May has arrived and the Triple Crown is upon us. As of Thursday morning, there are 22 horses entered in the year’s Kentucky Derby with two on the also-eligible (AE) list for the (meaning if someone scratches out of the main body of the field, those horses have a chance at getting into the race).
Keeping up with my yearly Derby week tradition, I dug into the stats on each horse to learn more about the bloodstock side of the entries with information on stallions, dams, and sales. Find all the information below.
Stud Fees
The average stud fee at the time of conception for this year’s Kentucky Derby entries was $95,625 with a median of $80,000 (this only includes the 13 stallions who had advertised fees in both 2019 and 2023 – for example, Gun Runner was private this year so his fee is not included).
The median dropped to $75,000 for the fees in 2023 but the average went up to $106,141. The least expensive in 2019 was Mind Your Biscuits at approximately $18,125 and most expensive was Tapit at $225,000. Classic Empire is the least expensive this year with an advertised fee of $15,000 while Into Mischief leads the group at $250,000.
Stallions who saw an increase from 2019: Curlin ($175,000 to $225,000), Good Magic ($35,000 to $50,000), Into Mischief ($150,000 to $250,000), Mind Your Biscuits ($18,125 to $29,837), Quality Road ($150,000 to $200,000), and Uncle Mo ($150,000). Violence saw his fee drop a bit between 2019 and 2023 but in both years, he’s stood for $40,000. Gun Runner is listed as private in 2023 but it’s certain his fee is above the $70,000 he stood at in 2019. Drefong was listed as private on the stud fee list I found for 2019 and stands for approximately $52,370 this year – likely well above the fee he stood for in 2019.
Gun Runner, Shanghai Bobby and Drefong were the three not counted in the average and median.
Sale Prices
Three of the horses entered in the Kentucky Derby went through a sale as weanlings with Angel of Empire (Classic Empire) RNAing for $32,000 at Keeneland November and Sun Thunder (Into Mischief) bringing $400,000 at Fasig-Tipton November. Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Forte (Violence) was the third one to go through the ring at that age, bringing $80,000.
All three of those horses joined the 18 other entries who were offered as yearlings. Angel of Empire sold this time for $70,000, Sun Thunder was a $495,000 RNA, and Forte saw his price increase to $110,000. The most expensive of the offerings at the yearling sales was Tapit Trice (Tapit), who brought $1.3 million. The least expensive was Confidence Game (Candy Ride), who was snapped up for $25,000. Five went through the ring at 2-year-old sales (all were offered as yearlings as well, none offered as weanlings) with Kingsbarns (Uncle Mo) the most expensive at $800,000.
Sires and Damsires
Sixteen stallions have runners entered in the Kentucky Derby with 15 having runners drawn into the main field. Proven top stallions Candy Ride, Curlin, Violence and Into Mischief are all stallions with multiple runners. Curlin is also joined in the multiple runners club by his son Good Magic, who has two (Mage and Reincarnate) entries from his first crop. Good Magic is joined by Justify and Mind Your Biscuits as first crop sires with at least one runner while Classic Empire, Gun Runner, and Practical Joke all have second crop 3-year-olds entered.
The average age of the stallions at time of conception in 2019 was 10 years of age with Justify and Good Magic the youngest at four and Candy Ride the oldest at 20.
It continues to be Tapit’s world and we’re just living in it. The Gainesway stallion is not only the sire of Tapit Trice but is also the broodmare sire of Hit Show (Candy Ride), Disarm (Gun Runner), Rocket Can (Into Mischief), and Kingsbarns (Uncle Mo). He is joined by Bernardini as horses with two entries out of their daughters with Bernardini’s Confidence Game (Candy Ride) drawn into the main field and Cyclone Mischief (Into Mischief) currently sitting on the Also Eligible list as of 10:30AM on Thursday.
Bernardini is also the grandsire of Angel of Empire’s dam with his son To Honor and Serve siring that one’s dam. They are the only father/son duo on the broodmare sire side while there are three (Into Mischief/Practical Joke, Candy Ride/Gun Runner, Curlin/Good Magic) of those pairs on the sire side.
