WinStar Farm announces 2026 fees as Constitution and Life Is Good lead the way

WinStar Farm has announced its stud fees for 2026, headed once again by Constitution and Life Is Good, who will stand for  $110,000 and $60,000 respectively. 

The roster will be further bolstered by recently retired multiple Grade 1 winner Patch Adams, who will stand his first season for $30,000, and Straight No Chaser, last year's champion male sprinter, who is set to defend his crown in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar next month and will stand for $10,000. 

The fees for Constitution, Straight No Chaser, and Independence Hall are subject to change pending Breeders' Cup results.

"Each year brings in a new level of excitement," said WinStar Farm president, CEO, and racing manager Elliott Walden. "This year, we have two new Grade 1 winners from different sire lines. Constitution has gone from strength to strength from the racetrack to the sales ring and now has several sons turning into excellent sires. He has three horses pointing to the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar, and all have a big chance.

"Life Is Good's first two-year-olds are ready to hit the track in 2026, and he presents a great risk-reward opportunity for breeders. He's covered 566 high-quality mares in his first three crops and offers exceptional value in his fourth season at stud.

"We're thrilled to welcome a third-generation homebred in multiple Grade 1 winner Patch Adams to our roster for 2026, and he will be joined by Straight No Chaser, an Eclipse Award winner and Breeders' Cup champion just like his grandsire, Speightstown, who had a huge impact on the breed. We're trying to offer value at all points of our roster, and our team is eager to help with your mating plans for 2026."

Constitution is the fifth leading sire this season with progeny earnings of more than $12 million. His leading runners in 2025 include leading Breeders' Cup Classic contender and chief earner Mindframe ($1,197,220), a winner of the Stephen Foster Stakes, Churchill Downs Stake, and Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes; Parchment Party, a winner of the Belmont Gold Cup and Birdstone Stakes and currently targeting the Melbourne Cup; and Patriot Spirit, a winner of the seven-furlong Vosburgh Stakes and Reigh Count Stakes and under consideration for either the Breeders' Cup Sprint or Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

Straight No Chaser: Breeders' Cup winner will join the roster in 2026Credit: Edward Whitaker

Constitution continues to be a powerhouse in the sales ring. His yearlings this year have been highly sought after, with four commanding $1 million. 

He is also an emerging sire of sires, already represented by multiple Grade 1 winner and leading second-crop sire Tiz The Law, as well as WinStar's promising first-crop sire Independence Hall. The latter saw his first two-year-olds sell for up to $1 million. 

Life Is Good is a four-time Grade 1 winner, capturing the Woodward Stakes, Whitney Stakes and running out a dominant winner of the Pegasus World Cup over Horse of the Year Knicks Go in 2022. The previous year, he won the $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile by nearly six lengths, the largest margin of victory at the 2021 Breeders' Cup, capping off a season in which he won four Graded races.

Life Is Good's first-crop yearlings have sold for as much as $1.25 million this year, and he is one of only two first-crop sires to have had a seven-figure yearling at both the Saratoga Sale and Keeneland September Yearling Sale.  

Patch Adams quickly developed into one of the nation's premier sprinters during his sophomore season for Brad Cox. The colt dominated over the summer at Saratoga, reeling off back-to-back Grade 1 victories in the Woody Stephens Stakes and H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes. 

All told, Patch Adams won four of his seven starts and banked $772,585. He is by perennial leading sire Into Mischief and out of the stakes-winning Distorted Humor mare Well Humored. The family is replete with Graded winners in every generation on the page, including Grade 1 winners Well Armed, Cyberknife, Played Hard and American Patriot.

Life Is Good: first two-year-olds run for the multiple top-level winner in 2026Credit: Edward Whitaker

Straight No Chaser, the globetrotting grandson of Speightstown, was named champion sprinter in 2024 after a thrilling victory in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar, defeating Grade 1 winners Gun Pilot, Raging Torrent and Nakatomi. Campaigned by MyRacehorse, Straight No Chaser was also a resounding winner of the $2 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint at King Abdulaziz racecourse in Saudi Arabia in February. 

Cogburn, by Not This Time, was a record-breaking winner of the Jaipur Stakes last year and concluded the season as the co-highest rated overall sprinter on the Longines World's Best Racehorse rankings with a rating of 121. He covered 194 mares in his first season at stud this year. 

Dubai World Cup hero Country Grammer, who retired as the third-highest earning North American-bred of all time with earnings of $14.9 million, will have his first yearlings in 2026. 

Nashville, who saw his first yearlings sell for up to $425,000 this year, will be represented by his first two-year-olds in 2026. A stakes winner at Keeneland, Nashville covered 494 mares in his first three books. Timberlake, a winner of the Champagne Stakes as a juvenile, defeating subsequent two-year-old champion Fierceness, and a winner of the Rebel Stakes at three, received 161 mares in his first book. The son of Into Mischief will welcome his first foals in the coming year.

Two Phil's, a Graded-winning juvenile and a multiple Graded winner at three, was runner-up in the 2023 Kentucky Derby. A four-time stakes winner by a total of 26 lengths, Two Phil's, a son of Hard Spun, won the Street Sense Stakes at two and the Ohio Derby and Jeff Ruby Steaks as a sophomore. He covered 260 mares in his first two books and will welcome his first yearlings in 2026.

As the Breeders' Cup draws near, additional possible contenders include Audible's stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Splendora in the Filly and Mare Sprint, and Independence Hall's first-crop two-year-old Civil Liberty, who is a possible for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile having finished third in the Del Mar Futurity on just his second start.

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