We recommended the purchase of the young Barronstown Stud-bred broodmare Itgetsgreaterlater at the recent Keeneland November Sale, and in addition to being a member of an outrageously commercial female family, a large part of her appeal was the fact that she was in foal on the earliest possible cover to a rising young star in Practical Joke.
A member of the same sire crop as the historic Gun Runner, Practical Joke has sired G1Ws Practical Move and Chocolate Gelato in the Northern Hemisphere, and seven more of them in Chile from his shuttle crops there. Other NH graded winners by Practical Joke include Wit, Becky’s Joker, Girl With a Dream, Shelly, and Tejano Twist. His 1.62 AEI vs. a 1.44 CI means he is improving his mares, also — something we always love to see in a stallion. He has also caught fire commercially thanks to these racetrack results, as his 2023 yearling average (for 90 sold) was up to $146k ($107k median) from $62k ($50k median) for 72 yearlings sold in 2022.
In addition to his general accomplishments, we are excited about the foal (fetal sexed as a colt, per the consignor) from this pairing more specifically for two main reasons:
First, of Practical Joke’s seven Chilean G1 winners, four of them (so more than half) are out of mares by Scat Daddy, the sire of Itgetsgreaterlater’s own sire Justify. In fact, from just 29 foals of racing age by Practical Joke out of Scat Daddy-line mares, 26 are runners, 23 have won, seven are stakes winners (six graded), and five more have placed in black-type company. Those are some truly outstanding statistics.
Second, Itgetsgreaterlater’s female family has also had repeated success with this sire-line. Under her second dam, Pretty ‘n Smart, appear G2-winning 2YO Ain’t Easy (by Practical Joke’s sire Into Mischief) and the black-type winner Opus Forty Two (by Into Mischief’s half-brother Mendelssohn). It’s also been a female family that has excelled with foals carrying multiple crosses of Storm Cat-line stallions such as this foal will have: Ain’t Easy, Opus Forty Two, and 2023 G3-winning 2YO V V’s Dream are all by Storm Cat-line stallions, with second dams also by Storm Cat-line sires.
Physically this match-up should also be successful, as Practical Joke is a good-sized, strong stallion who throws the same, and Itgetsgreaterlater, as the first foal from her dam, is a bit more average-sized. So they should fit nicely together without trying to blend apples and oranges, and hopefully we get a big, strong colt from the pairing!