Into Mischief’s torrid five-year Grade 1 output
Leslie’s Rose is his third top-level winner over the last month alone
By Sid Fernando
It wasn’t that long ago—by the end of 2018, or five years and three months, to be specific—that Spendthrift’s star stallion Into Mischief had only three Grade 1 winners to his credit through seven crops.
Things have changed dramatically since then, with the stallion going on a Grade 1 tear. At the moment, Into Mischief is represented by 21 Grade 1 winners, meaning that he’s added another 18 over five years. At the gaudy rate he’s going, he’s likely to sire more Grade 1 winners before the year is up.
Take his output over the last month alone. Newgate won the Santa Anita Handicap on March 3; Laurel River won the Dubai World Cup on March 30; and Leslie’s Rose won the Ashland on Friday, April 5.
If not for a head bob Saturday in the G1 Santa Anita Derby, Imagination would have been another, and if not for being in Bob Baffert’s barn, he’d probably be heading to the Kentucky Derby—a race won already by two Into Mischief colts: Authentic in 2020 and Mandaloun (by DQ) in 2021.
Imagination aside, the stallion will still be represented in the Derby, by Resilience, who won the G2 Wood Memorial a few hours before the Santa Anita Derby. That’s how prolific Into Mischief is these days at getting Saturday afternoon horses that can win over a distance of ground.
A common thread to the runners noted above is the quality of their dams, most of whom also have pedigrees suited for 1 1/8 miles and above. This has helped to stretch out Into Mischief, who’d be classified as a “trans-brilliant” sire by the pedigree theorist Franco Varola, as opposed to a “pure brilliant” one that’s incapable of blending with stamina.
It’s instructive to read (or reread, if you missed it) part of an article I wrote in TDN in August of 2019 about Into Mischief for perspective, because he started out with a $12,500 fee that dropped as low as $7,500 in his fourth year at stud. It’s $250,000 this year.
Here’s the relevant part:
“Up until now, Into Mischief has carved his reputation mainly as a sire of fast sprinters and milers. Although he got the 1 1/8-mile Gl Santa Anita Derby winner Goldencents from his first crop, Goldencents was subsequently cut back in distance to a mile and twice won the Gl Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile—a distance that was his true métier. Through the end of 2018 from seven crops, Into Mischief had only three Grade l winners to his credit—Goldencents, Practical Joke, and Audible—but he has picked up the pace and has two others this year, the filly sprinters Covfefe and Mia Mischief. Of his 23 Graded winners, only six—Goldencents, Audible, Maximus Mischief, Owendale, Strict Compliance and Vicar’s In Trouble—have won at 1 1/8 miles, and none have won at a distance of more than that; most of his graded winners have won at six and seven furlongs, and some others have stretched it to 1 1/16 miles. This may explain Into Mischief's relatively low output of Grade l winners to date for a $150,000 stallion, but it also points to his quality as a sire that he leads the General Sire list by progeny earnings without significant representation in the most lucrative of races, which are at 1 1/8 miles and up.
“With the better mares he's being bred to, it's easy to project that his Grade l output at 1 1/8 miles and up will increase in the coming years. When that happens, his progeny earnings should rise that much more, which means that his rivals on the General Sire list are in for a greater tussle in the ensuing years.
“The latest chapter of this impressive stallion's book is just being written. Stay tuned.”
And continue to stay tuned, because this show is a long ways from ending.