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Value Sires, Part V: First Sophomores in 2022

So finally we come to a group of stallions that has at least offered some initial indication of their competence actually to produce a runner. Not that the market tends to enjoy this process! Its nervousness about sires at this stage of their career makes it easy to see why so much investment is instead concentrated in that period of grace when they haven't yet been exposed in such heartless fashion.

Yes, the one or two that are prompt to seize their chance are instantly on their way: their second crop soars at the sales, their fees are hiked, and their next books are oversubscribed. Those that miss out on early headlines, in contrast, find themselves in danger of being discarded almost as hastily. Never mind that some of them could never have been sensibly expected to come up with precocious stock and never mind that a game-changing difference can be made by a single high achiever, wildly distorting an essential parity in underlying ratios. (As such, moreover, it can come down to sheer luck whether or not a particular sire's best prospect happens to get across that highwire of health and soundness.)

In fairness, there's a corollary to the complaint that the monster books herded by so many rookie sires are excessive. Because so long as that remains the case, then actually it's pretty reasonable to reach a few conclusions according to the fortunes of their debut crops. New sires are given so much opportunity that it really can't be very auspicious if they draw a complete blank.

A single juvenile campaign is not enough, obviously, to make judgements of that kind. In the meantime, however, I'm always happy to share the interest of the rest of the community when a stallion appears to make a valid statement with his first runners. It's perfectly coherent to believe, on the one hand, that way too many mares are sent to unproven sires and that those stallions who capitalize are nonetheless legitimately deserving of attention.

And, besides, it's also fitting to celebrate their success simply because it's so very tough, for these farms, to get any young stallion established in such an impatient, neurotic environment.

So hats off to Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) for confounding assumptions about the amount of time his stock might need. In the process, however, he has catapulted his fee to $125,000 from $50,000, and rewarded those who stuck with him after he had opened at $70,000.

The only stallion in this group to have started higher (at $75,000) had been the tragic Arrogate (Unbridled's Song), whose posthumous fortunes show how very differently things can unfold for horses with similar eligibility on paper. Himself a late developer, Arrogate has so far been represented by a pretty timid bunch: no winners before September, and zero black-type. There's no reason at all, of course, why his maturing stock shouldn't still prove worthy of his legacy. In the meantime, however, their contrasting fortunes show how precarious is the quest for value. We have to compromise between those sires that retain our faith even if, like Arrogate, they haven't produced overnight dividends and those that can at least comfort us with some viable momentum, pending any breakthrough.

Cupid (Tapit), for instance, must ride out a bump in his road after plummeting from 223 mares to 53 in his second book. Both figures were equally extreme, but maybe he can continue to eke sufficient credit from his debut crop to make a sustainable revival at what is now a basement fee. Such are the volatilities challenging these stallions. By the same token, the rewards for catching a rising tide now–when many are available at dwindling fees–will be proportionately greater. Here, as subjective as ever, is the choice of one bystander.

Bubbling under: There's a case for arguing that Practical Joke (Into Mischief) remains value even at his new fee of $35,000, up from $22,500. If the “pipeline” counts for anything, he's in business, having actually corralled his biggest book yet at Ashford last spring despite serving 608 mares through his first three seasons. And that was before his first crop put him behind only Gun Runner in the earnings table. The action duly continued at the sales, where his second crop (sold 84 of 92) hit it out of the park at an average $162,472–up from $120,243 with his first crop, a rare distinction.

Strictly on the racetrack, however, he has been matched stride for stride by Connect (Curlin). Each has 24 winners, from virtually the same number of starters (68 and 65), including five black-type performers apiece. Practical Joke has four winners at that level, compared with just two for Connect–but both of those are graded stakes scorers, including Classic prospect Rattle N Roll (GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity). Albeit Connect can't yet match Practical Joke in the sales ring, he has earned a hike to $25,000 from $15,000 at Lane's End.

No denying that Mastery (Candy Ride {Arg}) has yet to find his stride. We thought him attractively priced, starting out, at $25,000–and sure enough, he processed his first yearlings at a handsome $129,421. He has had 11 winners so far, and no black-type, but I remain confident he will come good with maturing stock. In the meantime, Claiborne's extremely generous fee cut, to just $10,000, gives breeders every incentive to keep the faith.

