Into Mischief breaks earnings record after Life Is Good's sizzling debut win

The well-named Life Is Good's debut victory at Del Mar allowed Spendthrift Farm's Into Mischief, to break the North American single-season progeny earnings record set by Gainesway's Tapit in 2016.

Into Mischief's progeny earnings from northern hemisphere racing now totals $19,994,720, according to The Jockey's Club Information Systems' Equineline, meaning the 15-year-old son of Harlan's Holiday is $11,547 ahead of Tapit's record of $19,983,173 with 38 days remaining for 2020.

"Tapit is a wonderful sire, so to eclipse his record is something special," said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift Farm. "To have these kinds of numbers, you have to be consistent and you have to be brilliant. Into Mischief just gets one good runner after another."

Trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by Mike Smith, Life Is Good won by nine and a half lengths, earning $34,200 in prize-money. Gary and Mary West bred the colt in Kentucky out of the Distorted Humor mare Beach Walk, while his owners bought him at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $525,000 through Paramount Sales.

Bob Baffert: trainer of Life Is Good

Into Mischief's progeny performance statistics for 2020 alone speak to his consistency as a sire. Besides leading by progeny earnings, he is the top sire by number of winners (174), number of black-type winners (28) and number of black-type performers (58), and has the highest percentage of black-type performers from runners (14.5 per cent).

Into Mischief is the co-leader by number of Grade 1 winners with three, alongside WinStar Farm's Speightstown and More Than Ready, Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa's Violence, and Claiborne Farm's War Front.

Toffey added: "Early on in his career, we used to talk about what this horse could accomplished if he could keep up his numbers with bigger books and they're pretty close."

Authentic became Into Mischief's first Kentucky Derby winner and followed up with victory in the Breeders' Cup Classic, putting him in front for Horse of the Year honours. Authentic will enter stud next year at Spendthrift at a fee of $75,000.

Into Mischief's considerable feats for 2020 also include the success of his son and leading third-crop sire Goldencents, who leads his class by progeny earnings ($5,997,930), number of winners (92), number of black-type winners (six), and number of Graded stakes winners (three).

"Now Into Mischief is going to that next level and proving himself as a sire of sires," Toffey said. "We're running out of superlatives."

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