Deep Books Produce Cody's Wish, Elite Power First Foals

The first weanlings by a pair of dual Breeders' Cup World Championships winners and a four-time grade 1 winner who was a champion at 2 will likely draw a lion's share of the attention in this segment of the market during Kentucky's November mixed sales.

Interest might be keenest for the progeny by Darley Stallions' Cody's Wish  and Juddmonte Farms' Elite Power , both sons of Curlin  who made history in 2023 by winning consecutive editions of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) and Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), respectively. Cody's Wish would be heralded as the year's Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male, while Elite Power was named the year's champion male sprinter.

Cody's Wish led his sire class by price with a $75,000 entering-year stud fee. The quality of Godolphin's breeding program elevated the sire to be the leader, too, with a 3.37 Class Performance Index for his first book, an index that indicates how good the mares were as racehorses. Additionally, his book ranks among the top four by the Comparable Index, which indicates how strong the mares are collectively as producers when bred to other sires. Cody's Wish first dams have a 2.35 CI, one of three sires in the class with a CI above 2.00.

Elite Power, also supported by a strong international breed-to-race program, ranks second in the sire class with a 3.22 CPI and ranks fifth with a 2.35 CI. He entered stud at $50,000—the co-second-highest for the sire class.

By book strength, Spendthrift Farm's Forte  is in the same league as Cody's Wish and Elite Power. He leads the sire class with a 2.65 CI and ranks third with a 2.83 CPI. 

The son of Violence  also lends championship credentials to his first foals as the 2022 champion 2-year-old colt, which should put him foremost on the radar of pinhookers. Forte won three grade 1 stakes at 2, taking the Hopeful Stakes (G1), Breeders' Futurity (G1), and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1). At 3, he added three more graded stakes to his record with wins in the Florida Derby (G1), Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2), and Jim Dandy Stakes (G2). 

Other first-crop weanling sires with graded stakes form at 2 include Ashford Stud's Gunite , Claiborne Farm's Annapolis , Taylor Made Stallions' Dr. Schivel , WinStar Farm's Two Phil's , and Walmac Farm's Pappacap . Among these sires Annapolis, a son of War Front , attracted the strongest first book with a 1.58 CI and a 2.19 CPI. At 2, Annapolis won the Pilgrim Stakes (G2T) and went on at 3 to win the Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland and ran second in the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T) at Saratoga Race Course.

The glow of the Kentucky Derby (G1) will surely shine on the first foals by Airdrie Stud's Mage , who won the American classic in 2023. He ranks among the top five first-crop weanling sires (who bred 50 or more mares) with a 1.78 CI and backs that up with a 2.04 CPI, respectively. While Mage did not race at 2, his sire Good Magic  is 2017's champion 2-year-old colt and was also runner-up in 2018 Kentucky Derby.

Buyers also will be seeing the first crop of another classic winner, 2023 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Arcangelo . The son of Arrogate, who stands at Lane's End, has a solid 1.28 CI and 1.62 CPI for his first dams. Arrogate, who tragically died young in 2020, was a top 10 freshman sire and the co-leader of his sire class as a second-crop sire by number of grade 1 winners with four alongside Three Chimneys Farm's leading sire Gun Runner .

Rounding out the top 15 sires with 50 or mares bred by CI are Spendthrift's Taiba  (1.60), Lane's End's Up to the Mark  (1.50), and Spendthrift's Arabian Lion  (1.40), Darley's Proxy  (1.24), Rockridge Stud's Americanrevolution  (1.23), Gunite (1.21), Two Phil's (1.13), WinStar's Country Grammer  (1.10), and Pappacap (1.08). 

The top 15 sires by CPI that also had a CI above 1.00 include Up to the Mark (2.45), Gunite (2.17), Two Phil's (1.96), Proxy (1.96), Americanrevolution (1.77), Arabian Lion (1.74), Taiba (1.72), Pappacap (1.48), and Country Grammer (1.21).