A word, too, for Astern (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro). His exotic profile has evidently defeated some imaginations, at the sales, but he has made a very purposeful start where it counts–as many as five black-type performers, in fact, from his dozen winners to date. If he can build on that, hopefully he will start getting due recognition on $10,000 at Darley.

Bronze: CLASSIC EMPIRE (Pioneerof The Nile—Sambuca Classica by Cat Thief), $17,500, Ashford

Perhaps this wouldn't be the most obvious of the four Coolmore sires in the top seven of the freshman's table. His fee has halved since starting out, and he mustered not even half the fourth book of Practical Joke. But he has actually made a pretty solid start out on the track and, with a pedigree that entitles his stock to keep developing, this might be an opportune moment to take a roll of the dice.

His first crop, standing fourth by earnings, has matched Practical Joke and Connect with five black-type performers (including a GII Adirondack S. runner-up), only from fewer runners. His 19 winners from 57 starters meanwhile represents a similar base ratio, leaving Classic Empire deficient only in the kind of headline acts that so often make or break a young stallion's career. But he might well have found one of those in Rocket Dawg, who started repaying his $375,000 yearling tag when impressing on debut for Brad Cox at Churchill last month. A couple of days later the $550,000 2-year-old, Classy Edition, extended her unbeaten start for Todd Pletcher with a second stakes win.

Those were just a couple of late-season straws in the wind. Having excelled both in the ring and on the track, however, they represent a sample of the kind of stock that could quickly turn round the four consecutive fee cuts suffered by their sire.

Over the years, the yearling market has acclaimed eventual duds as routinely as it has underrated sires of real potency. And if Classic Empire has so far achieved only a modest commercial yield, then his sliding fee has at least maintained sufficient traffic (321 mares across the last three seasons) to keep him in the game as he starts to draw out some exemplary old-school flavors in his pedigree.

Remember how Classic Empire unseated his rider leaving the gate in the GI Hopeful S.? The opening was gratefully seized by his future studmate Practical Joke, but it was Classic Empire who regrouped to be champ. Maybe he could yet do something similar now.

Silver: UNIFIED (Candy Ride {Arg}–Union City by Dixie Union), $10,000, Lane's End

The other steps on the podium go to a couple that could heat up a slightly tepid commercial reception for their yearlings, now that they are beginning to offer a more meaningful gauge of their ability to recycle their excellence. Unified, in contrast, has achieved an absolutely unmissable momentum at auction.

Sure, his first crop has performed with ample credit on the track. His 15 winners from 41 starters include three who scored at black-type level. These include two-for-two Behave Virginia, winner of the Debutante S. at Churchill, and three-for-three Unified Result, a $33,000 yearling who has bossed the Louisiana-bred scene.

And that was consistent with the dash Unified had shown in his own career, despite never making the track himself at two. He landed running with a 99 Beyer, clocked 1:47.14 in the GII Peter Pan, and missed the GI Carter H. by just a neck. And he has the physique and pedigree for his first sophomores to stretch that speed, too.

But the really staggering advance made by Unified since this time last year is the performance of his second crop at the yearling sales. He sold 39 out of 40 into the ring, an unbelievable ratio, for an average $66,846–dizzily multiplying a fee that has, unusually enough, remained constant throughout. Remember that stallions are typically flattered by sales statistics, in that their averages “reward” them for failing to sell their least attractive stock. (Sure, you also have to factor in the occasional ambitious reserve for better models–but the principle stands.) Remember also that almost all stallions absorb considerable erosion in yearling values between their first and second crops, yet Unified elevated his by almost exactly half from $43,390.

In the meantime, he had already turned round the slide so familiar in a young stallion's books. After shrinking from 152 mares in his debut year (basically oversubscribed, by the commendably restrained standards of this farm) to 102 and then 68, he was right back up to 144 last spring.

It's extremely unusual for a stallion at this stage of his career to be accelerating like this, without the kind of racetrack breakout we've seen from Gun Runner. All this buzz about Unified can hardly be attributed to ninth in the freshman's championship, and zero graded stakes action to date. People are plainly loving what they are seeing, in flesh and blood. If his first crop can build on a promising start, then, and his second can run anything like they must look, this fee will be one of many things left in the rear-view mirror.

