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You’ll recall from this past spring how hot the first crop of the Maryland stallion Blofeld got, with his first 14 foals to reach the races all having won a race, giving him an outrageous 100% strike-rate from just 24 first-crop foals (just in time to attract a book of 84 mares in 2022 — the most in Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic more broadly). And while he hasn’t been able to (quite) maintain that pace, Blofeld’s stats still make him the most exciting young stallion in the region: he now has 30 winners from 38 runners (79%) out of just 50 foals in his first two crops, including both the colt and filly division winners of the Maryland Million 2YO races in 2022, plus a new stakes winner already in 2023. That’s good for 6% stakes winners to foals, and with four more black-type placed offspring to his credit, that means he’s siring black-type runners at 14% to foals — an excellent number. And his AEI of 1.47 compares very favorably with his 1.21 CI, meaning he’s moving his mares way up to achieve the result that he’s getting.
Blofeld’s stakes winner Johnyz From Albany is out of a mare by Pulpit’s son Oratory, making him an easy choice for Modernism (a daughter of Pulpit’s grandson Frosted) specifically — especially as Blofeld has another black-type horse out of another A.P. Indy-line mare already from just 3 runners (all winners) bred this way. Blofeld’s sire, Quality Road, has also had success with Pulpit-line mares, as TrueNicks rates this cross an “A”. Modernism’s own broodmare sire is the legendary Medaglia d’Oro, whose daughters have crossed with Quality Road and his son City of Light to produce the G1P 2YO of 2022 National Treasure, and SPW 2YO of 2022 Bourbon Bash, respectively.
We also like this mating a lot physically — Modernism is a beautiful mare but could use some size and scope injected into her foal, and the strapping, lengthy Blofeld will certainly give her that, and we fully expect that this pairing will produce a speedy and successful Maryland-bred in 2024!