Sky Mesa

It tells you plenty about the business today that this final leg of our quest for value on Kentucky farms should compress together stallions whose various retirements from the racetrack spanned more than decade. In devoting nearly all the previous instalments to individual classes of younger stallions, we've simply mirrored the distribution of mares, which as we all know is massively loaded towards largely unproven sires. To me, then, those few survivors that do establish a viable niche in the Bluegrass are real heroes. While dozens of their original competitors...

2nd-Gulfstream, $70,000, Msw, 12-31, 2yo, 7f, 1:24.18, ft, 2 1/4 lengths. SHESTERKIN (c, 2, Violence--Freedom Star {GSW, $332,972}, by Street Cry {Ire}), 3-1 in his first start since bringing $330,000 at OBS March earlier this year, was sent to the lead under Irad Ortiz, Jr. and set the pace through a :22.54 opening quarter. Shaken up from just off the rail when Case (Sky Mesa) challenged in a tight spot against the rail, Shesterkin held his ground as the pair exchanged bumps and dug in to turn back that rival,...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency               7th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, 3:50 p.m. Debuting in the royal blue Friday, METHODOLOGY (Uncle Mo) is the third foal out of GSW Innovative Idea (Bernardini), making her a half-sister to GI Acorn S. winner Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile). Further back in her family is GISW & sire Sky Mesa (Pulpit) and MGISW & Darley stallion Maxfield (Street Sense). In training with Brad Cox, Methodology has made her two most recent works over the Churchill main track and...

Leading first-crop sire Gun Runner will see a substantial fee raise for the 2022 breeding season, when his live-foal-stands-and-nurses fee will get a hike to $125,000. He stood for $50,000 in 2021. Gun Runner is the sire of five individual stakes winners, including undefeated multiple Grade I winner Echo Zulu, winner of the Spinaway S. and the Frizette S. He is also the sire of GI Hopeful winner Gunite, as well as Grade II winners Pappacap and Wicked Halo. On the first-crop sire list, he leads by earnings, black type...

Gainesway Farm enjoyed an unforgettable Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale this year as the leading consignor of the elite auction with 12 yearlings sold including the $2.6 million sales topper. Now, they hope to continue the same success at the upcoming Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars Sale on Nov. 9 with a consignment that features three graded stakes winners including the speedy and precocious Perfect Alibi (Sky Mesa - No Use Denying, by Maria's Mon). The Grade I winner campaigned by Tracy Farmer will be offered in foal to super-sire Into Mischief....

So here we are at last, rounding the home turn. This series has unfolded in familiar fashion, with an initial stampede of unproven young stallions progressively thinned out by the impatience of a commercial sector operating in ever decreasing cycles. Today we finish with a selection from those admirable stallions who have survived the ruthless attrition, and created a viable niche at various levels of the market. The odds they have overcome, to get here, are such that the long-term health of the breed is clearly being treated as something...

By the time a stallion has established himself at stud, his fee is usually determined by performance, not the hype that surrounds new horses when they first enter stud. There are, of course, many ways to measure performance, including progeny earnings (which determines placement on the General Sires list), percent of black-type winners to named foals, quality of runners, number of Grade l winners, etc. There are seven thoroughly proven stallions that will stand for $150,000 or more in North America in 2021, and these elite horses--Into Mischief ($225,000), Tapit...

A syndicate of breeders headed by Argentina's Haras La Layenda has purchased Godolphin's graded stakes winner Lucullan (Hard Spun--Golden Velvet, by Seeking the Gold) for the 2020 Southern Hemisphere breeding season. A six-time winner with earnings of $510,925, Lucullan captured the GII Knickerbocker S. last fall at Belmont. He is out of a MGSW/GISP dam who is a half-sister to GISW and sire Sky Mesa (Pulpit) as well as the dam of top GI Kentucky Derby contender Maxfield (Street Sense).

Right, that's enough ranting for now. In the course of this series, I've repeatedly professed bewilderment and alarm over the damage to the Thoroughbred gene pool threatened by a witless stampede towards unproven newcomers, and the no less puerile impatience with which they are promptly abandoned. But we won't revisit those complaints today. Embarking on this final instalment, dealing with those stallions talented or lucky enough to have come out the other side with a viable stud career in Kentucky, we'll just offer one simple consolation. Because if you're one...

For an instructive snapshot of what's wrong with this business, just take a look at the plunge in the going rate for yearlings by almost all sires represented by their second crop. Not even the most precocious, remember, have yet launched half their named foals onto the track; while most of those whose stock will only flourish with maturity, and two turns, have barely dipped a toe in the water. Yet only a handful, having achieved an early impact from a low base, have actually advanced their averages. For the...

Tracy Farmer's Perfect Alibi, a beaten favorite last out, made amends in a big way when prevailing in a roughly-run renewal of the GII Adirondack S. Sunday at Saratoga. An impressive first-out victress May 16 at Churchill when dusting a field of maidens by 9 1/2 lengths, the $220,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga pickup was shipped to Belmont for the June 6 Astoria S. and ran in spots before coming up three-quarters of a length short to debuting 'TDN Rising Star' Maryanorginger (Strong Mandate). Let go as the distant third choice here...