte-bred Tapit filly Prosperity (a half to Fulsome) and the Godolphin-bred Desert Rendezvous (a half to GISW Better Lucky and to the dam of Grade III winner Prevalence).
Other stallions that will see multiple Wasabi mares in 2024 include Nashville, who should have a great shot to make it as a wickedly fast and gorgeous son of the sire-of-sires Speightstown, and the promising young Maryland sire Blofeld, who continues to put up excellent statistics from small crops of modest mares in a state-bred program that is solid, but without the hugely inflated purses of some of the neighboring states.
Editor's note: As breeding season approaches, the TDN is asking breeders where they are sending their mares in 2024. To participate in the series, email suefinley@thetdn.com or katiepetrunyak@thetdn.com.
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