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By now you’ve seen our repeated posts — here and on social media — about how well the young Maryland stallion Blofeld has done with his small first crop of runners. Through the first few months of 2022, he’s had 12 of his first-crop 3YOs race and all 12 of those have won — an outstanding statistic that tracks his overall winners/runners ratio of 14 from 14 (out of just 24 foals in his first crop). With these first runners suggesting that Blofeld might be a sire on the rise, we have booked several mares of our own to Blofeld this year, and have recommended him to numerous Mid-Atlantic-based clients for their mares, including most recently the Rockport Harbor mare Night Brigade.
Blofeld was an unbeaten graded stakes winner at 2YO, and also took a G2 as a 4YO. He was the first graded winner for his sire Quality Road, who is now among the elite stallions in the country. So far there are only 25 foals by Quality Road or one of his young sons at stud, and out of mares by Unbridled’s Song or one of his sons (like Rockport Harbor), but two of those are already black-type winners, including the Maryland-based multiple stakes winner Marengo Road, and 2021 2YO stakes winner Hicksy. That’s good for a “B” rating from TrueNicks.
Night Brigade is out of a stakes-winning, G1-placed mare by the champion Gilded Time, whose own broodmare sire is leading sire What a Pleasure — he out of a mare called Grey Flight. Blofeld himself has two crosses of that Wheatley Stable Blue Hen mare in his pedigree, and one of his most impressive winners so far, Royal Spy, has additional crosses of Grey Flight just like this foal will. Night Brigade also has Wild Again close up in her pedigree, and he and is sire Clever Trick factor in the female families of two more promising Blofeld winners (Goldenize and My Dixie Lass, who also has Gilded Time (and therefor Grey Flight) in her female family). So this is a mating that works well on paper.
Physically, Night Brigade is a good-sized, substantive mare who throws a very solid foal, and she should match up quite nicely with the long and leggy Blofeld. All three of Night Brigade’s previous foals are winners at 3YOs, which also matches up well with Blofeld’s influence based on his first crop runners so far.