The Name You Know: Uncle Mo

As we were discussing last week, Ashford's Uncle Mo, the 2015 Leading North American Freshman Sire by a mile heading into the Breeders' Cup, is one of nine sires with 30 or more weanlings catalogued in the upcoming November sales. But he is also the only sire with more than 40 mares catalogued in foal in the sales, in fact there are 60 mares in foal to Uncle Mo catalogued in the two sales. (See entire table here.)

This is a huge number considering the sire with the second highest number catalogued, also an Ashford stallion, is Shanghai Bobby, with 37. Uncle Mo covered 221 mares in 2015, so 60 is not even 30% of his book. Seven mares in foal to Uncle Mo are catalogued in Keeneland Book 1, but 45 mares are catalogued in foal to him in Keeneland Books 2 and 3.

Six of the nine sires with 30+ weanlings catalogued, as we said last week, are first-crop weanling sires, meaning their first foals were born this year, in 2015. The three non-F2015 sires with 30+ weanlings are F2013 (first 2-year-olds) Uncle Mo, F2014 (first yearlings) The Factor, and Scat Daddy, whose first foals were born in 2009 (oldest now 6-year-olds) but who has exploded commercially this year. Scat Daddy has 33 mares in foal catalogued at the November sales, 15 of which are in Fasig or Keeneland Book 1.

A total of 10 sires have 30 or more mares catalogued in the sales; perhaps surprisingly, none of the 10 are sires which stood their first seasons this year–although eight sires which did stand their first seasons this year have 20-29 mares in foal in the books. However, besides Scat Daddy, the other nine of the 10 sires with 30+ catalogued have their first yearlings, 2-year-olds, or 3-year-olds.

Four of the 10 sires with 30+ mares catalogued in foal stand at Ashford: Uncle Mo (60), Shanghai Bobby (37), Scat Daddy (33), and Declaration of War (30). Shanghai Bobby and Declaration of War (who stood his first season at Coolmore in Ireland, and incidentally we hear rave reviews of his foals from other sources than the farm which stands him) are two of the four sires with their first foals this year, along with WinStar's GI Haskell winner Paynter (33) and Claiborne's 2013 GI Kentucky Derby winner Orb (31).

Of sires with their first yearlings, WinStar's Bodemeister, the leading first-year North American sire of yearlings by average, has 36 mares catalogued in foal, and Darby Dan's Shackleford has 31. Besides Uncle Mo, Lane's End's Twirling Candy, currently #3 on the North American Freshman Sire List, has 35 mares catalogued in foal representing sires with their first 2-year-olds. Another Lane's End sire, Quality Road, with 30 catalogued, leads sires with their first 3-year-olds in number of mares catalogued in foal.

Ashford also supplies the leading first-year covering sire, GI Wood Memorial and GI Haskell (Beyer 116) winner Verrazano (More Than Ready), who has 29 mares catalogued in foal. Spendthrift's GI Whitney winner Cross Traffic (Unbridled's Song) and dual GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Goldencents (Into Mischief) have 24 each catalogued, while Lane's End's Noble Mission (a/k/a Frankel's “little brother”, by Galileo) and Adena Springs' GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner and $5.6-million earner Mucho Macho Man (Macho Uno) have 23 each. Three Chimneys' Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) was beaten a nose that day by Mucho Macho Man but won the GI Travers and GI Clark H. (against 'orders') before and after that close call, and was named 3-year-old Male Eclipse champion in 2013. He has 21 catalogued. Another Three Chimneys stallion, 2013 GI Hopeful winner Strong Mandate (Tiznow) has 20 mares catalogued in foal, as does Hill 'n' Dale's classy miler by Medaglia D'Oro, Atreides.

For a table of leading sires by weanlings catalogued, click here.

Bill Oppenheim may be contacted at bopp@erb.com (please cc TDN management at suefinley@thoroughbreddailynews.com). Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/billoppenheim.