Sovereignty reigns at Churchill Downs to rewrite history for Godolphin and Into Mischief

Sovereignty made history in the Kentucky Derby twice over at Churchill Downs on Saturday: Bill Mott's colt is the first winner of the Run for the Roses owned by Godolphin, who became the first owner-breeder since Calumet Farm in 1952 to do the Kentucky Oaks - Derby double and the son of Into Mischief was a record-equalling third winner of the race for Spendthrift Farm's champion sire.

Sandwiched between the homebred triumphs of Good Cheer and Sovereignty in Kentucky was the success of Ruling Court in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, part of a stunning 24 hours for Sheikh Mohammed's global enterprise.

His Kentucky Derby victory was the third Graded stakes win for the colt who is the third foal out of the unraced Bernadini mare Crowned. She was purchased by John Ferguson on behalf of Godolphin for $1.2m at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale from Eaton Sales.

Crowned is a daughter of the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes winner Mushka who was trained, like her grandson, by Bill Mott. There is family history with the Churchill Downs' Classics: Mushka's second dam, the quadruple Grade 1 winner Lakeway, was second in the race and is also the granddam of Flying Spur, third in the contest.

Godolphin's use of Into Mischief on their top-class mares has yielded two Classic winners in three years as triple Grade 1 winner Pretty Mischievous is one of 24 individual top-level winners he has sired.

"We had Pretty Mischievous by two years' ago who won the Oaks," Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA's director of bloodstock, told Bloodhorse. "We've had some nice horses by him but this horse is probably the best one we've had.

"He's a wonderful stallion. He's a great speed influence but, as you can see, if he gets the right mare he can get classic one-and-a-quarter-mile horses as well."

Now standing at a career-high fee of $250,000 Into Mischief has been champion sire in North America for the past six years and Sovereignty's success is an historical one for the Grade 1 Futurity Stakes winner.

Into Mischief joins an elite group of five stallions who have sired three winners of the Kentucky Derby and is the first horse is almost 70 years to achieve that feat. The most recent was Bull Lea who gained entry to that club with the victory of Iron Leigh in 1957, and in a serendipitous turn of events, the colt was owned and bred by Calumet Farm, and was a half-brother to the dam of 1955 Kentucky Derby hero Swaps. Prior to that Sir Galahad II, Virgil and Falsetto had sired three winners apiece.

Into Mischief:

The significance of the moment was not lost on Mark Toothaker, stallion sales manager for Spendthrift Farm.

Toothaker said: "He's a breed-changing sire and we are all unbelievably blessed to be at Spendthrift at the same time he's there. He is just a rarity."

"That's the thing with Into Mischief, is with him being the leading general sire in North America six years in a row and now this year, pretty much has a real shot to make it seven years in a row.

"You've got to go back to Bold Ruler in the '60s to find another stallion like that. And for him to accomplish what he did today, it just further proves what a great sire he is, and what a historic sire he is."

Toothaker recalled the early years of Into Mischief's stud career when he was a hard sell. Without a Grade 1 win at three, his younger half-sister Beholder had not been born when the son of Harlan's Holiday retired to the Kentucky farm for a fee that was not advertised.

"Who would have ever thought, you know, you go back to the beginning, when we were begging people to breed to him and it's just, it's crazy," Toothaker continued. "I remember doing breed secures on Into Mischief at $7,000."

Beholder came along and became a champion and Mendelssohn, their Scat Daddy half-brother won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf for Coolmore but at that stage Into Mischief had announced himself as a special stallion.

From his first crop came Goldencents, who won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby and back-to-back runnings of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, and stands alongside his sire at Spendthrift.

The late Bernardini, broodmare sire of SovereigntyCredit: Michele MacDonald

The top-level winners kept coming and with the victories of Authentic and Mandaloun in the 2020 and 2021 renewals of the Kentucky Derby, Into Mischief became the first stallion to sire successive winners of the race, albeit Mandaloun was awarded the race following the disqualification of Medina Spirit for doping violations.

Authentic, along with Goldencents and Maximus Mischief, retired to stand at Spendthrift and combining with sons at stallion farms elsewhere are establishing an Into Mischief sireline.

Goldencents sired the 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan and this year's Wood Memorial winner Rodriguez is from the first crop of Authentic. Coolmore stand Into Mischief's Grade 1 H Allen Jerkins, Champagne and Hopeful Stakes winner Practical Joke and the 11-year-old is already the sire of four individual Grade 1 winners.

Mandaloun and the four-time Grade 1 winner Life Is Good have their first yearlings this year while Timberlake, successful in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes, joined the WinStar ranks this year and Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap winner Newgate is standing his first season at Three Chimneys Farm.

In time Sovereignty will have a place at Darley's Jonabell Farm but fittingly, Sovereignty's broodmare sire Bernadini was a homebred for Godolphin and became Sheikh Mohammed's first winner of a Triple Crown contest when successful in the Preakness Stakes of 2006.

Sovereignty is one of three stakes winners by Into Mischief out of Bernadini mares after the Grade 3 winners Owendale and Twenty Carat. There have been 20 winners from 29 runners bred on the cross with a stakes winners to runners rate of 10 per cent.

Bernardini, who died in 2021, is leaving a notable legacy as a broodmare sire and his daughters have produced the likes of Grade 1 winners Catholic Boy, Mo Town, Paris Lights and Serengeti Empress.

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