Promising Second-Crop Sires Everywhere You Look

It's taken Gainesway Farm's three-time leading sire Tapit  a good while to establish himself as a sire of sires, but it's all happening now with four sons among the top 16 North American second-crop sires by cumulative earnings.

Two, WinStar's Constitution  and Lane's End's Tonalist , actually rank 1-2 by 2020 progeny earnings, according to BloodHorse statistics through racing of March 7. Darby Dan's Tapiture  and Spendthrift Farm's Race Day  also figure among the top 16.

Constitution, who ranks second to Ashford Stud's 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah , is one of four second-crop North American sires to have two or more graded stakes winners, plus at least one grade 1 horse. American Pharoah has six black-type winners to Constitution's five, but all five by Constitution are graded stakes winners, whereas 'Pharoah' has three. He leads Constitution, 15 to 12, by number of black-type horses, and they are tied by number of graded stakes horses with nine each.

No other member of this sire class has more than three as yet. Constitution is one of three second-crop sires with at least one grade 1 winner, his being 2019 Champagne Stakes (G1) winner Tiz the Law, the winner this year of the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) and current co-favorite for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).

The other second-crop sires with grade 1 winners are: Three Chimneys' Palace Malice , who ranks third in the sire crop by cumulative progeny earnings and is sire of 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) winner Structor and 2020 grade 2 winner Mr. Monomoy, and Lane's End's Liam's Map , who is fifth by cumulative progeny earnings and one of a rare group of sires to have two grade 1 winners—Basin in the Hopeful and Wicked Whisper in the Frizette—in his first crop of 2-year-olds. Group leader American Pharoah does not yet have a grade 1 winner, but he does have three who are grade 1-placed.

Five other second-crop sires have sired graded stakes winners. Two of them, Lane's End's Honor Code  and WinStar's Commissioner , are sons of A.P. Indy, and a third, Lane's End's Tonalist, is by A.P. Indy's grandson Tapit.

Honor Code is the sire of Withers Stakes (G3) winner Max Player as well as Honor A. P., who finished second to Authentic in Saturday's San Felipe Stakes (G2). Commissioner is the sire of Gulfstream Park's Kitten's Joy (G3) winner Island Commish, and Tonalist is the sire of the unbeaten filly Tonalist's Shape, the winner of the Forward Gal Stakes (G3) and Davone Dale Stakes (G2) and one of the favorites for the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1).

There's still plenty of class emanating from the A.P. Indy sire line, that's for sure.

Trainer Patrick Biancone has had a big hand in the progress of both Airdrie's Summer Front  and Gainesway's Karakontie , training graded stakes winners by each—ironically, both 100% grass horses who now have dirt runners on the Derby trail. In fact, the whole turf-dirt distinction is being blurred: American Pharoah himself definitely gets turf and dirt, and Palace Malice, another dirt horse, sired Juvenile Turf winner Structor.

Ete Indien, trained by Biancone and by Summer Front, won the Feb. 29 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2), and Sole Volante, by Karakontie, won the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) and finished second in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby (G2) on Saturday. Each sire also had a grade 3 winner on the turf at 2—Summer Front's Fighting Seabee won the With Anticipation Stakes (G3), and Karakontie's Kenzai Warrior took the Horris Hill (G3) in England.

At least seven other sires with progeny earnings over $1 million (just under in one case) who don't yet have a graded stakes winner are showing promise, considering their stud fees range from $6,000-$15,000. The leader of this group is Darby Dan's Tapiture, by Tapit, who ranks fourth with $1.96 million in cumulative progeny earnings, including three black-type winners and eight black-type horses.

Ashford's Competitive Edge ranks sixth with four black-type winners and six black-type horses, and others who merit a mention are Florida's Journeyman Stud's No. 7 Khozan  (2 BTW/9 BTH, third in that category behind only American Pharoah and Constitution); Hill 'n' Dale's No. 8 Bayern  (0 BTW/5 BTH); WinStar's No. 10 Carpe Diem  (2/5); Spendthrift's No. 11 Wicked Strong  (1/6) and No. 16 Race Day (4/5); and Three Chimneys' No. 14 Fast Anna  (3/4).  

Interim Report: Australasian 2020 Yearling Sales

The 2020 Australasian yearling sales season was about 70% complete at the close of business March 3 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in Melbourne. At that point, using figures supplied to my team by Australia's Bluebloods magazine, the 2020 Australasian yearling sales had grossed AU$387 million, compared to AU$373 million in 2019 and AU$391 million in 2018. So the market is essentially holding steady following big gains made between 2017-18.

