Regional Value Sires For 2025

Let's acknowledge straightaway that this cursory look at some (and only some) of the major regional programs can represent little more than a gesture of respect. As a rule, after all, we're talking about stallions that serve an almost exclusively local market, and those that do so best will have a corresponding local reputation that scarcely needs amplifying.

Moreover the same caveats apply, here, as to our recent survey of Kentucky options: namely, that the one or two we single out are purely subjective picks; and, above all, that you all know your own mare and what kind of partner will complement her best.

That said, everyone needs to salute the great job done by so many farms and horse professionals across the nation, who are meeting the same daily challenges as the famous Bluegrass farms, only with lesser resources.

FLORIDA

Something definitely seems to be afoot with WIN WIN WIN (Ocala Stud $8,500), whose first two crops have averaged $59,200 and $49,500 at the yearling sales, off a $5,000 conception fee.

He lit the fuse with his very first yearling into the ring in 2023, a $150,000 colt at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale. Another son then brought $250,000 at Keeneland September. But then Win Win Win reached astonishing heights when a filly blitzed a quarter in :20 1/5 at OBS in March, prompting no less a judge than Donato Lanni to top the sale at $1.8 million for Zedan Racing.

As 'TDN Rising Star' Nooni, that filly duly proceeded to win the GIII Sorrento Stakes-on the very same day that a $12,000 filly, Win N Your In, had become their sire's first stakes winner over at Gulfstream.

His sales success had already prompted Win Win Win's book last spring to catapult to 140 from 77, so those paying a higher fee this year can expect plenty of action to keep up the value. His stock should keep consolidating, too: having been seduced into stretching out for the Triple Crown trail, Win Win Win won his Grade I in the Forego Stakes at four. This son of Hat Trick (Jpn) could be emerging from left field in meeting the imperative to repatriate Sunday Silence blood.

ROGUEISH ($2,500 Solera) made little impact as freshman in 2023, admittedly from a very small footprint. But it was a different story last year, when he had 11 winners from just 16 starters including stakes scorer Naughty Rascal, who has since got his sophomore campaign off to a great start (awarded the Pasco Stakes).

Bearing in mind some of the paydays Rogueish has achieved at the juvenile sales–up to $220,000–and his excellent pedigree, perhaps he flashed something pretty significant in the brief window he was allowed (derailed after a sensational debut). He's by Into Mischief out of a graded stakes winner by the notable broodmare sire Rahy, and has a Grade I-placed daughter of Danzig as third dam.

AWESOME SLEW ($4,000 Ocala Stud) came up with a flagbearer from his debut crop when Awesome Strong swept three stakes in the Florida Sire series as an unbeaten juvenile, and from his second emerged Hades to win the GIII Holy Bull Stakes a year ago.

A hard-knocking millionaire with a bunch of one-turn Grade I podiums, Awesome Slew's first four dams are all stakes winners (three at graded/group level) and producers. Nine black-type performers from an aggregate 99 named foals is terrific at this level, likewise 51 winners from 78 starters to date, and he's author of a $700,000 home run at the juvenile sales.

The genes of NEOLITHIC ($5,000, Pleasant Acres) have been upgraded since his retirement by dual Grade II-winning half-sister Travel Column (Frosted) and he's proved very effective at recycling them, with another excellent campaign in 2024. His 50 winners from 76 starters included 11 black-type operators headed by Grade II-placed Tepin Stakes winner Dancing N Dixie.

NEW YORK

BUCCHERO ($10,000 Ironhorse Stallions) illustrates the limits to this exercise. His fee would put him close to the bargain basement in Kentucky, yet makes him top dollar in New York. So calling him value depends where you're sitting. But it would be churlish not to acknowledge his body of work to date, now extending to a Grade I winner in Book'em Danno.

Though best known as a turf dasher, Bucchero was versatile–also a stakes scorer on dirt, he won at 5 1/2 furlongs and past a mile–and is closely related to another sprinter to have straddled different surfaces in World of Trouble (also a son of Kantharos). His pedigree does have plenty of dirt seeding, so it obviously serves his cause for his first millionaire to have won the GI Woody Stephens Stakes, but his stock is proving highly effective on synthetics.

Book'em Danno was among half a dozen stakes winners in 2024 for Bucchero, whose overall aggregate stands at 109 winners from 159 starters. He's moved home more than once, but the direction of travel remains onward and upward, with another three-figure book last spring and a synthetic circuit at Belmont set to greet his NY-breds.

Nearly as blatant is the promise of HONEST MISCHIEF ($7,500 Sequel), whose first crop included winners of both $500,000 divisions of the New York Stallion Series at Aqueduct in December. And one of those, who was winning his third black-type prize, had already done his job for his breeders by raising $260,000 as a Timonium 2-year-old. There aren't many stallions anywhere with a pedigree superior to this son of Into Mischief and Honest Lady, Toussaud's daughter by Seattle Slew, and the loyalty of 90 mares when “on the bubble” last spring should maintain this early momentum.

SLUMBER ($7,500 Rockridge) has achieved some celebrity as sire of two graded stakes winners from tiny volume–Fluffy Socks just retired but was still going strong at six in 2024, with her fourth graded stakes success and fourth Grade I podium–and he duly came up with an unbeaten stakes winner from his latest juveniles.

