Into Mischief and Mitole Available to Quarter Horses

Spendthrift Farm has partnered with Robicheaux Ranch and will offer the opportunity for Quarter Horse mares to breed with leading Thoroughbred stallion Into Mischief  and recent Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) winner Mitole  for the 2020 breeding season, it was announced Nov. 20.

Quarter Horse mares will be bred via artificial insemination.

Between Spendthrift Farm owner B. Wayne Hughes looking for creative ideas and Ryan Robicheaux, manager of Robicheaux Ranch in Breaux Bridge, La., looking for an outcross, the venture interested both sides of the deal. 

Spendthrift's stallion sales manager, Mark Toothaker, said Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt, who campaigned four-time grade 1 winner Mitole, approached Spendthrift with the idea.

"Mr. Hughes is always wanting us to think outside the box and come up with some different ideas and some things we can do. This thing just kind of came to a life of its own, really, from Bill Heiligbrodt and Corinne," Toothaker said. "They had approached us early on that they had some people in the Quarter Horse business—of course, they have a Quarter Horse background, and (Mitole's trainer) Steve Asmussen does as well. They'd been approached by some folks wanting to know if we would make Mitole available to breed to some Quarter Horse mares, that they had some real high-end Quarter Horse mares that would be interested in breeding to him."

Though the initial conversations were all about Mitole, Into Mischief's name was brought up while the partnership was being worked out.

"He's been a breed-changing stallion in the Thoroughbred world," Toothaker said. "Why couldn't he have tremendous influence on the Quarter Horse world?"

Robicheaux Ranch will handle the frozen semen collected from Into Mischief and Mitole, as well as the contracts for the mares. The collection for artificial insemination will not affect the full book of Thoroughbred mares scheduled for Into Mischief and Mitole in Lexington.

The Jockey Club requires live cover for Thoroughbreds to be registered and does not allow artificial insemination. The American Quarter Horse Association, which allows for artificial insemination, registers Thoroughbred-Quarter Horse crosses with its Appendix Registry. An appendix horse is a cross between a Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred. 

Into Mischief will be offered at a $10,000 fee for Quarter Horse mares, and Mitole will be offered at $4,000. Their Thoroughbred fees for 2020 are $175,000 and $25,000, respectively. It will be Mitole's first year standing stud.

"This is something new. It's never been done before in this type of scale," Toothaker said. "Obviously, they bred Storm Cat to Quarter horse mares. I know that Favorite Trick's had some success on a Quarter Horse deal, but I don't know that it's really been tried the way we're doing it with these two horses."

Two-time leading sire Storm Cat, 1997 Horse of the Year Favorite Trick, and Hennessy, a grade 1-winning son of Storm Cat, have all produced graded stakes-winning appendix horses out of Quarter Horse mares who raced on the Quarter Horse circuit.

Robicheaux noted that Favorite Cartel, a grade 1-winning appendix son of Favorite Trick, is one of the leading sires in the Quarter Horse industry. Favorite Cartel is located at Burns Ranch in Menifee, Calif., and will stand for $12,500 in 2020.

"We're searching and we're dying for that outcross right now to breed to our mares. Right now, you buy a mare in the Quarter Horse industry, you're limited who you can breed it to," Robicheaux said. "They've tried some Thoroughbreds, but we've never had the caliber that Mr. Hughes at Spendthrift is offering to us Quarter Horse people on the price they're offering it to us."

In addition to handling contracts for other Quarter Horse mares, Robicheaux plans to breed some of his own to Spendthrift's stallion.

"I'm excited. It's got a big buzz around the horse industry—Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred—and I'm very fortunate," he said. "I couldn't be more humbled they chose me, and I just want to do a good job. Hopefully, this venture continues for years to come."