Sire Ranking – Again

The pressure of the first yearling sales is already here. It is time to do a new ranking that adds the new sires, and rethinks the current market.

Honor Code is still my favorite, and my main goal is to recreate Honor AP in some fashion. Twirling Candy is just too popular and therefore takes a big drop. Cairo Prince moves into 2nd place, especially if I can find a “turf” mare.

I am not thrilled by the new class. Only Collected, West Coast, and Accelerate move into the top 25.

The difficult sire to rank is Frosted. Is he a value or a write-off? Even Classic Empire is slipping and might present some opportunity.

The new catalog for the Saratoga yearling sale is out and it looks like Bolt d’ Oro, Good Magic and Mendelssohn will be too popular.

Tonalist move back up my new list and so does Upstart and Astern.

1. Honor Code (trying to recreate Honor AP),
2. Cairo Prince (getting better mares),
3. Midnight Storm (maybe too popular at the sales?),
4. Point of Entry (the heir to Dynaformer?),
5. Connect (a cheap Curlin?),
6. American Freedom (AP Indy + Pleasant Colony),
7. Tonalist (Country Grammar is the model)
8. Gormley (a quicker Malibu Moon?),
9. Dialed In (still a value),
10. Shaman Ghost (not in anyone else’s top 10),
11. Unified (can he be more than a miler?, the Centennial influence),
12. Union Rags (still the unicorn),
13. Liam’s Map (Colonel Liam is the story),
14. Upstart (let’s rethink)
15. Classic Empire (did not sell as well as expected),
16. Frosted (are we giving up too soon?),
17. Collected (maybe a stamina sire?)
18. West Coast (trusting Lane’s End)
19. Accelerate (Looking at Lucky + Awesome Again)
20. Astern (maybe he will go two turns)
21. Mastery (losing popularity with the cool kids?)
22. Mr. Speaker (decent turf horses),
23. Lemon Drop Kid (the last crops),
24. Temple City (falling behind Point of Entry),
25. Air Force Blue (not giving up yet),
26. Summer Front (not many to choose from),
27. Creative Cause (the Airdrie factor)
28. Violence (can they go two turns?),
29. Twirling Candy (too popular)
30. Funtastic
31. Good Samaritan
32. Cloud Computing
33. Always Dreaming
34. Tapwrit
35. Oscar Performance
36. Mendelssohn
37. City of Light
38. Bolt d’ Oro
39. Good Magic
40. Maclean’s Music (can they go two turns?),
41. Blame (trying to recreate Nadal),
42. Bernardini (hard to find a cheap one),
43. Cupid (late developers?),
44. Practical Joke (maybe they will go two turns?),
45. Keen Ice (the ultimate plodder),
46. Exaggerator (plodder),
47. Hard Spun (getting decent turf horses),
48. Malibu Moon (getting cheap enough),
49. Ironicus (the hope of Helium),
50. Ransom the Moon
51. Free Drop Billy
52. Klimt (can they be more than sprinters?),
53. Mohaymen (not much at the sales),
54. Tapiture (solid but not spectacular),
55. Mineshaft (very boring),
56. Midshipman (the ultimate value sire),
57. Flintshire (making a small comeback?),
58. Lea (value?),
59. Karakontie (maybe?),
60. Anchor Down (maybe?),
61. Bal a Bali (watching),
62. Big Blue Kitten (not giving up yet),
63. Brody’s Cause (fading),
64. First Samurai (love the Zilla story),
65. Mshawish (time to give up?),
66. Noble Mission (time to give up?),
67. Orb (exiled),
68. Tourist (time to give up?),
69. Will Take Charge (time to give up),
70. Army Mule