Newcomers Series: New Sires In North America

Catholic Boy is one of the dual-surface G1 winning freshman sires.

Across North America, breeding season is ramping up this week with sheds opening their doors to mares throughout the continent. That also means an exciting group of new stallion recruits will enter into their next careers with hopes high that they’ll be able to reproduce the talent they showed on the track.

It's a very competitive market in 2020 with a number of new stallions grabbing the imagination. Today I look at seven North American stallions (outside of Breeders' Cup winners and Champions) both in Kentucky and regionally who look to be exciting types in coming years.

Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) is one of those rare racehorses who succeeded at the top level on both dirt and turf. He was a stakes winner each of his three years on the track with graded stakes victories on both surfaces at two in the Grade II Remsen on dirt and the Grade III With Anticipation on turf. His best year came the following season when the More Than Ready son beat some of the best turf horses of his generation in the Grade I Belmont Derby before switching back to dirt for the Grade I Runhappy Travers Stakes against some of the best dirt 3-year-olds.  

Running three times at four, Catholic Boy won a Grade II on turf and was second in a Grade II on dirt to give him dual-surface stakes performances each of his three seasons running. Standing for $25,000 at Claiborne Farm, he comes from the family of European Champion Lucky Song (Seattle Song) and his fourth dam is Argentina Champion La Sevillana (Court Harwell).

Coltimus Prime (Milwaukee Brew) had a long and interesting career with eight wins and 12 other top three finishes in his 38 starts. Stakes placed at two, Coltimus Prime became a Canadian classic winner at three in the Prince of Wales with a second in the Grade III Ontario Derby as well. Coltimus Prime spent the last half of his career in Panama, where he won the local Grade I Clasico Presidente de La Republica and was placed in local Grade Is four other times to earn champion honors in Panama.

Coltimus Prime is by successful Canadian sire Milwaukee Brew (Wild Again), whose best-known runners include Woodbine Oaks winner Ginger Brew. Standing in Alberta, Coltimus Prime stands for CAN$2,500 this year.

A world record holding turf sprinter, Disco Partner (Disco Rico) ran into the problem of doing his best running before the turf sprint program started really ramping up in North America so he was never able to secure a Grade I win. However, he proved to be top class throughout his career with 11 wins (seven stakes victories) in 33 starts with 14 other top three finishes (12 in stakes) for nearly $1.5 million in earnings. His victories included back-to-back wins in the Jaipur Invitational (now a Grade I) with a third In the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and the Jaipur Invitational after it was upgraded for placings in two of the three turf sprint Grade Is in North America.

Standing at Rockridge Stud in New York for $5,000, he is by strong regional sire Disco Rico (Citidancer).

Divisidero

Possibly the biggest fan of the Churchill Downs turf course in the last few years was Divisidero (Kitten’s Joy), who scored both his Grade Is at the track. A winner of the Grade II American Turf Stakes (also at Churchill Downs) in only his third start, the horse’s first Grade I win came in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic Stakes on the Kentucky Derby undercard at four. He followed that victory up again at five. Overall, five seasons of racing saw him win at least one stakes a year with 15 stakes places in his 29 starts for over $1.6 million in earnings.

One of only a handful of Grade I winners by two-time Leading General Sire Kitten’s Joy standing in the world, Divisidero is out of a half-sister to Chile Champion Genial Boy and comes from the family of legendary stallions Northern Dancer (Nearctic) and Halo (Hail To Reason).

A Grade I winning son of Speightstown (Gone West), Force The Pass is a big addition to the Maryland stallion ranks. A five time winner with 11 other top three finishes in his four year career, the stallion’s finest moment came in the Grade I Belmont Derby followed by a third in that year’s Grade I Secretariat Stakes. A successful racehorse, Force The Pass finished in the top three in a stakes race every year of his career finishing up with a third in the Grade II Monmouth Stakes as a seven-year-old.

Out of Grade III winner Social Queen (Dynaformer), Force The Pass gets his hardiness honestly. He comes from the family of Grade I winner Perfect Drift (Dynaformer), who raced at the top level for most of his long career. Force The Pass stands for $4,000 at Anchor & Hope Farm this year.

A Ramsey-bred, Leadem In Ken (Sky Mesa) won 15 of his 40 starts with 13 other top three finishes during a seven year career. Breaking his maiden at Churchill Downs as a 3-year-old, Leadem In Ken won his first stakes race the next year and proved to be quite successful at in the South West. The now-10-year-old made his final start a winning one last January when racing to victory in the Listed Stoneside Sprint Stakes by a length.

Leadem In Ken is entering the Texas market at the perfect time with purses growing at the state’s racetracks and horsemen making it a point to race there. The stallion stands for $2,000 at Leadem Farm and comes into the regional program with an outstanding pedigree behind him. The stallion is out of Last Kitten, the final foal from Kitten’s First, who is the dam of two-time Leading General Sire Kitten’s Joy. Last Kitten is also the dam of Grade I winner Precious Kitten, who has produced multiple stakes winners (including last weekend's Grade III winner Jehozacat). Another Kitten’s First daughter also produced Champion Dreaming of Anna with Leadem In Ken one of 14 stakes horses under Kitten’s First.

Yoshida

Sunday Silence (Halo) proved to be a top racehorse in North America and top sire in Japan and Yoshida (Heart’s Cry) will try to carry on his grandsire’s legacy in the breeding shed this year when entering stud at WinStar Farm. One of two dual-surface Grade I winners to join the U.S. stallion ranks in 2020, Japanese-bred Yoshida raced for four years with stakes wins or placings in all but his 2-year-old season (when he made one start). The stallion beat last year’s Horse of the Year Bricks And Mortar (Giant’s Causeway), who is ironically standing in Japan now, as a 3-year-old and stepped up his game even more at four.

Winning both the Grade I Woodward and Old Forester Turf Classic over nine furlongs at two of the most prestigious tracks in North America, there was every reason for his connections to retire him at the end of 2018. Instead, they decided to race on in 2019 at five and were rewarded with two more Grade I placings on the dirt before he headed to his second career.

Yoshida is standing for $20,000 this year and has a pedigree many are familiar with. There is the aforementioned Sunday Silence/Halo line on his sire side while his dam Hilda’s Passion (Canadian Frontier) was a U.S. Grade I winner in her own right and also has a Grade III winner in Japan. Sunday Silence’s line hasn’t been given much of a shot in the U.S. but with the connections Yoshida has behind him, it wouldn’t be surprising if he brought that branch of the Halo line back to life in North America.