Ashford pair busiest stallions

Triple Crown winner Justify and the globe-trotting Mendelssohn were the busiest stallions in North America in 2019 as they stood their first season at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred revealed Thursday.

Justify and Mendelssohn, both sons of the late Coolmore sire Scat Daddy, each covered 252 mares in their first season to tie for the most mares covered during the 2019 Northern Hemisphere breeding season in North America. Spendthrift Farm’s Into Mischief, the nation’s leading general sire, and Ashford’s young classic sire Uncle Mo are next at 241 apiece.

The Jockey Club reported that 1,134 active stallions covered of 29,218 mares this season. Those figures are based on reports received through Oct. 16, with the breed organization estimating that an additional 2,500 to 3,500 mares will be reported as bred this year. The number of active stallions declined 7 percent from the 1,214 reported at this time in 2018, and the number of mares bred decreased 3.5 percent from 30,274.

Justify, who retired unbeaten after winning the 2018 Triple Crown, garnered a star-studded first book of mares, including Eclipse Award champions Caledonia Road, Champagne Room, Groupie Doll, Havre de Grace, and Take Charge Brandi, plus Charming, the dam of Take

Charge Brandi as well as Grade 1 winner Omaha Beach. He also covered the dams of champions in Bella Jolie, D’Wildcat Speed, Mining My Own, and Sambuca Classica, as well as Diva Delite, the dam of multiple Grade 1 winner Midnight Bisou, who is 7 for 7 this year and all but certain to be named champion female.

Mendelssohn, a half-brother to Into Mischief and Eclipse Award champion Beholder, won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and took the Group 2 U.A.E. Derby on dirt, a surface on which he was also multiple Grade 1-placed. Highlights of the young stallion’s first book included Eclipse Award champion Judy the Beauty, and a prominent producer in Grade 1 winner Zoftig, the dam of Grade 1 winners Zaftig and Zo Impressive.

Rounding out the top 10 sires behind Justify, Mendelssohn, Into Mischief, and Uncle Mo are Goldencents (239), who stands alongside his sire Into Mischief at Spendthrift; Spendthrift first-year stallion Bolt d’Oro (214); Ashford’s Munnings (202) and Practical Joke (200); firstseason stallion Sharp Azteca (195) at Three Chimneys; and last year’s leading freshman sire Cross Traffic (188) at Spendthrift.

The Jockey Club is considering a rule that would, for the first time, limit the number of mares that a stallion can cover in a North American season, with a cap of 140. In a release at the time, The Jockey Club said that the rule was being considered because of concern over “the narrowing of the diversity of the Thoroughbred gene pool.” The 140-mare cap would be phased in beginning in 2021, based on the year in which a stallion entered stud.

According to the 2019 Report of Mares Bred, 44 stallions covered 140 mares or more. All but three of those stand in Kentucky, representing 13 different farms.

The busiest stallions standing outside of Kentucky were Girvin, who covered 149 mares in his first season in Florida, and Stay Thirsty and Uncaptured, who each covered 147 mares each in California and Florida, respectively.

According to The Jockey Club’s statistical analysis, the number of stallions covering 125 or more mares increased from 62 in 2018 to 65 in 2019. Further analysis showed a 7 percent increase in the number of mares bred to stallions with a book size of 125 or more in 2019 when compared to reported at this point in 2018; a 9 percent decrease in mares bred to stallions with a book size between 100 and 124; a 9 percent decrease in mares bred to stallions with a book between 75 and 99; and a continuing decrease down that scale.

Hightail repatriated to Calumet

Mongolian Groom punched his ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Classic with his victory in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes in September at Santa Anita, prompting his connections to supplement him to the race. He also punched a ticket home to Kentucky for his sire, Hightail, who has found stakes success from a limited sample size and now returns from several seasons in Arkansas to Calumet Farm for the 2020 season.

Hightail’s lone win in 10 career starts, all made as a 2-year-old, came in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint at Santa Anita. The son of Mineshaft covered just six mares in 2013 and four in 2014 in Kentucky, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. Remarkably, his first foal crop included multiple stakes winner Dynatail and Imperial Royal, a group stakes winner in the Dominican Republic. Mongolian Groom, from Hightail’s small second crop, finished third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, second in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap, and third in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic before scoring his upset win in the Awesome Again.

While Mongolian Groom has put his sire in the headlines, Dynatail also is continuing to rack up earnings for him. Two of Dynatail’s four stakes victories have come this season, pushing her earnings past $500,000.

Hightail moved to Trophy Club Training Center in Royal, Ark., to stand for Calumet beginning with the 2015 season. In his five seasons in that state, Hightail covered books of 17, 24, 29, 12, and 12 mares, according to the the Report of Mares Bred.