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Instagrand is one of the 2021 freshman stallions that we’re most excited about, and we are excited to recommend him for the multiple stakes-placed 2YO Rockport Dancer in his first season.
Originally a $190,000 yearling buy before dropping the hammer for a sales-topping $1.2 million at the boutique Gulfstream 2YO sale after a :10 flat breeze (becoming Into Mischief’s first seven-figure sales horse), Instagrand earned TDN Rising Star status for his “jaw dropping” debut romp at Los Al going 5 furlongs (just missing the track record), then was even more impressive taking the G2 Best Pal Stakes over 6 furlongs at Del Mar in his second start when never asked to run but still able to finish his final quarter-mile in under 24 seconds. Put away after that until he returned with a 3rd-place finish in the one-mile G3 Gotham the next spring, which preceded a strong 3rd in the 1-1/8-mile G1 Santa Anita Derby. He retired with a (9) 2-0-3 record and $316,760 in earnings and stands his first season in 2021 at Taylor Made Farm for owner Larry Best’s OXO Equine, which plans to support the horse heavily at stud (including with the recently-purchased dam of Eclipse Champion Sprinter Mitole).
Rockport Dancer also earned her highest status at 2YO when she placed in a pair of stakes races in her first two starts, at 6-1/2 furlongs and 1-1/16 miles. She went on to win four races and $99,673 during her career on the track. This precocity should match up well with Instagrand, as should her pedigree: she is by the Unbridled’s Song son Rockport Harbor, and the Into Mischief/UBS cross has produced top 2YO Maximus Mischief and another four stakes winners, plus six additional stakes-placed runners so far. Rockport Dancer’s own broodmare sire is Gone West, who has been an even stronger cross with Into Mischief as mares from his sire-line have accounted for the likes of Authentic, Mia Mischief, By My Standards, etc.
Physically, this is a good case of like-to-like with Rockport Dancer being a medium-sized, very good-bodied mare who threw the same in her first foal, while Instagrand is a powerful, muscular, medium-sized horse himself, and we can’t wait to see the foal from this pairing hit the track as a 2YO in 2024!
Instagrand wins the G2 Best Pal Stakes
Instagrand wins by a pole first time out at 2
Maximus Mischief, by Into Mischief out of an UBS-line mare, wins the G2 Remson