The ages of the broodmares with runners in this race sits a little lower than the sires with an average age of 7.5 years at conception. Angel of Empire and Lord Miles’ (Curllin) dams are the youngest with both three years of age when bred. Jace’s Road’s (Quality Road) dam was the oldest at 13 years old. Five of the mares were seven when bred while four were nine.
Sire Lines
There are a variety of stallion lines represented in this Derby by stallions with runners. Storm Cat has seven of the entries through Drefong, Into Mischief, Justify, Practical Joke, and Shanghai Bobby), Smart Strike’s sire line is responsible for four of the entries thanks to the duo of Curlin and Good Magic, and Fappiano has three of the runners through Candy Ride and his son Gun Runner.
Also represented on the sire side of the entries is Unbridled (Classic Empire’s Angel of Empire), Danzig (Hard Spun’s Two Phil’s), Deputy Minister (Mind Your Biscuit’s Serma Sotogake), Gone West (Quality Road’s Jace’s Road), A.P. Indy (Tapit’s Tapit Trice), In Excess (Uncle Mo’s Kingsbarns), and Sadler’s Wells (Violence’s duo of Forte and Raise Cain).
The aforementioned Bernardini and To Honor and Serve are two of the six broodmare sires hailing from the A.P. Indy line with runners in the race with those six having 10 of the entries. A.P. Indy is joined by Danzig as stallions whose sireline has runners in the race both on the sire and broodmare sire side with his grandson Big Brown siring Mage’s dam Puca (Good Magic) and son Hard Spun the sire of Two Phil’s. Fappiano also has horses from his sire line on both sides with the two joined by Fappiano thanks to Dunkirk siring the dam of Tapit Trice.
Not surprisingly with his dominance in the Japanese breeding pool, Sunday Silence is represented by two sons’ daughters in the race – both from Japan. One of those is the AE Mandarin Hero (Shanghai Bobby) while the other is the main field runner Derma Sotogake (Mind Your Biscuits). Kingmambo is represented by the third Japanese runner with Continuar (Drefong) out of a mare by his influential stallion son King Kamehameha. Another stallion comes from the line in Lemon Drop Kid – that one the broodmare sire of Violence’s Raise Cain.
Other sirelines with runners both through sires and broodmare sires are Storm Cat (Scat Daddy is the broodmare sire of Reincarnate and is also the grandsire of Verifying), Sadler’s Wells (through Violence’s two runners and Sun Thunder – all three come from the El Prado/Medaglia d’Oro branch), and Deputy Minister (Derma Sotogake and Jace’s Road both come from the Silver Deputy branch of that line.)
Birthdays
The debate of foaling dates is a hot topic in the racing industry with some not wanting to buy a later born foal and others not caring much if they were born in January or May.
Interestingly, most of this year’s runners were conceived (and foaled) late in the breeding season. Nine of the entries were foaled on April 18 or later (with three others born in early April) with two born in May. On the earlier side, Kingsbarns was the only one born in January (January 17), three were born in February, and five were born in March. There are two May foals in the race with Hit Show a May 9 birthday and Verifying the youngest with a May 11 foaling date.
It’s worth noting that each of the last four horses to cross the line first in the Kentucky Derby were born in April or May with three of them coming in late April or May (Rich Strike – 4/25, Medina Spirit – 4/5, Authentic – 5/5, and Maximum Security – 5/14).
Prep Races
The Blue Grass Stakes gave a solid hint of why it was quickly upgraded back to Grade 1 status if this year’s Kentucky Derby is any indication. Four of the entries made their last pre-Derby start in the race (Tapit Trice, Verifying, Sun Thunder, and Raise Cain) with three entries each coming in the Arkansas Derby, Florida Derby, and Santa Anita Derby.
The only horse who didn’t start in the final round of prep races this year is Confidence Game. Raced seven times in his career so far, his last race was a win in the G2 Rebel Stakes on February 22 after a third in the G3 Lecomte Stakes. The Rebel last produced a Kentucky Derby winner in 2015 with American Pharoah – though the Triple Crown winner went on to win the G1 Arkansas Derby before the Kentucky Derby.
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