In 2009, a client requested I get his mare a season to a first-year stallion, Into Mischief, who was standing for $7500. I did so, and his mare got in foal, but I thought he was crazy. Who the heck was Into Mischief? Was the Harlan’s Holiday line going to produce a rightful heir? I didn’t think so.

I was wrong, in a big way. Today, Into Mischief, who stands for $150,000 at Spendthrift in Lexington, Kentucky, couldn’t get any hotter—or so it would have seemed, until his daughter, Covfefe, won the Miss Preakness S.-G3 on Black Eyed Susan day at Pimlico, breaking a 29 year-old track record by more than a second.

She won by 8 ½ lengths, and finished the six furlongs in a blazing 1:07.70, under Javier Castellano, who is as hot as Into Mischief. Out of an Unbridled’s Song mare, the automatic nicking services give her a yawning C nick, but the Storm Cat/Unbridled’s Song cross is a classic, and those automatic services fail to take into account such things as Covfefe’s third dam being the Blue Hen Courtly Dee, with her second dam Champion Althea. Covfefe was a $250,000 yearling at Keeneland September 2017, and she looks like the bargain of the century today.

From the same file, “Stallions Who Can Get No Hotter,” it must be noted that a Curlin colt and a Curlin filly took the Pimlico Special S.-G3 and the Black Eyed Susan S.-G2. Curlin, who stands at Spendthrift in Lexington for $175,000, can do no wrong these days. His colt, Tenfold, out of a Tapit mare, took the PImlico Special, and his filly, Point of Honor, out of a Bernardini mare, took the Black Eyed Susan. The pattern is clear—Curlin bred to an A.P. Indy line mare is golden, especially when that that A.P. Indy line includes a big dose of Fappiano or his son Unbridled.

To top off the day for Curlin, Mylady Curlin took the Distaff S.-G3 in a photo—an unbelievable three stakes sweep for the stallion. And, what a surprise, she is out of a Seattle Slew-line mare, her broodmare sire Slewdledo. So I’d take a Slew-line or A.P. Indy-line mare to Curlin any day, and an Unbridled-line mare to Into Mischief. If I could afford the stud fee!

-- Roberta Smoodin