By Sid Fernando
Elaine Belval wrote about Flashy Bull, his sire line, and his first Graded stakes winner, Flashy Lassie, in the post below this. He is one of several freshman sires out of the box quick, with three individual winners to date.
Flashy Bull’s first winner was the filly Princesa Caramelo, who won in Mexico at the end of March. Flashy Lassie, his second winner, won the  Grade 3 Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs Saturday. And the Airdrie sire’s third winner came Friday at Belmont in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special when Born Bullish, yet another filly, won impressively by nine lengths. She looks the part of a future stakes horse, as a reader of Elaine’s column commented.
Born Bullish was a $20,000 yearling but a $185,000 2-year-old—his most expensive—but the other two Flashy Bulls were cheap yearlings: Princesa Caramelo sold for only $2,500 and the Graded stakes winner Flashy Lassie sold for only $4,000. Â There are several more expensive and well thought of Flashy Bulls in the pipeline, including several for West Point Thoroughbreds, who are bullish on Holy Bull stallions, so Flashy Bull is sitting pretty at the moment. And at the moment he’s the leading freshman sire by progeny earnings, but it’s early days yet.
The leading freshman sire by winners through Monday is Darley’s Danzig horse Hard Spun, with five winners to date. Not surprisingly, three of his five winners have come on turf in Britain, where the Danzig branch of Northern Dancer through Green Desert and Danehill competes for supremacy with the Sadler’s Wells branch. To date, the leading sires of 2011 unrestricted stakes winners in Europe are Danehill’s Dansili (13 SWs), Danehill’s Danehill Dancer (8), Danehill’s Rock of Gibralter (8), and Sadler’s Wells’ Galileo (8) and Montjeu (8). Â The German-bred Monsun (8) ranks with this group, directly followed by Green Desert’s Oasis Dream (7).
Earlier this year I wrote a column in Thoroughbred Times picking freshman sires for the magazine’s annual freshman sire contest. The stallions were partitioned into groups, based on stud fee. Here’s part of what I wrote about the two young sires leading the way as of today:
I’m picking Hard Spun from Group 1 because he was a top runner, a Grade 1 winner at 7 furlongs at 3 and good enough to stay 10 furlongs on class when second in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby. Hard Spun also placed in the Preakness and altogether won 7 of 13 starts. He also was undefeated in three starts, two stakes, against moderate company at 2. His 142 registered 2-year-olds will give him every opportunity; he’s owned by Darley—on fire lately with young sires across the globe; and he’ll have opportunities in Europe, where his progeny, as a son of Danzig, will be extremely well suited. Mind you, the Danzig line has had a mini revival here lately on dirt as well through War Front and Pomeroy. Physically, he’s not in the mold of Danzig as War Front is, but neither was Nijinsky built like Northern Dancer.
From Group 2, the choice here is Holy Bull’s son Flashy Bull, who fits the profile of Congrats as better late than early. Flashy Bull did make 6 starts at 2, won only once though he was stakes-placed in the Grade 2 Remsen, but came into his own at 4 when he took the Grade 1 Stephen Foster.  He was winless at 3 though he did place twice in Graded races. He’s an exceptionally attractive horse from Airdrie Stud, an outfit that has a knack for getting sires off the mark.