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FIRST IMPRESSIONS
A look at stallions with first-crop yearlings of 2021
by Michael Compton
The newest class of stallions with first-crop yearlings is a compact one—a six-pack to be exact—but led by two-time Champion KVN Corona, this year’s brigade of young stallions is loaded with promise.
While the next wave of sought-after yearlings by this group of stallions will be presented in the sale ring this year and will hit the track next season, they are already commanding attention from breeders and prospective buyers. The market will help gauge the value of these first yearlings through the summer and fall, and only time will tell which stallions shoot to the top of the heap next year based on their ability to sire high-class juveniles.
Our annual preview includes brief snapshots of the stallions with first- crop yearlings of 2021 as advertised in the 2021 Speedhorse Stallion Register statistical pages.
EYE AM KING
(Mr Jess Perry-Eye For Corona, Corona Cartel)
Stands at MJ Farms
2021 Fee: $2,500
Eye Am King never had a chance to prove his mettle on the racetrack, having been injured in his only start, but the sorrel son of Champion Mr Jess Perry and out of Eye For Corona by Corona Cartel, has accomplished runners on both sides of his pedigree that suggest there is plenty of talent to pass on.
His sire is represented by nine Champions from 22 crops to race, including World Champion Apollitical Jess. His dam, Eye For Corona, is a Grade 1 winner and an earner
of over $1 million. Eye For Corona won the Golden State Million Futurity-G1 and was second in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity-G1, Ed Burke Million Futurity-G1 and the PCQHRA Breeders’ Derby-G2.
Eye For Corona has produced stakes winner Dr Jess, a full brother to Eye Am King, and stakes winner and Graded stakes-placed Ultimate Wave (by Wave Carver). She is also the dam of stakes-placers Eye For FDD and Eye Am Queen. His second dam is Eye For The Sixes, who finished second in the Las Colinas Stakes and third in the Rainbow
Derby-G1. She has produced 12 winners, including multiple Grade 1 finalist Cartel Sixes with nearly $300,000 banked, and she is the grandam of stakes placers Tropical Corona and Privileged Cartel.
“We are so impressed with Eye Am King’s first foals,” said Janis Murray of
MJ Farms. “Eye Am King is one of the best looking stallions we have ever stood, and he is stamping his foals with his great conformation. We are anxious to show off his first set of yearlings at the Ruidoso sales this summer.
“We would not normally consider standing a stallion that didn’t have a very good race record. But we knew Eye Am King was
the best yearling we ever raised. We hated
to sell him, but we needed the money and were ecstatic when he brought $300,000 to
be the high selling yearling in the nation in 2016. Unfortunately, things did not go right with him after that. He had colic surgery a couple months after the sale. That wiped out his two year old year. He bowed a tendon in his only start as a 3 year old, and we were able to buy him back shortly after that.
“He’s been bred to about 130 mares in each of his first three seasons at stud, including 25 to 30 of our own mares.”
FAVORITE SOLDIER
(Favorite Cartel-Yak Ity Yak Go, Juno Dat Cash)
Stands at RG Racing Farms LLC 2021 Fee: $1,000
Unraced Favorite Soldier, who never made it to the races because of an injury sustained when he was four months old, is finding favor with breeders based on his well-balanced conformation and his active, running family. By Grade 1 winner and successful sire Favorite Cartel, who is the sire of multiple Champions from just six crops to race, Favorite Soldier is out of the 6-time winner and multiple Graded stakes-placed Juno Dat Cash mare Yak Ity Yak Go. He is a half-brother to twice stakes-placed Stella Corona, who was also a finalist for the AQHA Challenge Championships Stakes-G1, and to First Moon Cat, a winner at Los Alamitos. Favorite Soldier’s third dam, Crystal County, is a full sister to stakes winner Miss Cari County, the dam of stakes winners Moon Over Cari and Dash Over Cari.
Favorite Soldier stood the 2021 breeding season for $1,000 at RG Racing Farms, LLC in Burbank, Washington.
“Breeders have been so impressed with his babies,” said Jeff Ray of RG Racing Farms. “He is definitely putting his stamp on them. They
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