Is A Successful Saratoga Meet A Fast Track To The Freshman Sire Title?
Saratoga Race Course meet is one of North America's major proving grounds for freshman sires. The leading freshman by winners during the Saratoga meet has been the leading sire by earnings in eight of 21 years from 2001 to 2021. Seven of the top freshman stallions that finished the year as the best freshman in the last 21-year period went winless during their first Saratsoga season. The year-end freshman race can be influenced by Breeders' Cup weekend.
Gun Runner's freshman season at stud included a powerful stand in Saratoga with four wins from 10 starts. His progeny earned $4,315,908, which surpassed the previous freshman record of $3,632,214 set by Uncle Mo in 2015. Uncle Vinny's meet was led by uncle Vinney's win in the G3 Sanford Stakes. Tapit's debut season in 2008 was unsuccessful, but he went on to earn $2,762,036 from his freshman crop.
Gun Runner is an example of a freshman sire who won the title in Saratoga before shattering the earnings record. Distorted Humor won in 2002 and took the freshman title for himself in 2003. Scat Daddy won his first Saratsia in 2011. Super Saver won five times in 2014. Dialed In won three times during the 2016 meet. American Pharoah won with Constitution and Sweet Melania. Vequist won G1 Frizette. Nyquist won a three-win meet in 2020. V equine champion Veeceist was born in the year 2020 at Sar atoga.
Tapit went winless in his first season as a freshman sire. Street Cry's first crop was a hit machine, but his runners went 0-for-2 in Saratoga. Johannesburg's runners won three times in the meet. Offlee Wild's one runner finished out of the money in 2009, and he went on to sired Bayern.
Elusive Quality, Distorted Humor and Kitten's Joy were the top freshman sire in Saratoga since 2001. Mark Valeski tied Central Banker and Cairo Prince with two wins in 2018. Grand Slam, Forestry, and Speightstown were leading freshmen at their respective meets. Other Empire State residents to earn that distinction include Precise End, Girolamo, Central banker, Backtohisroots, Network Effect, etc. and Freud. The list of successful stallions from New York is also quite long. It includes some of the most proven names in the stud book.
