Higher Power

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for Sunday running at Chukyo Racecourse: 5th-CKO, ¥10,480,000, Maiden, 3yo, 1600mT DOUBLE JOKE (c, 3, Practical Joke--Double Date, by Rahy) is out of an unraced half-sister to Canadian Horse of the Year, champion 3-year-old colt and dual Grade I winner Peaks and Valleys (Mt. Livermore)...

Dialed In, whose half-dozen stakes winners this season include GI Awesome Again S. victor Defunded, tops a list of 14 stallions that will stand in 2023 at Darby Dan Farm. The 14-year-old son of Mineshaft will command a fee of $15,000, unchanged from 2022. The champion freshman sire of 2016 and reliably among the top sires, Dialed In has also been represented by stakes winners Mr. Wireless, Erase and Gambling Girl as well as Grade I-placed Get Her Number. Dialed In has sired one Grade I winner in each of...

MSW Alternate (Seattle Slew--Strike a Balance, by Green Dancer), dam of MGSW and Grade I-producing sire Alternation (Distorted Humor), died Oct. 15th at her lifetime home, Pin Oak Stud. She was 23 years old. She will be buried at her birthplace. The Pin Oak homebred won six races and placed another 11 times, seven in stakes, including the GII Monmouth Breeders' Cup Oaks, GIII Delaware Oaks, GIII Bewitch S. and the GIII Glens Falls H. She was trained by Graham Motion and earned over $550,000. The dam of nine winners...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 27 supplemental entries of horses of racing and breeding stock to its upcoming July Selected Horses of All Ages sale. These latest entries are catalogued as hips 584-610 and may now be viewed online. These newest entries include: First Constitution (Chi) (Hip 587): A Group 1 stakes winner in his native Chile, this son of Constitution is a multiple stakes winner in New York this year. Consigned by WinStar Racing, agent. Miss Costa Rica (Hit It a Bomb) (Hip 590): Four-year-old filly was Grade II placed at...

Darby Dan Farm's Higher Power (Medaglia d'Oro), a Grade I-winning millionaire, sired his first reported foal Jan. 26 when a filly bred by Deann Barr out of the Curlin mare Curlita was born at Julie Rini's Crowning Point Farm. Higher Power, a dominant 5 1/4-length winner of the 2019 GI Pacific Classic with a 107 Beyer Speed Figure, earned nearly $1.6 million and placed in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, GI Hollywood Gold Cup and GI Awesome Again S. for owner Hronis Racing and trainer John Sadler. Bredin Kentucky by...

Multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Alternation (Distorted Humor--Alternate, by Seattle Slew), a half-brother to Grade I winner and Darby Dan Farm stallion Higher Power (Medaglia d'Oro) and the sire of multiple Grade I winner Serengeti Empress, is being relocated from Pin Oak Stud to Darby Dan Farm by Steve Belford's Maccabee Farm for the upcoming breeding season, the farm announced today. Alternation is being re-syndicated and will stand for a fee of $7,500 S&N. "We're excited to bring a horse of Alternation's caliber to Darby Dan," said Ryan Norton, stallion director...

Darby Dan Farm has set 2022 stud fees for its roster of 12 stallions that will stand the upcoming breeding season, led by Dialed In, who will stand for $15,000 S&N, the same fee as a year ago. The Darby Dan roster also features Tapiture, Higher Power, and Modernist, new for 2022, who will each stand for $10,000 S&N. Dialed In, champion freshman sire of 2016 and a perennial leading sire of his crop ever since, is a leading sire of 3-year-olds in 2021 with nine black-type sophomores and five...

Darby Dan Farm's Higher Power (Medaglia d'Oro--Alternate, by Seattle Slew) confirmed the Grade I winner's first mares are in foal. Confirmed in foal, Gold Club (Majestic Warrior), out of the Touch Gold mare Be Golden, was the first mare he bred Feb. 11. She is owned by Brandywine Farm. Also confirmed in foal is Talking Audrey (Thunder Gulch--Diversa, by Tabasco Cat), a half-sister to Grade I winner Love Theway Youare, who was bred Feb. 12. Talking Audrey is owned by RAH Bloodstock. A 5 1/4-length winner of the 2019 GI...

For the first half of this story, please visit yesterday's instalment. Precocity may not be the first thing you'd have in mind from Tom's d'Etat (Smart Strike--Julia Tuttle, by Giant's Causeway), who enters service at WinStar at $17,500 after only really seizing our attention at the age of seven. Nonetheless, he represents one of the most promising prospects of the intake. For a start, he's by a sire of sires out of a graded stakes-placed Giant's Causeway mare whose own dam was a full-sister to Candy Ride (Arg). And nine...

As we approach the end of the calendar, we turn our attention to the incoming sire class of 2021. We asked several judges who their favorite incoming sire is for next year and if there are any other stallions, new or otherwise, that have caught their eye as under-the-radar picks.     DEREK MACKENZIE, Vinery Sales  Higher Power (Medaglia d'Oro), $10,000, Darby Dan  My favorite new sire for 2021 is Higher Power. Physically, he's just phenomenal and his pedigree is hands down the best this year for the new sires....

Sackatoga Stables' GI Belmont S. winner and GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Tiz the Law (Constitution) capped off his serious work ahead of next Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Classic with a five-furlong breeze at Keeneland Saturday morning. With his regular work rider Heather Smullen in the irons, the New York-bred drilled five furlongs in :59.20 and galloped out an extra eighth of a mile in 1:12.20 (video). "I saw just what I wanted. He went perfectly," said trainer Barclay Tagg who will send out his 11th Breeders' Cup starter next weekend....

Darby Dan Farm has set 2021 stud fees for its roster of 12 stallions that will stand the upcoming breeding season, led by Dialed In (Mineshaft), who will stand for $15,000 S&N, down from $20,000 a season ago. The roster also features Tapiture (Tapit), Klimt (Quality Road), and GI Breeders' Cup Classic contender Higher Power (Medaglia d'Oro), new for 2021, who will each stand for $10,000 S&N. GI Kentucky Derby winner Country House (Lookin At Lucky), also new for 2021, Flameaway (Scat Daddy), and Copper Bullet (More Than Ready) will...