Magic Millions stages sales in Adelaide March 10-11 and on the Gold Coast March 16-17, and the major yearling sales season wraps up with the Inglis Australian Easter Sale in Sydney April 7-8, though there are a sprinkling of sales after that. The two Magic Millions sales should each gross +/- AU$10 million. Sydney Easter, which has the highest average of any yearling sale in Australasia (AU$353,511 last year), has grossed AU$123 million each of the past two years. So we can expect Australasian yearling sales to have grossed in the neighborhood of AU$525 million by the end of Sydney Easter. The size of that marketplace speaks for itself.

According to figures compiled by BloodHorse, there have been 22 stallions who have had five or more yearlings sold for an average of AU$150,000 or more thus far, of which 14 of the top 15 on average are proven sires, with first foals at least 4-year-olds in the current season. The exception is none other than American Pharoah, who ranks sixth by average with 36 yearlings from his first Australian crop having averaged $277,729 so far.

Arrowfield Farm's venerable Redoute's Choice, who died in 2019, leads the list by sire average with seven sold for an average of AU$451,429 and has another 10 cataloged for Easter. His stature as a sire of sires is illustrated by two of his sons at Arrowfield—three-time champion sire Snitzel, who ranks fourth by average (51 sold/average AU$311,836; another 67 cataloged for Easter), and the recently retired Not A Single Doubt, who ranks fifth (42/AU$307,583/25 at Easter).

Redoute's Choice's six fillies cataloged for Easter will be much sought-after, too. He was the leading broodmare sire in Australia for the first time last season and is in a big tussle with the previous occupant, Encosta de Lago, for supremacy this season.

Second by average at the sales so far is Yarraman Park's I Am Invincible (54/AU$434,704/48 at Easter), who broke the record for individual stakes winners in a season in Australia in 2018-19 and is himself engaged in a mighty tussle with Snitzel for the 2019-20 sire championship.

Darley's Exceed And Excel (34/AU$355,142/18), who is having a stellar season with his 12th crop of 3-year-olds, ranks third by average. Coolmore's Fastnet Rock (32/AU$276,066/24) and five-time champion New Zealand sire Savabeel (63/AU$239,073/8) rank seventh and eighth, respectively.

The top 10 by average is rounded out by two Darley shuttlers for whom these are the final Australian crops: Medaglia d'Oro  (12/AU$223,623/13) and Teofilo (12/AU$213,221/5). Top young sires Pierro (49/AU$200,712/16) and Zoustar (56/AU$192,125/18) come next; these are their fifth and fourth crops of yearlings, respectively, and both will have commanded much better mares in their succeeding crops than they did in this one. Sebring (63/AU$189,370/24), Written Tycoon ((53/AU$188,486/15), and Hinchinbrook (49/AU$177,486/9) round out the top 15.

Second and third to American Pharoah among first-crop sires were Arrowfield's shuttler Shalaa (54/AU$174,870/13) and Newgate's homegrown son of Written Tycoon, Capitalist (75/AU$163,840/26). The top sire on average with first 3-year-olds so far is another Newgate stallion, Deep Field (49/AU$171,346/2). Other young sires who have averaged over AU$150,000 so far include F2015 Dundeel (34/AU$166,797/15) and F2013 So You Think (36/AU$159,526/12), and the veteran brigade is represented by More Than Ready  (23/AU$161,196/9) and Lonhro (21/AU$151,012/9).

My consulting team recently ran APEX ratings for Australasian sires who have their first 3-year-olds+ this season. Included are two "Top 30" tables for Australasian sires with 200+ year-starters 2013/14-2019/20 (a horse is counted as one year-starter each season it starts).

Not surprisingly, there is a high correlation between the sires with the best APEX ratings and yearling averages.

Redoute's Choice (3.64), the No. 1 sire by yearling average (5+ sold), is the No. 1 sire by APEX A Runner Index. Snitzel (3.28), Savabeel (3.14), F2015 Zoustar (3.12), and Fastnet Rock (3.11) complete the top five by A Runner Index, ahead of F2015 Epaulette (3.04, $77,402 yearling average), F2015 Dundeel (2.87), I Am Invincible (2.85), Not A Single Doubt (2.63), and Exceed And Excel (2.55). Snitzel (2.31) captures the top spot by ABC Runner Index, ahead of his sire, Redoute's Choice (2.26), I Am Invincible (2.19), Fastnet Rock (2.01), Savabeel (1.98), Zoustar (1.91), Medaglia D'Oro (1.90), and Pierro (1.89).