Gold: GORMLEY (Malibu Moon–Race to Urga by Bernstein), $7,500, Spendthrift

Pretty unusual for a commercial farm like this actually to increase the fee of a freshman lurking only 10th in the earnings table. But there are general and specific reasons to think that Gormley represents a value play right now.

He was, of course, among 15 of 21 stallions on this roster to receive business-like cuts this time last year. If that has residually given Spendthrift a consistent presence in this series, so be it.

But let's not pretend that cutting Gormley again to $5,000 (from $7,500; opened at $10,000) was purely a Covid concession. He had processed the yearlings from a hefty debut book of 180 at a disappointing yield–a median of only $20,000 was pretty disastrous against their conception fee–and traffic had begun to erode, albeit a total 199 covers across years two and three keeps him amply in the game.

There has been a definite turn in the tide since. True, Gormley again rather struggled for traction at the yearling sales, but pinhookers should have remembered some of the punches he landed in the 2-year-old market (where his maturing stock doubled their yearling average). But his fourth book rallied to 158 mares, significantly bucking the trend. That will really help him to consolidate, should his opening crops start to outrun their yearling profile out on the track. And that is exactly what I think could happen, judging from the fact that only class leader Gun Runner and Caravaggio (Scat Daddy), who has bombarded the hectic European juvenile sprint program with no fewer than 78 starters, can beat Gormley with a fourth graded/group performer.

Gormley's trio include GII Saratoga Special romper High Oak, who disappeared (reportedly with injury) after what felt like a disappointing fourth in the GI Hopeful S. and is evidently still considered a Derby prospect. The others finished runner-up in the GIII Sanford S. (this was the $550,000 juvenile, Headline Report, the top colt by a freshman at OBS March) and GIII Pocahontas S. respectively.

In other words, his first wave was featuring prominently in the kind of races that start shaking down the leading summer juveniles. And it's not just the fact that Gormley himself added the GI Santa Anita Derby to a juvenile Grade I success that encourages one to think that his 20 winners to date, from 57 starters, will keep progressing.

Because if the turf elements in Gormley's pedigree contributed to commercial wariness, then their sheer class is going to shine through his stock with maturity and, in some cases, maybe distance too. His family is inlaid with both toughness and flair, ideal to carry speed through the kind of races we all covet most.

In fact, I'm not sure too many in this group are more eligible to sire a Classic type. Okay, Gun Runner. But you can now get 17 Gormleys for the price of one of those. Admittedly Malibu Moon left one critical gap in his legacy, thanks to a preponderance of females and geldings among his best performers. Here, in the nick of time, could yet be the heir he deserved.

The post Value Sires, Part V: First Sophomores in 2022 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Value Sires, Part IV: First Juveniles in ’22

Though the first three installments of this series have featured the stallions with most to prove, we know that they will collectively be dominating commercial traffic in the new covering season. But today we come to the group that has just completed that first, critical market cycle–and finally stands on the brink of testing their stock where it really counts.

Or should count, anyway. The sad reality is that they have already exhausted their usefulness to a lot of breeders, many of whom will meanwhile have ridden the carousel through two subsequent intakes of rookies and will now be sizing up a third.

Even the rest of us, as a result, face a challenge in seeking that delicate value equilibrium between market energy, which will keep that famous “pipeline” loaded, and keeping the faith with those we think will come good on the racetrack. The second part of the equation demands particular perseverance, of course, when it comes to those whose stock may require a second turn and maturity to approach their full potential. By the same token, as such types almost inevitably tend to lose numerical support, so they offer the potential of increased reward for those that do hang in there. By the time the yearlings conceived next spring come to market, this group will have sent a second sophomore crop into the fray. If those first couple of crops come good, then there's potential for demand greatly to exceed supply.

Needless to say, that's not a gamble too many commercial breeders are inclined to make, when it can be so much easier to make a fast buck from sires whose ability to recycle their excellence on the racetrack remains more or less completely unknown. It's not as though we ever learn as much as we might think from the market's reception of first weanlings and yearlings. In most years, averages tend to replicate pretty scrupulously the rankings implied by fees, with only marginal deviations indicating one or two whose stock has either disappointed or surpassed expectations.

This lot, however, have experienced a little more volatility. The averages achieved by first yearlings in 2021 disclose a couple of pretty blatant disasters, as well as a couple of equally conspicuous outliers in a positive direction–one of which duly retains a place on the value podium.
As with the previous intake, several of these were given fee cuts last year by farms making a really substantial gesture to breeders facing the uncertainties of the pandemic economy.