MARYLAND

Great Notion continued to rule the roost in 2024, with a seventh consecutive state championship, but there's a younger gun to watch in BLOFELD ($5,000 Murmur Farm). Gun is the word, too, as the son of Quality Road shares a fourth dam with Gun Runner himself.

Blofeld is blowing the doors off in his ratios to date, with eight black-type winners and 16 such performers from just 69 starters to date–58 of whom are winners. His five stakes winners in 2024 included unbeaten juvenile Silver Kiss, whose third black-type success in the Best of Ohio John W. Galbreath Stakes was registered by 11 lengths.

Blofeld himself was a model 2-year-old-unbeaten through his Saratoga debut and two starts at Grade II level, including the Nashua by five–and while he evidently had his troubles thereafter, he put it all together for a big number in the GII Gulfstream Park Handicap.

So here you have a very commercial track profile underpinned by one of the best families around (dam stakes winner by Storm Cat, granddam dual graded stakes winner), duly hitting impressive percentages through his first four crops.

MOSLER ($2,500 Country Life Farm) is another with a resonant profile: a seven-figure yearling by War Front, as half-brother to dual Grade I winner Contested (Ghostzapper), he was a useful dirt sprinter even before switching to turf for his stakes wins. Eight of his 65 starters last year earned black type, including Quint's Brew-who hit a 99 Beyer winning a Laurel stakes by six on his recent reappearance.

PENNSYLVANIA

Lots of action at Mountain Springs Farm, with the arrival from Kentucky of Enticed and state stalwart Uptowncharlybrown. The latter was accompanied by a horse with lower profile in EASTWOOD ($2,000), but he deserves a second look after mustering 11 winners and three black-type horses from just 15 starters across his first three crops.

That's obviously a fragile footprint but he'd be entitled to consolidate. By Speightstown out of a Deputy Minister mare (whose half-sister was Grade I-placed), he was a $240,000 weanling (also changed hands for $800,000 as a sophomore) and, while he owed his graded-stakes podium to a short field, showed legitimate caliber as a smart allowance sprinter.

Though rookies seldom represent “value,” you have to love a son of Tapit coming to Pennyslvania with none other than Better Than Honour as third dam. TYSON ($3,500 Stone Jug Farm) was a champion in Canada who ran third in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup despite a messy trip. He's out of a Smart Strike half-sister to the dam of Arcangelo (Arrogate) (herself by Tapit) and looks potentially well found as a $175,000 auction purchase at Keeneland last November. A strange world we live in, where he can be such an accomplished racehorse and yet valued lower than he was ($250,000 RNA) as a yearling!

One young sire that maximized limited opportunity in 2024 was PAT ON THE BACK ($3,500 Bonner Hill), the hardy son of Congrats who won the GII Kelso Handicap. He only had four first-crop starters but two of them ended the year pretty freakishly in running 1-2 in the Wait For It Stakes at Parx.

At the other end of the spectrum, the venerable WEIGELIA (private, WynOaks Farm) and SMARTY JONES ($3,500 Equistar) have shared a three-in-four winner ratio through their careers, at six percent stakes scorers to named foals. And while very few mares have lately favored veteran RIMROD ($1,500 Castle Rock Farm), he has come up with one or two decent talents over the years and you wouldn't mind keeping a filly by a Danzig half-brother to Selkirk!

LOUISIANA

AURELIUS MAXIMUS ($2,000 Red River Farms) has seized the moment with first-crop sensation Secret Faith, who dominated state-breds in her six-for-seven juvenile campaign (entered at Delta Downs Sunday). Most emphatic of her five stakes wins was a 14-length rout at Evangeline Downs in August, but she was again in a different league in the filly division of the Louisiana Futurity.

And guess what, her only defeat–by a head, miles clear of the third–was by another daughter of the same sire in Blue Fire. With a third black-type winner from just 18 starters to date, Aurelius Maximus is a most intriguing prospect. Failing to meet his reserve at $625,000 as a yearling tells you plenty about both his physique and page, and he showed glimpses of corresponding ability in a staccato career (fourth in the GI Champagne Stakes, neck second in the GII Fayette Stakes as an older horse).

He's obviously throwing a nice type–Secret Faith herself made $75,000 as a yearling, Blue Fire $100,000–and his page would be fully deserving of the Bluegrass: by Pioneerof The Nile out of a graded stakes-winning daughter of A.P. Indy and champion Queena (Mr Prospector). (Meaning that his third dam is… Too Chic!)

CALIFORNIA

No disguising the challenges faced by this circuit, but that should not allow anyone to underplay the work of GRAZEN ($6,000 Eclipse). It might seem pointless to highlight a state champion, but he remains underrated at ringside and should not be confined to “regional” status in the perceptions of programs operating on a wider scale.

Once again Grazen edged out his pricier rival Stay Thirsty for the 2024 title by progeny earnings, from considerably fewer starters, and he continues to show metronomic consistency as a stakes sire. Another seven black-type winners brought him to 26 overall, at 9.4% of named foals, and smart juvenile Sabertooth was desperately unlucky not to become his fifth graded stakes winner.

Grazen has been joined in the same barn by his son TOUGH SUNDAY ($2,500 Eclipse) who gave a startling hint that he might be an effective conduit for his genes when just five starters in 2024 included four winners-including two at stakes level! One of those, moreover, has just been disqualified for interference after passing the post first in the Cal Cup Derby.