Q&A: Spendthrift's 1-2 Second Crop Sires

In 2018, Spendthrift Farm ended the year with the top two sires on the list of first-crop sires: Cross Traffic and Goldencents. This year, the pair are pulling away from the pack of second-crop cumulative sires, and each is represented by a top three-year-old; Cross Traffic by his Breeders' Cup-winning daughter Jaywalk; Goldencents, by GII Louisiana Derby winner By My Standards. We talked with Spendthrift's Stallion Sales Manager Mark Toothaker about the pair.

TDN: How gratifying is it for the farm to launch a pair of successful stallions that is dominating their crop right now?

MT: It's a very competitive world that we're in for these stallion prospects and for Cross Traffic and Goldencents to have been 1-2 on the freshman sire list last year, and to be able to continue that on the cumulative second-crop list this year helps us because breeders look at that. It helps us on getting the phone to ring, and it's easy for us when we call folks to talk to them about bringing their mare over here to breed, to be able to show them that the success that we're having. And I think it really helps us moving forward as we're out looking at other stallion prospects to be able to bring into the fold here at Spendthrift.

TDN: Let's start out with Goldencents, who was the second leading first-crop sire last year and currently holds a narrow advantage over Cross Traffic.

MT: We wound up breeding 180 mares to him both of his first two years here. And once the foals got on the ground, breeders couldn't have been happier. His numbers have stayed tremendously good all the way through and when the first horses got to the racetrack this year, then that's when all the excitement started. And he had so many winners and a couple of stakes horses off the bat. We kept looking for that big, graded stakes horse to pop up, as he had had a couple of horses that had broken their maidens very impressively. And then here comes By My Standards, winning the Louisiana Derby and that was kind of the missing piece that we were looking for: a top horse headed to the Kentucky Derby from his first crop.

TDN: Describe his conformation.

MT: Physically, he's a beautiful horse; he's got great bone. He has a great hip on him, and that seems to be what we're seeing on the foals. They are horses that are very durable, very sound, and they're horses that are winning all over the country. I think they're his biggest attributes.

TDN: Are you seeing any qualities of his or of Into Mischief that you think are being particularly passed on?

MT: The thing that we heard from everyone on Into Mischief as those horses hit the track was, “I don't know what Into Mischief has, but he has IT.” These horses, they want to win. It doesn't matter what level they're performing at, but they just seem to find the wire first. And that's what we're seeing with Goldencents with these winners coast to coast, and even a winner over in Dubai. They've got the ability to perform at a very high level. But they also want to win races, which is so important in this game.

TDN: And Cross Traffic?

MT: Cross Traffic was a horse that a lot of farms had on their radar. I know the word `freak' gets used a lot, but he really was. He was a horse that could maintain a tremendously high cruising speed. He was able to go six furlongs in 1:08 and still be able to go a mile in 1:33. When he won the Whitney, he beat two horses that would go on to win the Breeders' Cup Classic. He had a lot of ability, and this raw talent that you don't see every day. And we were fortunate enough to be able to land him. We were able to get a very good book of mares to him his first year, and breeders liked the foals. And like a lot of young horses, we had to fight and claw for every mare in year three. But once these horses got to the track and started training, we started getting a lot of calls out of Ocala that, “Hey, I've got a Cross Traffic I really like.”

TDN: And his conformation?

MT: A lot of the Unbridled's Songs are heavy-made horses. Some of them are very big horses. He's a nice-size horse at 16.2, but he's a little bit of a lighter frame-type horse, and he's passing that on to a lot of his progeny. They look like they're going to be sound horses with a high cruising speed like he had. They're very efficient movers. What we loved about Cross Traffic's pedigree was the brilliance that you get from Unbridled's Song. But what we liked about his mother is that she was a two-time Grade I winner that Richard Mandella trained. She was a hickory mare that was very sound and very durable. And we were hoping that the combination of the brilliance of Unbridled's Song with her ability to be able to stay sound on the track would set him up to be a very successful sire. And the success is being proven out every day on the track.

TDN: I believe that both of these horses were involved in your Share the Upside program. How has that helped you develop successful stallions here at Spendthrift?

MT: Share the Upside is our cornerstone program here at Spendthrift. What it does is ensure us two good books of mares. Breeders are able to make a two-year commitment on most of the stallions. It gives people a feeling of ownership with the horses. They're out there promoting the horse out on the street to other breeders, that “Hey, I'm involved on Cross Traffic, I'm involved on Goldencents.” It feeds off of itself. This program has helped us to be able to get so many of these young horses off to a good start.

TDN: Explain the difference between that and the Safe Bet program.

MT: With the Safe Bet, Mr. Hughes was trying to figure out a way to be able to get folks to breed to horses that are going to have runners this year. In this business, nobody wants to get caught with one that doesn't work out. Mr. Hughes came up with the Safe Bet program and it has been very popular for us. A breeder signs up for a $6,000 stands-and-nurses contract, or $3,500 in the case of some stallions. But in 2019, if the stallion doesn't have a graded stakes winner, it's free. And if they have a graded stakes winner, they're going to be happy to pay. So they're going to win either way.

TDN: What does it mean to the farm to have these young stallions 1-2 on the list?

MT: It's nice to have that on your resume, that hey, we just had 1-2 on the freshman sire list last year and we've done a great job of being able to get numbers to our stallions. We've got great breeders that support our stallions year in and year out. It's so exciting for us, the loyalty that our breeders have shown to us. We want to bring them good horses in here and every year be able to offer them something that gives them an opportunity to have a leading freshman sire.