Given that these sires have meanwhile reached a notoriously vulnerable moment in their careers, some have been trimmed again; while others who have performed very well in the sales ring remain pegged at a rate that has come to seem pretty indulgent with the market having rallied so powerfully since. In other words, there should be plenty of value around.

One young stallion, admittedly, has proved such a smash at the sales that–most unusually, for one at this tricky crossroads–access will cost 50% more than last spring ahead of the launch of his first juveniles. City of Light, now up to $60,000, sold 67 of 75 for a spectacular average of $337,698. We'll have to see whether he can keep up that kind of momentum as these animals proceed to the track, not having been the most precocious himself, but he basically hasn't stopped glittering between his first career and the start of his second.

City of Light is a compliment to one of those farms that believes its clients' interests best served by restrained book sizes. In fairness, however, both Justify and Mendelssohn showed that the more industrial model can also function at ringside. It did feel almost shocking that both should have covered as many as 252 mares in their debut seasons, but each achieved the necessary dividends at the sales. Indeed, value being a relative concept, you could even make a case for Justify to be on the podium now that he has had consecutive cuts from $150,000 to $125,000 and now $100,000.

But those who can afford to operate at that kind of level can clearly make those judgements for themselves! So here, as subjectively as ever, are our suggestions for three more accessible steps of the pyramid. Once again, no apologies for fidelity to stallions we've liked all along. Though too much of this business operates as though their work is already done, they actually haven't even started yet–and they certainly haven't done anything to warrant desertion.

Bubbling under: For a stallion who has apparently been tough to handle at times, Bolt d'Oro is certainly getting with the program where it counts: he got the big numbers through that revolving door at Spendthrift, with 214 mares in his debut book at $25,000, and his $155,097 average edged out two $35,000 start-ups in Mendelssohn and Good Magic. Having participated in his farm's big gesture last year when slashed to $15,000, he is actually restored to $20,000 this time around–but is plainly entitled to make that fee work if he gets juveniles as accomplished as he was himself.

At the same farm, Cloud Computing processed his first crop at a brisk rate (53 sold of 60 at $45,783) and we've spoken previously in this series of trying to catch a rising tide with his sire Maclean's Music. A feasible roll of the dice at $5,000.

Bronze: ARMY MULE (Friesan Fire–Crafty Toast by Crafty Prospector)
$7,500 Hill 'n' Dale

Okay, so sire and damsire together hardly represent an obvious commercial formula, while his career was confined to four minutes. But there's no denying that this was a pretty wild talent. He won each of his three starts, by an aggregate 22 lengths, smashing the GI Carter H. on his stakes debut by half a dozen lengths in 1:20.94.

What would the market make of this meteor? Well, his opening book of 140 slumped to 47 next time round and he was trimmed from $10,000 to $7,500. Maybe those who responded, with 83 covers last spring, had noticed his weanlings had shown something of the physical majesty that underpinned his bullet time as a $825,000 F-T Midlantic sale-topping juvenile.

With that profile, he always seemed an obvious pinhooking medium and doubtless that helped to drive a stunning debut at the yearling sales. With a colt and filly both hitting $400,000, he shifted 63 of 76 at $91,809–nine times their conception fee!

One way or another, the genes were certainly functioning in this freak: remember that his sire has an aristocratic pedigree, while his first three dams respectively scored at stakes, Grade III and Grade II level. John Sikura is building something special on a far narrower foundation, in Maclean's Music, and I suspect that those who get aboard with Army Mule now will already find themselves ahead of the curve at the 2-year-old sales–never mind once the freshmen's championship begins to take shape.

Silver: MO TOWN (Uncle Mo–Grazie Mille by Bernardini)
$7,500 Ashford

Now here's a guy whose every trajectory is climbing sharply–with the solitary exception of his fee, which is 40% down on his opening $12,500. Time, in other words, for breeders to catch a rising tide.

Having stayed in training at four, only to disappear after a single start in the spring, he was rather a forgotten horse when assembling a debut book of 144. In 2020, down to $10,000, he received 108 partners. Last spring, however, came a transformation: encouraged by Uncle Mo's flying start as a sire of sires, no fewer than 204 mares profited from another reduction in his fee (partly, of course, a Covid concession). So whatever Mo Town can do with his first couple of crops, he is going to be far better placed than most to consolidate.

