Provocateur Entering Stud at McMahon of Saratoga

Grade 1-placed stakes winner Provocateur  , a 4-year-old son of four-time leading North American sire Into Mischief  , will enter stud next year at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, the farm announced Nov. 27. He will stand for $5,000.

Bred in Kentucky by Kingswood Farm and David Egan, Kingswood sold Provocateur for $600,000 to Spendthrift Farm and MyRacehorse.com during the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. He was a winner at 2 and earned his first black-type win in his second start at 3 when he captured the Hutcheson Stakes. Provocateur went on with trainer Todd Pletcher to finish third in the Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) and then won the Jersey Shore Stakes at Monmouth Park.

ELiTE offered Provocateur as a racing prospect at the 2022 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale where McMahon & Hill Bloodstock bought him for $200,000. The McMahon family raced him four more times this year with trainer Bill Mott and then retired him with a 3-2-2 record from 14 starts and $249,005 in earnings.

Provocateur is out of the winning Cherokee Run mare Cayala, who has also produced Southwest Stakes (G3) winner One Liner  and stakes-placed winner Roderick , which are both full siblings to Provocateur. Cayala is out of the graded stakes-placed Touch Gold mare Chasethegold, who is a half sister to grade 1 winners Albertus Maximus  and Daredevil  .

The farm also announced fees for Bucchero   ($7,500), Central Banker   ($7,500), Solomini   ($7,500), and Redesdale   ($2,500).