As mentioned here previously, one of the stallion prospects retiring for 2025 that we are most excited about is Prince of Monaco, who enters stud at Claiborne Farm, and we will be recommending him heavily in his first year.
Bred by Stonestreet Farm, Prince of Monaco is a son of the Eclipse Champion, leading sire, and sire-of-sires Speightstown, out of a young Medaglia d’Oro mare from a wickedly fast female family. This is probably Speightstown’s best cross, as the other successful runners bred that way include Grade 1 winners Rock Fall, Olympiad and Competitionofideas. Prince of Monaco’s pedigree and fantastic physical led him to be purchased by “the Avengers” group at Saratoga for just shy of a million dollars.
Debuting over 5 furlongs at 2 for Bob Baffert, Prince of Monaco won by 8 and was named a TDN Rising Star. In his second start, he set a stakes record in the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes, earning a 103 Beyer Speed Figure, and he then triumphed in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity as a 1/9 shot, making him the only Grade 1-winning juvenile colt sired by Speightstown over that stallion’s long and successful stud career.
Prince of Monaco returned at 3 to finish a close 2nd in both of Saratoga’s historic, Grade 1, 7-furlong sophomore sprints, namely the Woody Stephens and the H. Allen Jerkens. His Ragozin numbers in both of those races were better than the winners’. He retired with three wins and two 2nds from six starts, and figures to have a huge chance to join Speightstown’s successful stallion sons.
Prince of Monaco will be the third mate for Wasabi Ventures Stallions’ young Justify daughter Itgetsgreaterlater, whose own dam, Sotto Voce, was a $2.7 million yearling purchase by Coolmore (she later sold for $850k as an unraced broodmare prospect, and Itgetsgreaterlater is her first foal). Sotto Voce is a full-sister to G1W and sire Cupid, and a half to G3W and producer Heart Ashley (granddam of G2W Ain’t Easy), to G3W Ashley’s Kitty, to BTW Indianapolis, and to the granddam of recent G2W Kathleen O and G3W V V’s Dream.
So this is a classy and active female family, and one that is highly commercial. It is not a family that has had many chances with stallions from Prince of Monaco’s sire-line (though the aforementioned Indianapolis is by Prince of Monaco’s broodmare sire Medaglia d’Oro), but TrueNicks rates it an “A” on the basis of four BTWs from 42 runners — including ‘24 Breeders’ Cup Sprint-G1 winner Straight No Chaser. And Speightstown and his sons have also had success with Tapit mares like Itgetsgreaterlater’s dam, so that gives us additional confidence in the pairing.
Physically, Prince of Monaco is a tall, strapping horse who will hopefully stretch out Itgetsgreaterlater’s more compact physical. And since her family is one that has been predominantly about speed and precocity, Prince of Monaco will double-down on that for this foal and hopefully produce a quick and early type that the market will love!