Into Mischief Sets North American Record by Winners

Spendthrift Farm's marquee sire, Into Mischief , continues building on a remarkable year that has already elevated him to the top of the North American sires standings by progeny earnings. 

A big driver behind the 14-year-old son of Harlan's Holiday's rise to the summit has been his extraordinarily high number of winners. His success by this metric pushed him past a new milestone Nov. 9 when his 2-year-old son Authentic won his debut by 1 1/2 lengths in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight at Del Mar. The victory made Into Mischief the first North American sire to achieve 200 winners in a single year.

As of Nov. 15, 54.5% of Into Mischief's 369 starters in 2019 have become winners. For his lifetime statistics so far, 75% of his 805 foals of racing age have started in a race. Of those foals, 54% (436) are winners. 

"Into Mischief is a well-made and especially good-minded horse, and his progeny are very workmanlike in their approach to training," Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey told BloodHorse in August when the sire rose to the top of the standings. "They like what they do, and on top of that, they have tremendous ability. So even though he has larger crops, he continues to get a high percentage that are mentally and physically sound. On top of that, he gets high-quality runners."

It's appropriate Into Mischief's single-season record by winners was achieved with a 2-year-old, because the sire is also North America's leading sire of juveniles by earnings and number of winners. Thirty-two of the sire's 84 runners as of Nov. 15 have become winners. He leads BloodHorse.com's standings for leading sires of 2-year-olds, with $2,504,808 in purses year to date, which account for 15% of his total progeny earnings from all runners. 

Authentic was bred in Kentucky by Peter Blum Thoroughbreds out of the Mr. Greeley mare Flawless, who has now produced three winners from as many foals to race.

Blum, through Bridie Harrison, sold Authentic for $350,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale to SF Bloodstock and Starlight West. The colt is trained by Bob Baffert and races for SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Fred Hertrich III, John Fielding, and Golconda Stables. 

Into Mischief didn't waste much time adding to his winners count, picking up the 201st at Churchill Downs Nov. 14 with Taraz, another first-time starter. The Juddmonte Farms homebred won the 6 1/2-furlong maiden special weight by 7 1/2 lengths. The filly is trained by Brad Cox.

Twenty-two other Northern Hemisphere sires have been represented by more than 200 winners in a single season, and all of them stood or stand in Japan. Sunday Silence, the late dual American classic winner and 13-time leading sire in Japan, holds the Northern Hemisphere record with 277 winners in 2004. The son of Halo also had the highest number of single-season winners in 2001 (207), 2003 (251), and 2005 (258). King Kamehameha, a son of Kingmambo, has the second-highest number of single-season winners with 268 in 2015.