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 — including for the newly-acquired Wasabi broodmare Mischievous Mind.
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 studeer.
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 2nd-place finishes from six starts, and figures to have a huge chance to join Speightstown’s successful stallion sons.
He’ll be a great fit for Mischievous Mind for a couple of reasons. Firstly, she is a half-sister to the very talented, multiple G3 winner and G1-placed Performer, by Speightstown, and her dam’s half-sister Parade has thrown the six-figure earner Pentathlon, also by Speightstown.
TrueNicks rates this match a “B” with four black-type winners from 55 starters, including G2 winner Bapak Chinta, plus there are five more black-type runners on this Speightstown/Maria’s Mon cross — and 16.4% black-type horses to runners isn’t a bad ratio at all.
Next, although she isn’t from his sire-line, Mischievous Mind is inbred to 4×2 to AP Indy, and the Speightstown/AP Indy cross rates an “A” with the likes of G1 winner Flagstaff bred that way. So that is another factor in favor of this match.
And then physically, we love this pairing for Mischievous Mind — though she’s still relatively young and with some growing to do, she’s currently on the medium-sized side of things, so Prince of Monaco’s strapping physique will be a nice complement and will hopefully help her produce a nice, big, commercial foal!