In the meantime, moreover, Mo Town has made a fine debut at the yearling sales, processing 70 of 78 at an average $60,250. And his stock is entitled to land running, Mo Town having won the GII Remsen S. at two. Though he had to regroup the following year, he eventually did so with a dashing turn of foot to land his Grade I on turf (his half-sister by War Front was runner-up in an Irish Classic).

And, actually, let's just forget Uncle Mo for a minute. For the bottom half of this horse's pedigree has been beautifully seeded, with his first five dams by Bernardini, Carson City, Danzig, Sir Ivor and Native Dancer, the fifth being a full sister to Raise A Native. (As such, the purchase of the Grade I-placed granddam as a bargain weanling showed a typically alert Gunther touch, her sire Carson City being a grandson of Raise A Native.)

But nobody, of course, is going to forget Uncle Mo for terribly long. His stratospheric pricing will surely direct the farm's less affluent clients towards an alternative so eligible to emulate those already making Uncle Mo well named as a young sire of sires. Momentum is exactly what Mo Town has now, at a stage in his career when most rivals are nervously treading water.

Gold: ACCELERATE (Lookin At Lucky–Issues by Awesome Again)
$15,000 Lane's End

A horse like this was never going to cause a commercial stampede. Even so, he was priced with nearly brutal realism, at just $20,000. That told us much that was wrong with our business, as this was a model racehorse whose soundness and attitude underpinned a $6.7 million career of inexorable improvement, crowned by what would have been a Horse of the Year campaign but for the claims of a historic Triple Crown winner (five Grade Is interrupted only by a neck defeat at nine furlongs by the dasher City Of Light). But the strategy paid off with an opening book of 167, really pushing the boundaries by the laudably conservative standards of this farm. He has been ticking over nicely enough over the two seasons since, too, with another 213 mares; and processed his first yearlings at a perfectly respectable rate, rehousing 70 of 88 at $72,831.

Even from such a terribly low base, Accelerate has been consecutively eased to $17,500 and now $15,000. He's an unbelievable amount of horse for that kind of money. We know that his own sire remains scandalously under-rated, but turn that round and ask yourself what kind of physique he must be recycling to raise $380,000 as a yearling from one of the best judges in the game.

That's all packaged with brothers placed at Grade I and Grade III level, their dam a stakes-placed half-sister to a Grade I winner; he's also inbred to Broodmare of the Year Smartaire. Not a chink in his armor, then, and you'll be sorry to have turned down this insulting fee when foals bred at much higher cost start being crushed by his stock.

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Values Sires for 2022, Part 3: First Yearlings

With the global economy tottering in the Covid headwind, last year a lot of stallion farms went out of their way to help breeders with fee cuts. As a result, as I've previously suggested, the market's remarkable rally since means that the present trading environment represents a pretty historic opportunity. And that particularly applies to the next group in our series, as the first to have absorbed those cuts. (Even last year, it felt as though the rookies had been priced with the usual and necessary opportunism.) Especially because one or two of these, from that lowered base, have now received an extra trim of the kind customarily offered, in plainer times, for stallions beginning to lose the priceless commercial advantage of novelty.

His third book is always an early crossroads in a stallion's career. While the second might at least start to reflect the physical impression made by first foals, the third will be responding to some concrete evidence of their reception in the ring. If things have not gone well, in that initial test, then some breeders will tend to back off and wait until stock has been measured more rigorously on the racetrack.

Obviously there's no guarantee that the guy who tops the weanling averages will retain his primacy when finally reaching that stage, and vice versa. But it's no less clear that a depressing number of people will by then have disappeared over the horizon, the job done, meanwhile engaged on the next cycle of sires that remain spared the inconvenience of exposing their ability (or otherwise) actually to come up with runners.

As things stand, then, we must pick a precarious path between trying to harness the undeniable energies of the market-commercial esteem, after all, will hold up book sizes and so fill “the pipeline”–and keeping the faith with those that you think deserve a chance to reward it, once their stock finally gets somewhere near a starting gate. As such, each having come through his first market test in decent shape, we make no apologies for sticking by three stallions we've liked from the get-go.

