Tags

, , , , , ,

When a stallion reaches his fifth or sixth year at stud, seldom is heard an “encouraging” word because the great majority of stallion prospects fail to sire enough good racers to maintain their position in the market, let alone improve it to become a leading or even breed-shaping sire.

That has not been the case with Into Mischief (by Harlan’s Holiday).

From his first young stock who came to the races back in 2012 to the present, the bay son of Leslie’s Lady (Tricky Creek) has gone from strength to strength. Currently, he leads the national sire list by gross earnings, with $18,999,371. That’s about as close to $19 million as you can get without bumping over the mark in purse earnings, which will happen any minute.

Into Mischief with an expression that suggests, “Wanna wrassle?”, stands clear of his contemporaries by millions of dollars and will be the leading general sire for the sixth time after logging this year’s title. That distinction would place him one title above Bull Lea (Bull Dog) and Nasrullah (Nearco), and only two titles shy of Bold Ruler (Nasrullah), who has eight. Into Mischief is keeping epochal company. (Spendthrift Farm photo)

The Spendthrift Farm stallion is more than $5 million clear of second-place Mineshaft (A.P. Indy), and then it’s nearly $4 million back to Gun Runner (Candy Ride) in third with $9.8, Quality Road (Elusive Quality) in fourth with $9.2, and Goldencents (Into Mischief) standing fifth with $8 million.

All those totals are a notable accumulation of shekels, but then one thinks, “Into Mischief is $5 million clear of the second-place sire and $10 million clear of the sire in fifth place on the general sire list.” It’s not unprecedented only because Into Mischief has done this before, and 2024 is going to be the sixth year in succession that Into Mischief will lead the general sire list.

Because his sons and daughters keep winning and winning, especially at the highest levels.

Most recently, the sire’s daughter Accede became the sire’s 153rd stakes winner and 75th graded stakes winner with a victory on June 15 in the Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses Stakes at Belmont’s meet at Aqueduct. Accede has a lot of qualifications to succeed.

Bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte Farms, Accede is out of multiple graded stakes winner Jibboom (Mizzen Mast) from a family that the operation bought into back in the late 1980s. Before her purchase by Juddmonte, fourth dam Chain Store (Nodouble) had produced a pair of highflyers in G2 winner Geraldine’s Store (Exclusive Native) and Al Bahathri (Blushing Groom), who won the Irish 1,000 Guineas and finished second in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket.

For Juddmonte, Chain Store foaled listed stakes winner Peplum (Nijinsky), who is the third dam of Accede. Juddmonte’s Garrett O’Rourke said that “Peplum was what you’d expect from a winner of the Cheshire Oaks: she looked like a mile and a half grass horse, a good-sized mare but a little narrow and lean.”

With those attributes, the mare was mated with strongly built, fast sires of quality, and she produced four winners. The two best were by Irish River (Riverman), a very high-class sire with speed. Emplane became the dam of G2 winner Aviate (Dansili) and G3 winner Early March (Dansili). The mare’s most notable racer was Emplane’s full brother Boatman, who has to be one of the best horses never to win a stakes. The son of Irish River did finish second in a pair of G1 races, however: the Manhattan and the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial.

Peplum’s winner by Gone West was Palisade, who won her debut at Newmarket as a 2-year-old. She did not progress notably as a racehorse, but as a broodmare, Palisade found notably greater success. Her four best racers were by one of the Juddmonte home stallions, Mizzen Mast (Cozzene), and were full siblings to Accede’s dam Jibboom. Magnifica and Scooner did not win black type, but Jibboom’s sister Magnifica produced G1 winner Gold Phoenix (Belardo) in Ireland for breeder Mighty Universe Ltd. The gelding did most of his racing and earning here in the States and ended his account with five graded stakes successes and $1.3 million in earnings.

Jibboom and her full brother Sea Defence both won black type at a high level. Exported to Hong Kong, Sea Defence proved one of the best racers there, winning the G1 Stewards’ Cup and finishing second in the G1 HK Cup. With five victories, Sea Defence earned $2.1 million.

During her racing, Jibboom ran up earnings of nearly a half-million, with victories in a pair of G2 stakes, the Raven Run at Keeneland and the Buena Vista at Santa Anita. She was a contemporary of Breeders’ Cup Filly Sprint winner Ventura (Chester House) in the barn of Bobby Frankel. A four-time winner at the G1 level who earned $2.5 million, Ventura was a star of a high order.

Frankel had the star penciled in to run in the G1 Santa Monica Handicap in 2009, when O’Rourke suggested putting Jibboom in the race, as well. O’Rourke said, “Bobby wasn’t someone you interfered with, but he looked at me and said, ‘That’s a good idea.’ It worked out on the day, and we were one-two.”

Ventura won by a length from Jibboom, which gave the big gray mare a G1 placing. O’Rourke described how the family has evolved over the generations too because “Jibboom was a really strong physical,” rather than the lean and elegant type of Peplum. “Jibboom had a lot of the Caro and Cozzene size and bone and muscular mass. The dominant genetic traits in her were probably from the sire, and you can see that coming out in Accede through Into Mischief, as well.”

After winning her debut, Accede went into deep waters, with a third in the G2 Eight Belles at Churchill Downs, then a fifth in the G1 Acorn behind champion Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief), but the filly was three-quarters of a length ahead of Randomized (Nyquist), who won the G1 Alabama last season and won the G1 Ogden Phipps on June 8.

Following her experiences at the deep end of the pool, Accede has continued to improve and has put together a three-race winning streak, a pair of allowances and now a G2 victory. O’Rourke said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Accede continued to improve, considering how big she is.

“She isn’t unusually tall but is really bulky, muscular, with a fantastic rear end and shoulder. When you stand behind her, you see the power across the hips that makes her a superior type of sprinter in the mold of Kona Gold.”

However high Accede rises in her racing career, she will be assured of a cozy spot in a paddock and the opportunity to breed on another generation of fast and talented racehorses.