Four Sires to Break Through With First Derby Runners

Being the sire of a Kentucky Derby (G1) runner is a big deal. Ask any stud farm. It's more than a badge of honor, it's invaluable marketing. From the point any given horse qualifies for the Run for the Roses through that race's competition, the number of times the runner's sire has his name mentioned—even in passing—serves as validation. Without anyone having to spell it out, the message is clear: that sire throws quality. But that first Derby runner is more than the answer to a trivia question years later over drinks at Siro's in Saratoga Springs, he is a milestone, and also the beginning of a journey. Who would have suspected that when Goldencents and Vyjack entered the starting gate for the 2013 Derby, their sire, Into Mischief, would go on to the stallion career that he's had? Or that with two expected runners in this year's edition, Commandment and Renegade, he will have sired more Derby entrants (17) in the last 51 years than any other stallion, breaking a tie with Tapit? This year's Derby features four North American sires who are expected to have their first Derby runner, all coming from their first crops. They are Essential Quality and Maxfield, who both stand at Darley; Tacitus, who stands at Taylor Made; and Yaupon, who stands at Spendthrift Farm. Japan's Dee Majesty (JPN) also has his first starter in Wonder Dean (JPN). "It brings a spotlight and... regardless if you're in the business or not, everyone pays attention to it," said Taylor Made Stallions president Travis White. "I think it does a lot, it boosts (the stallion's) numbers if they've got a horse on the Derby trail. It just gives those people that are thinking about breeding that chance to dream a little bit of what could happen." Tacitus is expected to be represented by Silent Tactic, currently seventh on the Derby points leaderboard. The 3-year-old colt has already earned more than $1 million thanks to four top-two finishes in four graded stakes. "I think the running style is very similar," White said of Silent Tactic compared to his sire. "I think in his best races, he doesn't have to be up on a lead, he can kind of sit mid-pack and pick off runners as he gets going. … They both obviously have the pedigree to get the distance, which a lot of these horses don't have. But he's definitely got the running style, very similar to Tacitus to get the distance and have a big shot in that race, actually." But getting a horse to the Derby is no easy task. A lot has to go right. It starts with the right breeding, the training, on-track success, and, of course, health. How different would the 2022 Derby have been had scratches of several horses ahead of Rich Strike in the points standings not occurred? Would Epicenter have won and given his sire Not This Time, the current top sire of 2026, his first Derby winner? A lot of what-ifs. Just getting to the starting gate is difficult. Over the last 50 years in which The Jockey Club records reflect the full fields for the Kentucky Derby, there have been 484 sires to have a Derby runner. Of those, 322 only had one runner. Ever. That's 67%. Eleven of those 322 won (4%). Those same 322 had 36 hit the board. Another 79—16%—had two of their progeny in the Derby, but only 11 won (3%). "Wow. … We all know it's so hard," said Darley Stallions sales manager Darren Fox. "Even getting to the gate is so hard and everyone with the horse connected to a Derby runner is and should be immensely proud. The difficulty, the effort, the collective effort and skill that goes in from everyone—breeders, trainers, every person that has their hands on these horses along the way, the riders. It's just an incredible team effort." Darley's Essential Quality is the sire to one of the favorites, The Puma, winner of the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) and narrow second in the Florida Derby (G1). Interestingly enough, Essential Quality, who was third in the 2021 Derby, is by Tapit, who currently shares the lead for most Derby runners over the last 50 years, and is out of the Elusive Quality mare Delightful Quality. His broodmare sire only had one Derby runner. He won the 2004 edition—Smarty Jones. "With Essential Quality's body of work, really as his races started to stretch out and hit a mile at 2 and beyond, you really started to see the Essential Qualities as a group start to shine," Fox said. "They were doing the best work at the latter end of these longer races, which made you think (they were) crying out for more distance. And look, he was a Belmont (Stakes, G1) winner; the Belmont typifies them more given his sire line and profile. We always felt that time and distance would be their friend. And that's really how his spring unfolded, but then to add in a colt like The Puma breaking his maiden in the Tampa Bay Derby and coming back with a run like that in the Florida Derby, the 1-2 in the Rushaway (Stakes at Turfway Park), it's really his collective body of work. In addition to The Puma, his progeny started to perform to people's expectations based on the sire's profile." Darley also stands Maxfield who sired the Japan-based Danon Bourbon. Undefeated through three starts, he punched his ticket for the Derby by winning the Fukuryu Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths. There is no correlation between having a Derby starter and long-term success in the breeding shed. But according to White and Fox, there is short-term benefit. "There has been strong demand," Fox said of Darley's duo. "Both horses are in their final few available nominations, so they're both in the dying stages of their respective books. We're in a very good spot with both of them, and it's a very nice position to be in." Said White, "It's an immediate short-term impact. But if they go on and they have some depth behind them (and) some of these horses go on to be really good, it does help them out in future years." Spendthrift's Yaupon is sending his son Albus, winner of the Wood Memorial (G2), to Churchill Downs. For Spendthrift Farm, where Into Mischief calls home, having another stallion with a Derby runner is a big deal. "The Derby means a lot," said Ned Toffey, Spendthrift's general manager and chief operating officer. "It's so important because so many people are thinking of that when they're breeding. I think it also means that you've bred a horse that has the potential to be a Classic horse and that's important to breeders. … Yaupon, I think certainly always is going to have sort of a speed slant to him. But this demonstrates that he's not just a speed sire. It means a lot for a variety of reasons and that's where everybody in our industry is trying to get to." Yaupon fits right in with his contemporaries Essential Quality, Maxfield, and Tacitus. They are all among the top-six ranked second-crop sires, which Yaupon sits atop those rankings. Last year, Yaupon, Maxfield, and Essential Quality finished 1-2-3 for first-crop sires. "I'd go back to Into Mischief and he had a fairly limited crop of horses, but had not one but two runners in the Derby in his first crop," Toffey said. "And even though both those horses turned out to be better at a little bit of a shorter distance, it showed the potential, and that was a pretty good harbinger of things to come. "I think that's the same thing here. I think Yaupon has been really tremendous in terms of getting brilliant horses. He's got great-looking horses, very commercial-looking, and they did sell well. Then they came out and they performed early, which was sort of what they looked like. They looked fast and early. … It just shows he keeps making that progression from not only a commercial horse but one who can get runners. … Now people want to see, can he get really good horses? I think he's showing that. They want to know can he get Classic-type horses? He's showing that. It's just that progression that you want to see them all follow, and he's doing that." Whether any of these stallions sire future Derby runners remains to be seen, but what we do know is May 2 is just one chapter of their story that many hope will be filled with success.