Tight race for leading US turf sire as English Channel and Kitten's Joy battle

With ten days remaining for 2020 all but one of the leading North American sires titles have been decided - the one undecided contest could be a nail-biter.

Spendthrift Farm's marquee sire Into Mischief rolls toward the end of the year and his second consecutive general leading sire title with an untouchable margin of more than $10.36 million. His total progeny earnings for the year, which exceeds $22m, has already set a North American single-season record.

The 15-year-old son of Harlan's Holiday also has a comfortable lead for the title of leading sire of juveniles. An impressive runner-up on the leading sires of two-year-olds list is Darley's freshman Nyquist, who will be this year's leading first-crop sire. Nyquist has nearly $2.4m in progeny earnings and is the sire of Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Vequist.

WinStar Farm's Constitution, the sire of Belmont Stakes winner Tiz The Law, will be the leading second-crop sire with nearly $800,000 more in progeny earnings than Ashford Stud's American Pharoah.

Tiz The Law: contributed to his sire's earnings this yearCredit: Al Bello (Getty Images)

The top three second-crop sires by progeny earnings are a powerful trio, with each in a leadership position in at least one key statistical category. Constitution leads by progeny earnings and number of black-type performers (19), while American Pharoah is the leader for the year to date by number of Graded stakes winners (6) and Grade 1 winners (2), and Darby Dan's Tapiture heads his class by number of winners (85).

Adding another laurel branch to Into Mischief's accomplishments is his son Goldencents, who is expected to be the leading third-crop sire of 2020 with a more than $1.1m advantage over Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa's Mucho Macho Man. Like his sire, Goldencents also leads his class by number of winners, number of black-type winners, and number of black-type performers.

WinStar should have a second title to celebrate with Paynter, an 11-year-old son of the late Awesome Again, expected to be the year's leading fourth-crop sire. He got a big boost from his son Knicks Go, who won the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and has earned $608,440 in prize-money this year.

The closest contest of the year is in the leading turf sires division, where before racing on Monday $163,157 separated the top-ranked English Channel from previous six-time leading turf sire Kitten's Joy.

High-profile winners put Calumet Farm's English Channel on top. He has sired five American Graded stakes winners so far this year, led by Channel Maker, who won two of his four Grade 1s in 2020 and banked $839,443. English Channel, an 18-year-old son of Smart Strike, has $4,768,309 in progeny turf earnings.

Hill 'n' Dale's Kitten's Joy has not had as many Graded winners as English Channel this year but is the leading turf sire by number of winners, with 81. This deep bench of performers has earned $4,605,152 so far in purses, and Kitten's Joy could still be a late closer for the title.

From December 26-31, Santa Anita,Fair Grounds and Gulfstream have 11 turf stakes scheduled that are worth a total $1.2m.

Kitten's Joy has two entries at Gulfstream. He'll be represented by six-year-old gelding Focus Group in the $75,000 H Allen Jerkens Stakes, while on the same card is the $75,000 Tropical Park Derby, which will include Ken and Sarah Ramsey's Don Juan Kitten, a three-year-old colt out of Romance Project.

Siamese, a three-year-old filly out of Keri Keri, has been entered in a $43,000 allowance race on December 26 at Fair Grounds. She was bred by the Ramseys and is raced by Qatar Racing Limited and Marc Detampel.

More Than Ready

If the three Kitten's Joy runners win, the sire could pick up $118,800 in purses and narrow the gap with English Channel to $44,357.

So far, English Channel has one horse entered - the two-year-old Patronus is listed for a $29,000 maiden claiming race at Gulfstream on Wednesday. Raced by Stephen Screnci, Patronus is 30-1 on the morning line.

More Than Ready, WinStar's third-ranked turf sire, is not out of the hunt either with a $200,567 gap to close with English Channel. He has two entries in the $75,000 Tropical Park Oaks on Boxing Day -Martin Schwartz' More Than Unusual and Live Oak Plantation's homebred American Giant. The veteran sire also has the four-year-old Ginny B entered in the same turf allowance race at Fair Grounds as Siamese.

Santa Anita is likely where the leading turf sire title will be decided with six turf stakes races valued at $825,000.

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