Justify heads new sires for 2019
With the 2018 racing season winding down, attention is shifting in some quarters to the upcoming breeding season. Triple Crown winner Justify is one of 23 Kentucky stallions who will be standing their first year in 2019. Other first-year sires of note include fivetime Grade 1 winner Accelerate; 2017 classic winners Always Dreaming, Cloud Computing and Tapwrit; West Coast, 2017 Champion 3-yearold; City of Light, whose three Grade 1 victories include the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile; and Good Magic, champion 2-yearold in 2017.
Justify – Justify’s starting fee of $150,000 is more than four times that of the next-highest new stallion, and 7½ times that for Accelerate, Justify’s rival in the contest for 2018 Horse of the Year. By way of comparison, American Pharoah stood his first year for $200,000 in 2016.
Given the amount of support he’s likely to receive from breeders, Justify may be the best hope for the long-term health of the Storm Cat male line. For all his line’s success over the past three
decades, Storm Cat is still without a primary heir. Scat Daddy looked like he might fill that role but died young (at 11) in 2015. Now Justify, Scat Daddy’s best son, will be given the opportunity to carry the line forward.
Accelerate – Despite having won more Grade 1s (5) and more total graded stakes (8) than any other new Kentucky stallion, Accelerate’s starting fee of $20,000 is only the seventh-highest among the 23 new sires. One reason for the relatively low figure is that Accelerate did his best racing as an older horse (five) – as is the case for many talented horses who remain in training long enough – rather than at two and three, as preferred by most breeders. A second factor working against him is that he did not race at all as a 2-year- old. Accelerate is not alone on that score. Seven other new Kentucky stallions, including Justify, West Coast and City of Light, also did not compete at two.
Always Dreaming, Cloud Computing, Tapwrit – Always Dreaming ($25,000), Cloud Computing ($7,500) and Tapwrit ($12,500) had one other thing in common besides having won a Triple Crown race: none of them won a race of any kind after their classic triumphs. Together the
three were 0-for-14, with Always Dreaming managing to hit the board in a pair of Grade 2s and Tapwrit finishing third in an allowance.
West Coast- After impressive wins in the 2017 Travers and Pennsylvania Derby, West Coast figured to be poised for a big year in 2018. Unfortunately, forced to tangle with Gun Runner early in the year and Accelerate toward the end, West Coast ended up winless in four starts. The son of Flatter was runner-up, however, in three major races, the Pegasus World Cup, Dubai World Cup and Awesome Again Stakes. He will stand for an opening fee of $35,000.
City of Light, Good Magic – City of Light and Good Magic, both of whom will also stand for $35,000, are the most accomplished sons of Quality Road and Curlin, respectively, two Mr. Prospector-line stallions who have quickly made places for themselves among this country’s stallion elite. Quality Road has given a major boost to the Gone West branch of Mr. Prospector. Curlin, along with English Channel and Lookin At Lucky (the sire of Accelerate), has helped establish Smart Strike as yet another branch of Mr. Prospector to be reckoned with.
Note: Accelerate and City of Light reportedly are scheduled to run in the Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 26 before assuming stallion duties at Lane’s End Farm.