Examining Pedigree Trends of 2018's North American Grade 1 Winners
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| Justify |
Today we look to see who found the most success at the level as a racehorse, as a sire, and in the sales ring.
By The Numbers – In 2018, 85
different horses won 113 Grade 1 races. Thirty seven of those were fillies or
mares, 11 geldings, and 37 colts or entires. Twelve of those entire males have already been announced to be retiring for the 2019 breeding season and already have an advertised stud
fee. The average fee to breed to those horses is $32,333 with Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat
Daddy) the most expensive of those at $150,000 and Long On Value (Value Plus) least expensive at $2,500.
Seven 2018 Grade 1 winning mares went through the ring in November for an average of $2,033,333 for the six who sold with American Gal (Concord Point) and Salty (Quality Road) fetching the top prices at $3 million each.
Seven 2018 Grade 1 winning mares went through the ring in November for an average of $2,033,333 for the six who sold with American Gal (Concord Point) and Salty (Quality Road) fetching the top prices at $3 million each.
Biggest Winner - Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky) and Monomoy
Girl (Tapizar) tied for the most Grade 1 races won this year at five each. Unsurprisingly,
both of them are odds-on favorites to take home their respective Eclipse Awards.
Monomoy Girl is slated to return to racing for all of 2019 while Accelerate is
scheduled to make his last appearance in the Grade 1 Pegasus this month. Both are out of
mares from Northern Dancer’s sireline with Accelerate from Vice Regent’s
branch and Monomoy Girl’s from Storm Bird’s.
Top Sire – Evergreen sire
More Than Ready (Southern Halo) tied with the rising superstar Quality Road (Elusive
Quality) as this year’s top Grade 1 sires with five Grade 1 winners each. More
Than Ready had two horses (Catholic Boy on dirt and turf and Roy H on dirt) win
two Grade 1 races each with Quality Road having three horses winning two Grade
1 races each (Abel Tasman, Bellafina, City of Light all on dirt). When it comes
to sires with the most Grade 1 wins in 2018, Quality Road takes the title with
eight.
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| Quality Road |
Most Successful Cross – Perhaps
the most underrated sire in Kentucky is English Channel (Smart Strike), who had four Grade 1 winners in 2018. He also had the most successful cross of 2018 with two of
Grade 1 winners out of Horse Chestnut (Fort Word) daughters. Another cross that produced two Grade 1 winners was that of Quality Road and Deputy Minister –
the cross that both Breeders’ Cup winner City of Light and two-time 2018
Grade 1 winner (and 2017 champion) Abel Tasman are bred on.
Stud Fee Average – You can
breed to a sire who had a 2018 Grade 1 winner for as little as $1,841
for Long On Value’s sire Value Plus (Long On Value himself stands for $2,500)
or for as much as $250,000 for War Front (Danzig) and there are also three
sires standing for private fees. The average stud fee of the sire of Grade 1 winners is $49,124 with 10 stallions standing for under $10,000 in 2019, 10 for $10,000
to $20,000, and 28 for $20,000 or more.
Location & Pedigrees – Stallions
from all over the globe sired last year’s Grade 1 winners with the 64 sires making
their homes in 10 countries and five states. Bluehen mare Mariah’s Storm (Rahy)
plays as big a part as any stallion on the list with her contributions to pedigrees. In addition to being the dam
of Giant’s Causeway (Storm Cat) and Freud (Storm Cat), she is the granddam or
great-granddam (through Giant’s Causeway) of three other stallions (Creative
Cause, Lope de Vega, Shamardal) as well.
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| Lope de Vega's Newspaperofrecord |
Sireline – It’s no surprise
to see two sirelines again ruling the list (Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer)
with Northern Dancer accounting for sires of 30 of the Grade 1 winners and Mr.
Prospector for 27. Other sirelines with winners are Caro (3), Damascus (1), Hail
to Reason (9), His Majesty (1), A.P. Indy (11), Sharpen Up (1).
Digging a bit further into Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer’s representation
finds sons who are doing well to prove they are developing their own sirelines.
Fappiano has nine Grade 1 winners here through Candy Ride (Ride the Rails) and
his son Twirling Candy, multiple Unbridled’s Song (Unbridled) sons, and Real
Quiet. Gone West has seven representatives (mostly through Quality Road but
also through Speightstown), and Smart Strike is also now throwing his hat in
the ring thanks to sons Curlin, English Channel, and Lookin At Lucky.
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| Candy Ride |
On the Northern Dancer side, it’s no surprise to see Storm Bird have 12
representatives with the legacy built by that stallion’s son Storm Cat. Danzig
is also making big strides in the United States with both North American and European stallions
representing that sire, and Sadler’s Wells also having five representatives
with two of them standing in the United States for part of their careers.
Sales Prices – As is often
the case, you could have bought last year’s Grade 1 winners in many different
price ranges as yearlings and 2-year-olds. Long On Value (Value Plus) was a
$3,000 Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic Yearling buy (and could have been bought for
$100,000 in 2017) while champion Good Magic (Curlin) was a $1-million yearling.
Nine of the winners were sold before making their debut for less than $50,000,
10 for $50,000 to $100,000, 16 for $100,000 to $250,000 and 23 sold for over $250,000.
The average price of the Grade 1 winners was $254,539 with the median sitting
at $180,000.
The most expensive filly of the bunch was the $800,000 Bellafina
(Quality Road) with probable Champion U.S. Turf Female Sistercharlie (Myboycharlie)
selling for the least of the fillies or mares with a $13,592 price tag (converted from euros to U.S. dollars) according
to Equibase.
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| Sistercharlie on her way to winning the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf |
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