A majority of the North American stallions atop the BloodHorse's most-watched leading sires lists have a comfortable margin heading into mid-December with one exception.
The race for the leading sire of 2-year-olds in one weekend has turned into a dogfight between Taylor Made Stallion's hot sire Not This Time and Spendthrift Farm's marquee sire Into Mischief , who is well positioned to capture his seventh consecutive title as North America's leading general sire.
As of Nov. 28, Not This Time had built a $405,338 lead by Northern Hemisphere progeny earnings over Into Mischief. The 11-year-old son of Giant's Causeway also led the ranking for sires of juveniles by number of winners (36), stakes winners (7), and was tied with Three Chimneys Farm's Gun Runner by number of graded stakes winners at three apiece. In one weekend, however, Into Mischief's runners closed the earnings gap to $76,319. Leading the charge were two stakes winners: Consequent, who won the Starlet Stakes (G2) at Los Alamitos Race Course, and Sneaky Good, who won the Sandpiper Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
Consequent, a Juddmonte Farms homebred filly trained by Bob Baffert, earned $120,000 for winning the Starlet Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile on the dirt. She is undefeated in two starts and has career earnings of $156,000 so far.
Sneaky Good is a filly owned by NK Racing and LNJ Foxwoods. She earned $60,000 for winning the Sandpiper Stakes, a 6-furlong race on Tampa Bay Downs' main track. She is trained by Brad Cox and is also undefeated in two starts. She has earned $124,790 so far.
A couple of other big contributors for Into Mischief were Valiant, a colt owned by Grandview Equine, LNJ Foxwoods, and Hubert Vester, who earned $60,374 in a 1-mile allowance level race at Turfway Park for Cox; and Renegade, who earned $50,000 for finishing second in the Remsen Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack. Had Renegade won the Remsen and the winner's share of $137,500, then Into Mischief would be leading the standings for sires of juveniles. Renegade is owned by Robert and Lawana Low with Repole Stable and trained by Todd Pletcher. In races run Dec. 5-7, Into Mischief runners collectively earned $314,374.
"I think it shows you that Into Mischief is not resting on his laurels," said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift. "He continues to sire new quality horses. His stats are not from a group of older horses that are hanging around. I think this is just a tremendous crop."
Into Mischief has already earned six titles as the leading sire of 2-year-olds, getting his first one with $3,107,134 in progeny earnings for 2016 and earning his latest title for 2022 with $4,750,989 in earnings.
Not This Time's current hold on the leading sire of 2-year-olds title is reinforced by his lead in several categories besides earnings. He also leads by number of winners (37), stakes winners (nine), and black-type performers (16).
However, the sires of 2-year-olds contest turns out, Not This Time will not exit 2025 empty-handed as he has locked up the leading turf sire title with $12,662,607 in progeny earnings. Lane's End's Twirling Candy is in second with $10,132,970. Not This Time also leads the turf sire standings by number of winners (61), stakes winners (17), graded stakes winners (nine), and grade 1 stakes winners (three).
Making the race for leading sire of 2-year-olds even more intriguing is that Not This Time and Into Mischief have already surpassed the North American record earnings for this category, which was $4,980,492 set by Ashford Stud's Justify in 2023. As of Dec. 8, Not This Time has $5,292,216 in earnings, and Into Mischief has $5,215,897 in earnings.
Travis White, president of Taylor Made Stallions, said everyone at the farm is really hoping that Not This Time can pull off two leading sire titles.
"We are trying to figure out what we have in the next few weeks to run because it is getting really close," White said. "Anytime you are head-to-head, though, with a stallion like Into Mischief, who has been the best stallion for a very long time, you are in very good company."
