By Elaine Belval
The old cliché says “It’s one thing to be lucky, it’s another thing to be good.” It’s another thing to be both lucky and good.
This certainly applies to leading young stallion Sky Mesa, who sired two stakes winners on May 15th. Sky Mesa started off very, very good. He won all three starts at 2, including the G1 Hopeful Stakes. An injury kept him off the Triple Crown trail, but he returned at 3 to finish second in the G1 Haskell to Peace Rules.
As a son of Pulpit out of a GSW by Storm Cat, great things were expected of him in the breeding shed. He retired to Three Chimneys Farm for a fee of $30,000. However, his first crop of 2YOs (racing in 2007) resulted in a modest 14 winners and no graded stakes winners. This is where a bit of luck came in. Sky Mesa’s fee for 2008 was reduced to $15,000 to reflect the stats (and those breeders who paid that fee are looking at a very nice return on investment for sales yearlings this year).
Sky Mesa, you see, showed a remarkable turnaround in 2008 with 10 SWs, led by G1 winner Sky Diva and GSWs Storm Mesa, Terrain, Skylighter and Beethoven (three of those SWs being 2YOs of 2008). Since then, things haven’t slowed down for the stallion. On May 15th, Sky Mesa’s son Thiskyhasnolimit won the Matt Winn S. at Churchill Downs (he was a GSW at 2). His daughter Final Mesa won the Polly Drummond S. at Delaware Park, one of the first 2YO stakes races of 2010. Since May 1st, Sky Mesa also has been represented by General Quarters, winner of the G1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on Derby Day (making him a G1 winner on turf and Polytrack). His daughter Feeling Fancy won the Federal Way H. at Emerald Downs on May 9th. And, also this past weekend, his stakes-winning daughter Third Dawn finished third in the G2 Milady H. And it is only May 19th. There are still two weeks left in the month. Sky Mesa continues to stand at Three Chimneys Farm and his 2010 fee is $25,000.
(Elaine Belval is senior pedigree analyst at WTC.)