With this particular intake, most roads have led to Spendthrift. In the first instance, that was simply because so many of its most coveted prospects were herded up there. Even with their reliably competitive pricing strategy, the late B. Wayne Hughes and his team launched the first, second and joint-third most expensive rookies in 2020. That felt like a pretty significant moment in the evolution of the aggressive commercial model that had revolutionised competition for mares in the Bluegrass.

But then, last year, you also had to factor in the characteristic lead taken by Hughes in cutting fees so purposefully. Rival farms will duly have to pardon Spendthrift's central role in the value conversation, at least for this instalment of our series, even though our top pick a) wasn't one of their headline recruits when starting out and b) was already priced too attractively to be one of the 15 of 21 stallions on the farm roster to take a cut last year.

As ever, however, these choices reflect just one person's highly subjective opinions. Different stallions fit different mares; different fees fit different pockets. But what I would say is that it's a good time to stick with any of this group that you do like, as you'll be taking the foals to market after they have actually started to show their wares on the track. That introduces a degree of volatility, and tends to drive nervous breeders elsewhere. But the odds for those who do get it right will certainly be rewarding.

Bubbling under: The $360,000 Audible filly that topped the fifth session at Keeneland November was the most expensive weanling sold by those taking their bow at the sales, but the WinStar stallion's $110,000 median was also outstanding. He was a pathfinder for his sire in stretching out for a Derby podium and, as a classier type, also leads a fresh wave in Into Mischief's career as a sire of sires. He covered over 400 mares in his first two seasons and duly holds his fee at $22,500. He has all the momentum he needs, but he's just competing with another son of Into Mischief who simply can't be dislodged from the podium at a much cheaper service.

Mitole was one of those that took a really businesslike cut at Spendthrift last year, slashed to $15,000 from $25,000. Having followed up his staggering debut book of 230 with one of 208, there will be a lot of people out there gratified that his pedigree has meanwhile received such a lift from the stellar sophomore endeavors of half-brother Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow). That might feel especially useful for a son of the exported Eskendereya, but don't forget that Mitole was his second GI Met Mile winner in three crops. His first weanlings having performed in line with his opening fee, fourth in the averages, this brilliant racehorse finds himself precisely where the program would hope to have placed him at this stage.

Bronze: PRESERVATIONIST (Arch-Flying Dixie by Dixieland Band) Airdrie, $10,000

This guy was always going to require a little patience, so it's no surprise that he couldn't repeat his opening three-figure book. But we can't just allow block-booking of the podium for stallions that churn through industrial numbers, in the idle hope that they will keep jumping through the market hoops until you discover, too late, that they don't sire runners!

A runner is exactly what you are entitled to expect from Preservationist, and I remain adamant that those who keep the faith will ultimately get their due reward. He offers everything we should be looking for in a young sire: a superb physical ($485,000 yearling, when Arch was a $30,000 cover); a pedigree without a single loose rivet, with sire and dam both tracing to King Ranch matriarchs; and elite performance, for instance in thrashing Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) by 4 1/2 lengths in the GII Suburban. (The runner-up went to market at more than twice the fee.)

A lack of precocity is perceived by some as the cardinal sin, but Preservationist's weanlings actually performed perfectly respectably (averaging just under $40,000) and he will run down those commercial hares in the end.

Silver: OMAHA BEACH (War Front-Charming by Seeking The Gold), Spendthrift, $30,000

The loss of Spendthrift's owner this summer has given the poignant look of a parting gift to the characteristically decisive lead he took on fees this time last year. Now the team continuing his work has given Omaha Beach another trim, from $35,000 to $30,000, even though he had appeared sportingly priced (notwithstanding his status as the most expensive of the intake) when starting out at $45,000.

This latest gesture to breeders is one that the horse hardly appeared to need. Last spring he precisely replicated his opening book, at 215 mares, and then did the necessary in his debut at the weanling sales, topping the averages at $142,692.

Bottom line, then, is that Omaha Beach has been given every possible chance to this point. And he really is abundantly equipped to seize it. Winning Grade Is at six and nine furlongs in the same campaign was as compelling a signpost as we could hope to find, nowadays, for the speed-carrying elixir we crave in stallions. As such, he must be counted a vital ambassador on the main track for a son of Danzig whose influence has proved so international.

