Uncle Mo's Nyquist Highest Weighted U.S. Two-Year-Old

Uncle Mo

A day after having the most Triple Crown nominees of any stallion, Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) was on top of another list when he topped all sires on the U.S. Experimental Free Handicap with 10 2-year-olds listed including the highweighted champion 2-year-old colt Nyquist. Two-year-olds must have made at least one start in graded or listed stakes company in North America to be assigned a weight with The Jockey Club listing all horses weighted at 100 or above.

Nyquist was given a weight of 126 as the highest weighted 2-year-old on the list, beating out highweighted filly Songbird (Medaglia d’Oro) by one point. Overall, Uncle Mo had four of the top 50 horses on the Experimental Free Handicap, including the seventh highest rated filly in Gomo.
The only stallion to have more than one horse in the Top 10 was Bernardini (A.P. Indy), whose Greenpointcrusader and Rachel’s Valentina were both rated 120. Rachel Valentina’s 120 rating made her the second highest weighted filly in the rankings. Notably, Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado) is the sire of the highest weighted filly in the rankings and the damsire of the second highest weighted filly.

Birdstone’s (Grindstone) Swipe gave his sire the third highest weighted horse when he came in with a 124. Swipe finished second to Nyquist in four graded stakes, including three consecutive Grade 1 races, in 2015. Another notable name with a smaller stud fee in the top 10 was Colonel John (Tiznow), whose multiple graded stakes winner Airoforce was rated 120. After those two stallions, who stand for $5,000 and $7,500 respectively, the next cheapest is Uncle Mo himself.

Birdstone

One-hundred and nineteen sires were represented on the list of 213 2-year-olds with the average advertised 2016 stud fee of all of those stallions sitting at $31,538. The highest stud fee on the list was Tapit’s (Pulpit) at $300,000 and the lowest Cashel Castle (Silver Ghost) at $1,000. The stallions represented on the list stand in 10 states and 12 different countries in 2016 with the 2-year-olds bred in 13 different states and four different countries.

Overall, 23 sires have at least one 2-year-old weighted in the Top 30 on the list.

Behind Uncle Mo, Tapit and the late Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) are tied for the second-most 2-year-olds on the list with eight each. Tapit’s highest rated is the Eclipse 2-year-old colt finalist Mohaymen at 119 while Scat Daddy’s is the filly Nickname at 118.

Tapit

Tapit’s 2-year-olds were mostly within nine points of each other in the weights with all but one of his 2-year-olds between 110 and 119, with two each at 114 and 115. The outlier was Areolite, who was stakes placed in the June 27 Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs, making her eligible for the list with a weight of 100. All but three of Tapit’s weighted horses were fillies with Tap to It being his highest rated female.

Behind Nickname, Scat Daddy had a diverse group rated with his horses weighted from 105 (Arabian Leopard) to 118. While his two highest weighted 2-year-olds were fillies, he had a pretty even breakdown of colts and fillies with four of each. His highest weighted colts were Grade 2 winner Azar, who earned a ranking of 114 to tie with Grade 2 winner Conquest Daddyo.

Scat Daddy

Other stallions with five or more horses rated on the list were Sky Mesa (Pulpit) with seven and Bernardini with six. Forty-four stallions had at least two horses weighted at 100 or more on the Experimental Free Handicap.

While there were quite a few names listed as broodmare sires for those weighted, Unbridled’s Song (Unbridled) was responsible for the most with seven of his daughters having a 2-year-old on the list. The stallion, who died in 2013, only sired one weighted horse with Unbridled Outlaw getting a weight of of 105. However, his highest rated as a damsire is the Distorted Humor filly Lucky Folie who won the Desi Arnaz Stakes at Del Mar for a rating of 109. Those listed with Unbridled’s Song as their damsires have a diverse listing of sires with seven different sires represented.

The top 20 weighted horses

Behind Unbridled’s Song, Carson City (Mr. Prospector), Dixie Union (Dixieland Band), Elusive Quality (Gone West) and Pulpit (A.P. Indy) are all represented by five horses on the list. Only Elusive Quality shows an obvious nick with certain sires as two of his weighted 2-year-olds are by Hat Trick (Sunday Silence) with another two by Uncle Mo.  Everyone else has five different sires responsible for their weighted horses.
 
Only 49 horses were listed on the European Two-Year-Old Rankings a few weeks ago but that didn’t stop there from being some crossover on the two lists.

The Irish-based Dark Angel (Acclamation), Exceed and Excel (Danehill), Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and Zoffany (Dansili) and England-based Showcasing (Oasis Dream) all make appearances on both lists with U.S. stallions Kitten’s Joy (El Prado), More Than Ready (who has Nemoralia rated on both lists), Scat Daddy and War Front (Danzig) joining them.

As for what being at the top of the list means for Nyquist and Uncle Mo … seven of the Triple Crown winners have led the Experimental Free Handicap as 2-year-olds and Nyquist ties five of them with his 126 weight, including last year’s Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile).