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One of the stallions that we are most excited about heading into 2024 is the veteran sire Maclean’s Music. A brilliant winner of his only start when he was awarded an astronomical 114 Beyer Speed Figure — the highest Beyer ever earned by a first-time starter — Maclean’s Music was given a chance at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm and has made the most of his opportunities. He sired Preakness winner Cloud Computing in his first crop (conceived off a $6,500 stud fee), and has since added G1W 2YO Complexity, G1W 3YO Drain the Clock and Eclipse Champion Sprinter (a G1W at 2, 3 & 4) Jackie’s Warrior to his resume, among his 32 total black-type winners (good for a solid 5% of his foals of racing age).
What makes Maclean’s Music even more exciting at this moment is the fact that he’s about to jump from a crop of 2023 2YOs numbering 41 and conceived off of a $20,000 stud fee (out of which he already has six winners, three of whom have also picked up black-type), to a crop of 2024 2YOs numbering around 182 and conceived off of a $25,000 stud fee, which will be followed by two more triple-digit crops conceived off of $50,000 stud fees.
His 2024 2YOs include 113 that sold at yearling sales this year for an average of $118,636 (up over last year’s average of $100,857 for 21 sold), including individuals that brought $625k, $500k, $460k, $400k, $350k, $310k, $300k (x4), $275k (x2), $250k (x2), etc. Purchasers of Maclean’s Music yearlings in 2023 include the likes of the “Avengers” group, Stonestreet, Klaravich, WinStar, Rigney Racing, Cherie DeVaux’s Belladonna group, Mike Ryan, etc.
So we believe that Maclean’s Music is poised to take a big step forward in 2024 and 2025, and at his $40,000 stud fee heading into this breeding season, we believe he offers excellent value.
He’ll be a great fit for Floral Hall specifically for several reasons. First, this is a great pairing on physicals: both Maclean’s Music and Floral Hall are medium-sized, well-balanced individuals, but whereas Floral Hall is an elegant, feminine mare, Maclean’s Music brings plenty of substance to the mix.
Second, as a young mare coming off a season in which she was bred to a first-year horse, we were anxious to send her to a proven commodity, which Maclean’s Music certainly is at this point.
Third, and although he himself is out of an Unbridled’s Song mare, Maclean’s Music has done very well with mares from the Unbridled sire-line, to the tune of a pair of stakes winners and five total black-type horses from just 18 runners (16 winners) bred this way, including a 2023 black-type runner out of a mare by Floral Hall’s sire Bodemeister himself. Indeed, Maclean’s Music has produced just two foals out of mares by Bodemeister so far, but both are winners with average earnings of over $120k. Looking further back, the Distorted Humor sire-line has achieved decent results with Broad Brush-line mares as well (he being Floral Hall’s broodmare sire), and Maclean’s Music does have a stakes winner with a second dam by Broad Brush to his credit.
Finally, although Floral Hall’s female family has not had plentiful opportunities with Distorted Humor-line stallions like Maclean’s Music, her half-sister Brushed Gold did produce the Greek highweight Bright Blossom by Distorted Humor himself, which bodes well for this pairing.
So this is a mating that should work for plenty of reasons, and we anticipate a successful and commercial offspring in 2025!