First-crop sires: Second stakes winner for Maximus Mischief

TwinSpires.com will follow prominent first-crop sires whose two-year-olds are hitting the track this season. This installment is the third on 2018 Remsen (G2) winner Maximus Mischief.

With 2 1/2 months remaining in 2023, a fierce battle is shaping up for command of the leading first-crop sire rankings. As of the morning of Oct. 16, Bloodhorse.com list three young sires—Vino Rosso, Maximus Mischief, and Mitole—ranked 1-2-3 by progeny earnings while separated by less than $14,000.

Maximus Mischief has lost the lead he held during the summer and early fall, but with progeny earnings of $1,357,491 he’s only $1,147 behind top-ranked Vino Rosso. And Maximus Mischief leads or is tied for the top spot when ranked by number of winners (20) and black-type stakes winners (two).

Glengarry is now a stakes winner

The last four weeks have been relatively quiet for sons and daughters of Maximus Mischief, with only two managing to visit the winner’s circle. But one of those wins came courtesy of Glengarry, an Iowa-bred colt who dominated his Aug. 28 debut at Prairie Meadows by 5 3/4 lengths.

Glengarry made his stakes debut in the six-furlong Iowa Cradle S. on Sept. 30 at Prairie Meadows and left no doubt about his superiority. Indeed, the gray colt led all the way through quick fractions of :21.76 and :44.94 and widened his advantage at every call to win by 12 3/4 lengths in 1:09.42.

The Iowa Cradle was restricted to Iowa-bred runners, but Glengarry’s margin of victory and fast winning time suggest he’s talented enough to compete against non-state-restricted stakes competition. He joins Sharp Susan S. winner Let Them Watch as the second black-type stakes winner sired by Maximus Mischief and appears to have a bright future.

Woke Up Quick beats New York-breds at Aqueduct

The only other winner for Maximus Mischief over the last four weeks was Woke Up Quick, a New York-bred colt who showed tenacity to win a six-furlong maiden special weight against fellow New York-breds over the Aqueduct outer turf course on Oct. 4.

Woke Up Quick never really factored in his Sept. 4 debut sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs on grass at Saratoga, finishing fourth by 6 3/4 lengths. But he showed much-improved early speed at Aqueduct, setting fractions of :23.10 and :46.89 before holding off a late challenge to win by a neck. The winning time over a rain-dampened good turf course was 1:11.47.

Cel’s Star achieves a stakes placing

On the same day that Glengarry smashed the Iowa Cradle, Cel’s Star produced a game effort in the Iowa Sorority S. for Iowa-bred juvenile fillies sprinting six furlongs at Prairie Meadows.

Cel’s Star lost her first four starts before winning a Prairie Meadows maiden special weight on Sept. 1, and her 1-for-5 record may have been the reason why she started as a 16-1 longshot in the Iowa Sorority.  But the dark bay filly exceeded all expectations, rallying from seventh place at the eighth pole to finish third by three-quarters of a length.

This fine try made Cel’s Star the fourth Maximus Mischief to win or place in a black-type stakes, following Let Them Watch, Glengarry, and Best Pal (G3) third-place finisher Raging Torrent. In addition, Carmelina won the Keswick S. at Colonial Downs, a non-black-type stakes that nevertheless carried a decent $105,500 purse.

Early-bird stud fee set at $25,000

Maximus Mischief stands at Spendthrift Farm, and at the start of 2023 his stud fee was a mere $7,500. That’s slated to go up for the 2024 breeding season.

Thanks to the impressive success of his first crop of foals, Spendthrift Farm has set an early-bird stud fee for Maximus Mischief at $25,000. That amount may change depending on how the rest of the year plays out; if Maximus Mischief picks up a graded stakes winner or two and continues to rank at or near the top of the first-crop sire rankings, we could see his final 2024 fee rise even higher than $25,000.