Instagrand

The fireworks at the annual Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton November sales are always a highlight of the year as seven-figure bids abound on some of racing's top broodmares and broodmare prospects. But after the dust settles, it can be years before words get out on the breeding careers of the sales' top offerings. We catch up with the connections of a few of these most recent million-dollar broodmares and learn of their mating plans for 2021 in our 'Million-Dollar Matings' series. [tdn_vimeo_embed title="Blue Prize at Taylor Made" admp4="https://player.vimeo.com/external/515489558.sd.mp4?s=c7e72749717e8d52cab5b5ce2ae192d51a7af636&profile_id=165" videomp4= "https://player.vimeo.com/external/522978900.sd.mp4?s=86df5ecc14e6d906dbebdf808f5c0ef9029e5cc0&profile_id=165" thumbnail=...

Instagrand (Into Mischief) and Instilled Regard (Arch) have both had their first mares confirmed in foal. MGISW Cambier Parc (Medaglia d'Oro) scanned in foal to Instilled Regard, and Grade I winner Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy), confirmed in foal to Instagrand. Both stallions stand at Taylor Made.

GEORGE ADAMS, Housatonic Bloodstock Instagrand (Into Mischief), $7,500, Taylor Made    Of the first-years, Instagrand is a really interesting horse and priced competitively at $7,500 at Taylor Made. If he'd retired after his first two starts, folks would have knocked him on soundness but they'd have bred to him because of that brilliance and the Into Mischief factor, and his fee would've been higher. Nothing he did after that changes anything about his juvenile campaign, and physically he's a beast. Plus, Into Mischief has only gotten hotter. I think the commercial...

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.  ANDREW CARY, Cary Bloodstock  McKinzie (Street Sense), $30,000, Gainesway This is a very strong group of incoming freshman sires and it's very hard to just pick one, but I am a huge fan of McKinzie. I think had he retired...

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. JUSTIN CASSE Authentic (Into Mischief), $75,000, Spendthrift Farm  The easy answer to this is Authentic, based on the obvious. His connections, his accomplishments in the summer and fall, as well as his sire. He's the leader of the pack in...

Not This Time (Giant's Causeway), whose record-setting, undefeated daughter Princess Noor is a leading candidate for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, will stand the 2021 breeding season for a fee of $40,000 at Taylor Made, the farm announced Thursday. He commanded an advertised fee of $12,500 in 2020. Most of the nursery's other stallions will stand for reduced fees next year. 'TDN Rising Star' Princess Noor is one of 14 first-crop winners for Not This Time and has run the table in her three career starts to date, posting...

Since the loss of Taylor Made's signature stallion Unbridled's Song seven years ago, the farm has worked to regain its footing in the ever-evolving, ever-competitive business of stallion development. The first step, finding prospective stallions that fit a specific program, often proves to be the most difficult. "What do you look for in a stallion?" asked Taylor Made's Frank Taylor. "The one thing we know is nobody knows who is going to be a great stallion. If anybody tells you they do, they're not telling the truth." [tdn_vimeo_embed title="Taylor Made...

Instagrand (Into Mischief--Assets of War, by Lawyer Ron), a 'TDN Rising Star' and blowout winner of the GII Best Pal S. in 2018, has been retired to Taylor Made Stallions for the 2021 breeding season. He will stand for a fee of $7,500. Instagrand earned his 'Rising Star' after graduating by 10 lengths at first asking at Los Alamitos, covering five furlongs in a swift :56 flat, before validating that performance with a 10 1/4-length romp in the Best Pal. At three, he finished third off a seven-month absence in...