A GROUP 1 winner at two, Into Mischief will stand his nineteenth season at stud in 2027 at Spendthrift Farm, and his fee has been announced. For the sixth successive year he will command $250,000.
Given his phenomenal success at stud, it is almost inconceivable to think that for his third and fourth years Into Mischief was available for $7,500 – and likely less than that with a deal. He has sired three Group 1 Kentucky Derby winners, Horse of the Year Authentic, Mandaloun and Sovereignty in 2025, and a rake of champions.
Into Mischief is half-brother to a pair of Breeders’ Cup winners, Beholder (Distaff twice) and Mendelssohn (Juvenile Turf), and he made history at the weekend. Sovereignty’s win in the Classic was the sire’s eleventh winner at the Breeders’ Cup, and came a day after the undefeated Hughes took the Juvenile. No other sire has more than nine Breeders’ Cup winners. Into Mischief is poised to take the top spot on this year’s general sire list, and he is currently the reigning seven-time champion sire.
SOVEREIGNTY (USA), 4c by Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday) out of Crowned (Bernardini). Bred by Godolphin
The decision to keep Sovereignty in training at four might at one stage have looked to be the wrong call, but at Keeneland last weekend he captured the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, a long-held target for Sheikh Mohammed, and now he heads to Jonabell with a $150,000 stud fee. He was the champion three-year-old last year and is surely nailed on to add the best older horse title to his trophy list.
Sovereignty goes to stud with eight wins under his belt, five at the highest level. In addition to those already mentioned, he annexed the Belmont, Travers and Whitney Stakes. His appearance has belatedly reaped the $1.2 million investment made by Godolphin when buying Sovereignty’s dam as a yearling 11 years ago.
HUGHES (USA), 2c by Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday) out of K P Dreamin (Union Rags). Bred by Breffni Farm
There is an Irish connection to the unbeaten winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, as he was bred by Breffni Farm, owned by Limerick native Garrett O’Rourke and his wife Rhonda. Son of the late Willie O’Rourke and his wife Fanny, Garrett is a brother of Liam and Brian, and the trio were honoured a few years ago with the ITBA’s Wild Geese Award.
Hughes is the first stakes winner for his dam, and that Grade 1-placed winner was bought at the end of her racing career for $260,000. What a goldmine she is proving to be, and Hughes provided her with her best sale result. He cost $625,000 as a yearling at Keeneland, and his five wins have won back more than $1.5 million. He is odds-on to be crowned champion after bagging three Grade 1s, including the Del Mar Futurity and American Pharoah Stakes.
Hughes’s third dam Mediation (Caerleon) was trained by John Oxx for her owner-breeder Lady Clague and won the Listed Derrinstown Stud Oaks Trial at Leopardstown before going to continue her racing career in the USA. She went to stud there, had 10 winners, and the best by some way was Grade 1 winner Go Between (Point Given). His winning full-sister Litigating (Point Given) is the grandam of Hughes.
WAYS AND MEANS (USA), 5f by Practical Joke (Into Mischief) out of Strong Incentive (Warrior’s Reward). Bred by Klaravich Stables
Following her victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, the homebred Ways And Means was again in the limelight, thanks to topping the Fasig-Tipton November Sale.
The bidding opened at $500,000 and rose quickly to $2.5 million. It took a more sedate pace after that until the hammer fell in favour of Boyd Racing, with Brittany Linton signing the buyer’s sheet at $5 million. Ways And Means is a six-time graded stakes winner, and her wins in the 2024 Grade 1 Test Stakes, this year’s Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes, and the Filly & Mare Sprint boosted her career earnings to $2,157,500.
Randy Boyd revealed that he and his wife Jenny had not intended to buy her, but when he saw what she was selling for, he joined in the fray. He is unsure if she will race on or go to his Killora Farm and be bred. The mare is one of a dozen Grade 1 winners for Into Mischief’s son Practical Joke, and seven of these were born in Chile where the latter shuttled. A third of his Grade 1 winners are out of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) mares.
Ways And Means is one of four winners out of the Canadian stakes winner Strong Incentive, and they are the mare’s first four foals. Three of them are stakes winners, and two have won at Grade 1 level. Ways And Means is joined in doing so by the Matriarch Stakes winner Surge Capacity (Flintshire), while their sibling Highly Motivated (Into Mischief) is a Grade 3 winner and stands at Airdrie Stud. He has made a fine start with his first runners in 2026, and has 12 winners to date.
Strong Incentive sold to Klaravich Stakes at two for $200,000, dropped in value to $40,000 as a six-year-old, but two years ago, at the same Fasig-Tipton Sale as that held on Monday, sold to M.V. Magnier and White Birch Farm for $2,750,000.