Under tack times from Two-Year-Old sales is certainly only one barometer of success for First-Crop Sires. Is it a perfect indicator of precocious babies to come? Of course not, but it is one tool we look at when trying to sort out the difficult question of who we expect will step forward as a top new sire of 2YOs in 2025.
Last year, the juveniles that Vekoma produced were brilliant. So, we thought we’d compare his offspring’s under tack times from last year’s March OBS Sale to the times for this year’s newby sires. Last March, Vekoma had 14 babies complete one furlong at the OBS Sale. Seven, or half of those completed the 1/8th mile dash in 10 seconds flat or less.
First Crop Sires Getting Buzz
This year, there was quite a bit of buzz around three First-Crop Sires – Charlatan (Hill n’ Dale Farms, $50,000 fee) Essential Quality (Darly, $50,000), and Yaupon (Spendthrift Farm, $25,000). Charlatan sent ten of his offspring to the Under Tack Show to complete one furlong. Five of his babies zipped down the lane in our reference time of 10 seconds or less. Maxfield didn’t have as many represent him on the OBS oval as only six were sent over to cover that distance. Interestingly, half of his runners also stopped the clock in our reference time or less. Yaupon was the only one of these three fashionable firsters to send out more than half of his sons or daughters who completed the distance in 10 seconds or less – five of nine.
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Beau Liam Catches Eye
There was one other newby sire’s results that caught my eye – Beau Liam. This Airdrie Stud producer who stands for a relatively low fee of $6,000 had six of his offspring cover the 1/8th in our set time limit, with 11 to cover the distance.
Lexitonian (Calumet, $7,500) had four juveniles go in 10 seconds or less from the ten that he put on the track. And two first croppers sent out two that went in 10 or less – Rock Your World (Spendthrift Farm, $5,000) sent out 12 runners and Modernist (Darby Dan Farm, $5,000) had four breezers perform.
We’ll certainly get a better idea of which new sire will begin to shine in the coming months, but hopefully, this splash of information was helpful to your preparation for the return of the wonderful babies in less than three weeks!
Handicapping Two-Year-Old Maidens can be extremely fun and profitable. As you probably have guessed by my pen name, it is my passion and sole focus. I look forward to providing you with additional information on this category of racing right here on Iron Bets Racing. In the mean time, if you’d like to learn more, please consider picking up a copy of my book, ‘Handicapping Two-Year-Old Thoroughbreds: Consistently Pick Winners in 2YO Maiden Special Weight Races’ on Amazon.
