Two-year-old filly Reiterate became first crop stallion Competitive Edge’s first winner in a thrilling dead heat at Gulstream Park on April 11, 2019. The maiden special weight contest’s win turned Competitive Edge into the leading first crop sire of the year thus far, though it is early and that list will certainly change. Standing at Ashford Stud in Kentucky, Competitive Edge, though a precocious two-year-old who won the Hopeful S.-G1 and was unbeaten at two, met with suspicion when he entered stud as he was by Kentucky Derby-G1 winner Super Saver, a son of Maria’s Mon, an uncelebrated sire line. Beginning his career with a $10,000 stud fee, Competitive Edge stands for $5,000 this year, and all mare owners who bred to him for that bargain price have to be feeling wonderful right about now.

Reiterate, by the Arch mare Flying Arch, has a pedigree that features Seeking the Gold, who appears in her sire’s pedigree as his dam’s grandfather, and adds to the many cameos by Buckpasser in Competitive Edge, through Wavering Monarch’s dam, A.P. Indy, and his own dose of Seeking the Gold, not to mention a build-up of La Troienne through Buckpasser and other relatives. Competitive Edge’s two doses of Northern Dancer, through Dehere and Sovereign Dancer, are matched in Reiterate’s dam’s side by Danzig and Sadler’s Wells, just as her Hail to Reason through Roberto is matched by Seattle Slew’s dose of this influential sire in Competitive Edge. Most interesting, Competitive Edge features Secretariat’s dam, Somethingroyal, through Dehere, while Reiterate’s dam’s side features one of the other great mares of the twentieth century, Courtly Dee, through Arch. This is a filly who should go on and succeed at longer distances as a three-year-old.

Just two days before, a Competitive Edge two-year-old in training fetched $235,000 at the Keeneland April Sale, a hefty return on a $10,000 stud fee. Others from his first crop did not fare so well, selling for $25,000 and $1,500, with one buy back at $80,000. At last year’s Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Dermot Magnier, as a representative of Coolmore, supported Competitive Edge by paying $75,000 and $115,000 for first yearlings by this sire, though non-Coolmore buyers did ante up $160,000 and $120,000 for first crop yearlings.

It remains to be seen what will unfold for Competitive Edge’s first crop, but his wins at two, both by multiple lengths, and his record-breaking speed at three, also by multiple lengths, indicate that predictions of first crop success may not be premature.

-- Roberta Smoodin