Yaupon Sitting at the Head of Freshman Sire Class

Some successful sires never became millionaires on the track. Some don't win classics or a Breeders' Cup race. For some, the numbers of their careers don't scream "can't-miss." But that's not all there is to being a good, successful sire. 

Look at Not This Time , arguably the hottest sire in North America. He's been holding the No. 2 spot in the rankings of sires on the continent based on progeny earnings for almost two months. Never did he win a grade 1 or 2 race, although he finished second in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1). Then he was retired due to an injury.

To each sire is a different journey, a different story filled with how, why, who, what, and more factors. So when we see the current leader among first-crop sires did not have a classic win or a Breeders' Cup win, and he didn't get his only grade 1 win until what unfortunately turned out to be his final start, it simply isn't a knock on him. 

Different journey, different story. 

Yaupon  began his racing career on fire: four straight wins, including the 2020 Amsterdam Stakes (G2) and the Chick Lang Stakes (G3). He went to that year's Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), where he had a troubled trip and finished eighth. 

He came back the following year at 4 and was eighth in the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1), followed by a win in the Lite the Fuse Stakes. That preceded a win in the Forego Stakes (G1), which had him set up for another crack at the Breeders' Cup. He shipped to Santa Anita Park for the 2021 World Championships with every intention to run the Sprint again. But after a workout at the track raised concerns, X-rays revealed a sesamoid fracture in the Yaupon's left hind leg. 

That was it. The decision was made to retire him and let him enjoy life as a stallion. He stood this year for $25,000 at Spendthrift Farm near Lexington, where he has been since entering stud in 2022. Spendthrift stallion sales manager Mark Toothaker told BloodHorse at the time he began his career there, "(Yaupon is) a horse with a tremendous chance at stud."

Yaupon's first runners have lived up to every hope of Toothaker and everyone else associated with the horse. He leads all first-crop sires with 53 runners and 18 winners. He is tops with five black-type winners and eight black-type runners. He also leads in earnings with $1,520,389, as of Oct. 6, which is more than $633,000 his nearest rival. For context, that gap is roughly the same between No. 2 and No. 18. 

The sire's top earner is Sassy C W, who won her first three starts—two in black-type stakes—before finishing off the board her last time out in an allowance race at Kentucky Downs. She's banked $194,200, the second most among all first-crop sires' offspring. His first reported foal in 2023, a New York-bred out of the Frost Giant mare Frostie Anne named Arctic Beast, has delivered on the track, winning both of his starts and posting a 99 Equibase Speed Figure in the Aspirant Stakes. A coincidental connection between father and son is that jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. won a stakes on each.

There's enough enthusiasm for Yaupon's progeny that he has topped several sale sessions this year. Most recently, Yaupon had a colt top Day 8 of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale with Hip 2469 drawing $560,000. Earlier this year, one of his colts topped Day 1 of the Ocala Breeders' Sales June 2-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age Sale, netting $300,000 from trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. Before that, one of his colts saw the hammer drop at the OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training for $1.3 million. That colt, bought by Kaleem Shah, is being trained by Steve Asmussen, who also trained Yaupon. 

Expectations were always sky high for the son of Uncle Mo. 

"They are just fast and very precocious. They are sound mentally, physically, and very talented. I expect them to come out blazing at the 2-year-olds sales and the racetrack," consignor Tom McCrocklin told BloodHorse earlier this year. 

Even last year, one of his colts brought in $900,000 at the Keeneland September sale. 

Owned by William and Corinne Heiligbrodt and bred by Lamantia, Betz, CoCo Equine, Magers, and Burns, Yaupon was 6-0-0 from eight starts with $703,264 in earnings. And of all the things he never got to achieve on the track, he may one day eclipse those feats if his stallion journey can continue with the trajectory it has shown in its first chapter.