1. VINDICATION
I love Vindication’s chances to become 2007’s leading freshman sire, as well as becoming a major long-term success. He’s got almost all the things I like to see in a stallion prospect. He was a brilliant runner. He retired undefeated, won the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and was named Champion 2YO of 2002.
From a pedigree standpoint, he is, in my opinion, the best outcross (no Mr. Prospector and only one distant strain of Northern Dancer in his pedigree) to come along in the U.S. since A.P. Indy (also by Seattle Slew).
He is also a standout conformationally, as his $2.15 million yearling sale price would indicate. More importantly, he is passing on his athletic good looks to his progeny. He had the highest weanling average and second-highest yearling average among all freshman sires with several bringing over a million dollars.
I thought he was a bargain at $50,000 his first year at stud and the same when they increased his fee to $60,000 the second year. Commercial breeders agree and I expect those who breed to race will agree before the year is over!
2. MINESHAFT
I don’t know ig he will sire enough precocious two-year-olds to get him to the top of the standings by year’s end, but as a future stallion superstar, Mineshaft is a no-brainer! He’s by A.P. Indy, and out of a Mr. Prospector mare who produced five foals and they are ALL stakes winners. After a mediocre racing career on the turf in Europe at two and three, he came home where he promptly won seven stakes races (four of them G1), and earned $2.2 million + at four, for which he was named 2003’s Horse of the Year. He had the second-highest weanling average and third-highest yearling average among all freshman sires. Great pedigree, great race record, great sale averages — what more can I say?
3. EMPIRE MAKER
Empire Maker is definitely capable of proving me wrong on my top two selections! He’s a classic winner with a blue-chip pedigree top and bottom. He is by Unbridled and out the incomparable Toussaud, dam of five graded stakes winners. And, Empire Maker had the highest yearling sale average of all the freshman sires.
Empire Maker is certainly capable of proving me wrong on my top two selections! He’s a classic winner with a blue-chip pedigree top and bottom. He is by Unbridled and out the incomparable Toussaud, dam of five graded stakes winners. And, Empire Maker had the highest yearling sale average of all the freshman sires. Best
Best Value: Hold That Tiger was a G1 winner at two and ran third in the BC Juvenile. He is by sire-of-sires Storm Cat, and out of an Overbrook mare who produced four SWs, and is from the family of Hennessy. All weather surfaces may help catapult Hold That Tiger into contention. At $10,000, what a bargain!
Sleeper: Airdrie Stud’s Proud Citizen may have gotten lost among all of the high-profile freshman sires this year. But, he has credentials. He is by budding sire-of-sires Gone West and out of a mare whose second dam is a full sister to Northern Dancer. A G2 winner, he was also second in the Kentucky Derby and third in the Preakness. At $12,500, he looks like an even more attractive proposition.