It's not hard to figure out where he has found the genes to do that. He's a half-brother to champion Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causeway) out of a half-sister to two other Grade I winners in Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) and Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy), their dam Take Charge Lady (Dehere) herself a multiple elite scorer. He also doubles up War Front's damsire Rubiano behind his third dam. We know how Rubiano's half-sister gave us a monster dirt influence in Tapit, while the other three sires seeding the bottom half of Omaha Beach's third generation are Raise A Native, Buckpasser and Deputy Minister.

Omaha Beach looked pretty good value at his opening fee, as the market has immediately confirmed. He looked great value, last year, at $35,000. So what can we call him at $30,000? Even those who can afford to play at this level of the market appreciate that kind of saving. In relative terms, then, this is a very generous fee.

Gold: MAXIMUS MISCHIEF (Into Mischief-Reina Maria by Songandaprayer), Spendthrift, $7,500

We couldn't really offer a greater contrast to Preservationist than this blatant commercial formula. But from the outset Maximus Mischief had the look of a horse that could bring back memories for those clients of the farm who got his sire started, and everything has so far been functioning like clockwork. In this day and age, in fact, I find it mildly surprising that he could muster “only” 171 mares last spring after receiving 198 in his debut book.

His first weanlings sold every bit as briskly as one would hope, 26 of 31 finding a new home for an average $42,153–approaching six times his covering fee. With his record of precocity, Maximus Mischief looks tailormade for pinhookers and his yearlings will surely be high on the list for a winter in Florida. (Remember he was himself a $340,000 2-year-old at Timonium.)

Having disappeared after his first defeat, on his sophomore debut, Maximus Mischief went to market with a seamless juvenile record, beaten to a single call in three starts while opening up by an aggregate 17 lengths, the visuals underpinned by the fastest Beyer of the crop. We're familiar with Into Mischief upgrading his early mares, not least in producing some of his first sons to stud, so it counts for plenty that this guy's second dam also produced the tragic juvenile Grade I winner Secret Compass (Discreet Cat) from only three foals.

It's the easiest thing in the world to picture all this translating into a run at the 2023 freshman championship. If that happens, not only will this fee soon recede in the rear-view mirror: it will be those who stay aboard now who reap the benefits at ringside.

There really is a limit to how many horses like this, flaring brightly but briefly, we want to see shaping the breed. But if the purpose of this exercise is to identify value, then the modest stakes–and the potential odds of reward–are just too tempting to resist.

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Medal Count Pensioned From Stud Duty, Offered For Adoption At New Vocations

The 10-year-old Medal Count has been pensioned from stud duty and now appears on the website of Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance-accredited rehoming group New Vocations. The now-gelded son of Dynaformer earned just shy of half a million dollars on the racetrack, and was retired to stand at Spendthrift Farm in 2016. He has stood the past two seasons in Ohio at Mapleton Thoroughbred Farm.

Medal Count's oldest foals are 4-year-olds of 2021. His leading earner is the Arkansas-bred filly Hissy Missy, a winner in two of her 13 career starts for earnings of $175,532.

His advertisement on the New Vocations website reads: “Of a gold standard indeed, Medal Count is ready for his next career in his forever home! This well-traveled gelding earned nearly half a million dollars during his successful racing career, which included a Grade 3 stakes win and finishing in the money in several Grade 1 and Grade 2 stakes, including the Belmont Stakes (G1)! He stood at stud for several years before being gelded and entering our program to start his third career.

“One of Medal Count's first transitions in our program was figuring out turnout with a buddy! He's done well with this task and goes out during the day with our resident babysitter, Ranger. He loves to stretch his legs and enjoys some snacking, but he's overall quite relaxed and content outside.

“Around the barn, you can often find Medal Count sticking his head out of his stall, taking in all the action, or resting quietly. He can be shy and aloof at first, but he is happy to get one-on-one time when he gets individualized attention. Medal Count has spent some time getting used to new environments and building his confidence with us; he can be a bit of a cowardly lion at times!

“Under saddle, Medal Count is a bit nervous as he is figuring out his new job in the ring. We see loads of potential in him (check out his free lunge video!), but he is just working on relaxing under saddle at the moment. He will do best with an advanced rider who is confident and can guide Medal Count through the process as he learns to relax and get back into shape with his next career.”

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