American Pharoah's First Crop One for the Books

It's little surprise American Pharoah  wound up being the leading first-crop sire of 2019. The 2015 Triple Crown winner had a super book of mares, and his yearlings looked the part, selling for an average of $421,940 in 2018.

However, you can never know for sure until they actually break from the gate.

American Pharoah, who stands at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky., had $2,703,916 in progeny earnings for the year. He had four black-type winners, including Four Wheel Drive in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2T), 27 winners (tied with Constitution  and Tapiture  for the most of first-crop sires), and five winners from seven starters in Japan.

Because American Pharoah was the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, it is interesting to revisit the three Triple Crown winners from racing's "Golden Age"— Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), and Affirmed (1978)—to see how the son of Pioneerof the Nile stacks up.

The weight of the world was on the runners from the first crop of Secretariat, the first Triple Crown winner since 1948.

"Big Red" didn't get off to the best start, ranking ninth among first-crop sires of 1977. He had only three winners from 12 starters and one stakes winner: English-raced Dactylographer. Secretariat's first U.S. winner arrived Dec. 21, 1977, when Powhatan Stable's Sacrebleu won first time out at Laurel Park.

The leading freshman sire of that group was Roberto, who was followed by King's Bishop and Explodent. In Secretariat's defense, he was the leading sire of 2-year-olds with his second crop in 1978 when Terlingua earned $271,596 while winning the Hollywood Lassie Stakes (G2), Hollywood Juvenile Championship Stakes (G2), and Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G2) and placing in the Frizette Stakes (G1). As the dam of the breed-shaping sire Storm Cat, Terlingua gained greater fame as a broodmare.

Seattle Slew delivered first time out and was the leading first-crop sire of 1982, headed by champion 2-year-old filly Landaluce. Seattle Slew's first crop earned $688,572, far outpacing Great Above's $389,927. Slew ranked third on the juvenile list behind Olden Times and Tri Jet.

Slew's first crop grew stronger with age, producing five stakes winners from 30 named foals (16.7%). In that bunch was champion 3-year-old male and champion older horse Slew o' Gold as well as grade 1 winner Adored. Dual classic winner Swale arrived in his second crop.

Affirmed's first crop produced only four wins as juveniles of 1983, earning $33,409, and he failed to crack the top 10 by progeny earnings. Though Affirmed won the head-to-head battle with Alydar on the track, his rival got the better of him in the breeding shed. Alydar was the first-crop leader and the leading sire of 2-year-olds that season with $1,137,907 in earnings, led by Althea and multiple grade 1 winner Miss Oceana. The total was nearly double that of runner-up Cox's Ridge, whose first crop earned $602,305.

Affirmed's runners proved more successful later as the crop eventually produced four stakes winners from 27 named foals (14.8%) and included Irish champion Easy to Copy and group 2 winner Claude Monet.

While today's larger books make comparisons to the stars of the '70s a non-starter, earnings are earnings. With American Pharoah's first-crop sire title by progeny earnings, he's proved to be Triple Crown-worthy and appears to have plenty of upside as his crop develops at 3 in 2020.

A full report on American Pharoah's first crop will appear in the Jan. 11 print edition of BloodHorse.