Leading North American Sires by Grade 1 Mares Bred
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Photo: Mathea Kelley
Ashford Stud's Justify bred 41 grade 1-winning mares, the largest number bred by a North American stallion in 2019
Every stallion manager faces the same challenge annually of attracting the greatest percentage of high quality mares possible. Quality is defined by black type, whether the mare was a stakes winner on track or she has produced a black-type performer.
At the highest end of the quality spectrum are the grade 1 winners and grade 1 producers, an elite group of 649 mares during the 2019 breeding season. They represent 2.1% of the 30,274 mares reported bred in North America to The Jockey Club as of Oct. 16.
This year, with the number of active stallions dropping 6.6%, a slightly higher percentage of stallions were able to add a grade 1 winner and/or grade 1 producer to their books. In 2018, the percentage of stallions bred to at least one grade 1 winner and/or grade 1 producer was 10% of all active North American stallions. This year that percentage eked upward to 11%, which represents 125 stallions.
Twenty stallions bred four or more mares that were grade 1 winners. This group of mares represented 74% of the 293 grade 1 winners that were active mares in 2019, and they were far from evenly distributed across the 20 sires.
Ashford Stud's entering-year sire Justify , the 2018 American Triple Crown winner, attracted 41 grade 1-winning mares, the largest number bred by a North American stallion. The next-highest sires by this category were Lane's End's Quality Road and Hill 'n' Dale Farms' Curlin , who each bred 18.
Among these grade 1-winning mares, 17 had already produced a top-level winner. The 20 stallions that bred the bulk of the grade 1 winners also bred 15 of 17 grade 1-winning/-producing mares. Justify bred the largest number of top-level winners/producers at four.
Only nine other sires were visited by at least one elite mare such as these—Ashford's Uncle Mo (three); Curlin, Darley's Medaglia d'Oro , and Gainesway's Tapit with two each; and with one apiece, Spendthrift Farm's Bolt d'Oro , Three Chimneys Farm's Gun Runner , Ashford's Mendelssohn , and WinStar Farm's Tiznow .
This article was originally published in the Nov. 16 edition of BloodHorse magazine.