Freshman sires could have nine Breeders’ Cup starters

Triple Crown winner American Pharoah rolled home in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Classic to end his racing career in style. But in some ways, his story was just beginning. Soon thereafter he arrived at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, where he would attempt to replicate himself.

And while American Pharoah was dominant on the racetrack, he faces a strong group of rival freshman sires as he begins to construct his legacy.

Setting aside American Pharoah for a moment, the other stallions who entered stud in Kentucky in 2016 combined to win two editions of the Belmont Stakes, the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Breeders’ Cup Mile, Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint. Their other wins include the French 2000 Guineas and Chilean Triple Crown, and two editions each of the Metropolitan Handicap, Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Donn Handicap, in addition to the Whitney, Woodward Stakes, Cigar Mile, and Dubai Golden Shaheen.

Bloodstock and sales industry participants have spent the past four years extolling the virtues of this group, whose runners debuted this season as 2-year-olds.

“It’s as good a group of firstcrop sires as I can ever remember,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning has said of the class. “It’s a special group of horses, both in terms of race record and pedigree. This group has all the attributes to become major, major stallion influences. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to look up in seven or eight years and say, ‘Wow, this is one of those vintage crops.’ ”

It might not take seven or eight years, with this accomplished freshman class already, at an early stage of the game, delivering. There are still two months remaining in this racing season, with major prizes for 2-year-olds still on the horizon, including the division’s five Breeders’ Cup races on Friday at Santa Anita, graded stakes at Aqueduct, Churchill Downs, and Del Mar, and Grade 1 action in December at Los Alamitos. With all of that still ahead, this freshman class already stacks up well against other groups in modern history.

In the past five seasons, spanning from 2014 to 2018, no freshman class has been represented by more than four individual sires whose progeny earned more than $1 million, a span in which Uncle Mo established the earnings record for a North American freshman sire, when his progeny bankrolled $3,675,294 in 2015. As of Monday morning, the day final Breeders’ Cup entries were to be taken, this year’s freshman class already boasts three millionaires – and two other stallions have progeny earnings more than $900,000.

American Pharoah holds a narrow earnings edge over Constitution, $1,559,410 to $1,502,327. The Triple Crown hero also narrowly leads by individual winners, with 20 to Tapiture’s 18. Three freshmen currently have worked their way in amongst older, proven sires to sit in the top 10 on the overall juvenile sire list. No other class in the last five years has finished with more than two on that list.

The class is represented by 10 individual graded stakes winners, led by Grade 1 winners Basin (Constitution), Tiz the Law (Constitution), and Wicked Whisper (Liam’s Map). No other freshman class in the last five years has finished with more than eight individual graded winners, that coming from the 2016 class.

The Breeders’ Cup stands to give freshman sires a solid boost. American Pharoah is likely to have three starters when the Breeders’ Cup’s five 2-year-old races are contested Friday – Another Miracle (Juvenile Turf Sprint), Four Wheel Drive (Juvenile Turf Sprint), and Sweet Melania (Juvenile Fillies Turf).

Overall, the freshman class could have nine entrants in the body of the field for Breeders’ Cup races. For comparison purposes, last year there were six entrants for freshmen on the program, including Code of Honor, who ultimately scratched from the Juvenile. Jaywalk won the Juvenile Fillies to make her sire, Cross Traffic, the leading freshman by earnings.

Freshman Palace Malice is expected to be represented by Crystalle (Juvenile Fillies Turf) and Structor (Juvenile Turf); Constitution has Our Country (Juvenile Turf); Liam’s Map has Wicked Whisper (Juvenile Fillies); and Sky Kingdom has Wrecking Crew (Juvenile).

European freshman Muhaarar was expected to be represented by Unforgetable (Juvenile Fillies Turf), and Deviant, by Daredevil, was likely to be among the alsoeligibles on the program for the Juvenile Turf.

Despite the depth of this freshman class, the bulk of the attention from racing fans Breeders’ Cup week will doubtlessly focus on American Pharoah’s three entrants, who are among the young stallion’s nine stakes horses worldwide. The majority of those stakes runner have raced on turf. American Pharoah, who received international support with turf-type mares, is by the late Pioneerof the Nile, who consistently sired graded performers on the turf.

Sweet Melania, who is trained by Todd Pletcher, finished third in a pair of dirt sprints to begin her career before stretching out to two turns on turf to win her maiden. She finished second by a neck to Crystalle in the P.G. Johnson, then won the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes by 5 1/2 lengths.

Four Wheel Drive won his debut in a minor turf stakes at Colonial before winning the Grade 3 Futurity at Belmont by three lengths. Irad Ortiz Jr., who was aboard the colt in the Futurity for Wesley Ward, referenced the colt’s tractable mentality, which was a famous attribute for his sire.

“I worked him before the race and I put him behind horses,” Ortiz said. “He always worked good and relaxed. When I asked him, he would take off like an older horse. He has a good mind . . . . He relaxed well [in the Futurity], and when I asked, he turned on.”

Another Miracle is looking to rebound after finishing fifth in the Futurity for Gary Contessa. The colt made his first two starts on dirt, finishing second to subsequent graded stakes winner Green Light Go and then winning an off-the-turf maiden. In his move to the turf, he won the Skidmore Stakes at Saratoga.

“There’s nothing to be said bad about him on the dirt,” Contessa said. “But I had the opportunity to try turf next out, and we loved the way he had worked on it. Plus, all the American Pharoahs have been excelling on the turf.

“He’s little, but he’s got a big heart in that little body,” Contessa continued. “It probably takes up the most space in his body. He’s just a neat horse.”