Welcoming a classic winner to a stallion roster is a proud moment. Welcoming two to the roster in the same year is an exceptional rarity. Spendthrift Farm will welcome two winners of American Triple Crown races to its stallion ranks for the 2025 season – and if that isn’t enough, the farm adds another Grade 1 winner as well.
Spendthrift is debuting 2023 Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure, by perennial leading sire Quality Road, and 2024 Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch, by the exciting young Good Magic. Both will stand for an advertised fee of $40,000. Additionally, the farm has brought home colorbearer Kingsbarns, a Grade 1 winner by multiple classic sire Uncle Mo. He will stand for $20,000.
The three add to the arsenal of classic-type horses at Spendthrift, which has a 29-horse roster, led by classic sire and reigning leading sire Into Mischief. The farm stands his 2020 Kentucky Derby-winning son Authentic, plus another classic winner in 2022 Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal.
National Treasure
National Treasure hinted at his talent with multiple graded stakes placings early in his career, including a third in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He broke through with his first graded score in the 2023 Preakness, outdueling Grade 1 winner Blazing Sevens by a head, with Kentucky Derby winner Mage in third.
Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey and stallion sales manager Mark Toothaker subsequently discussed the colt with his wide ownership group of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Robert Masterson, Stonestreet Stables, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital, and Catherine Donovan.
“Ned and I were up there for the Timonium sale, and this horse jumped up and did what he did,” Toothaker recalled. “Arabian Lion ran that day as well [winning the Sir Barton], so we were up there and looked at both of them and were able to get deals done on both of them.”
While Arabian Lion retired to Spendthrift for 2024, “National Treasure, we got to run a whole other year, so we got to enjoy him,” Toothaker said. Although the colt did not win again in 2023, he turned in a strong performance when finishing second to Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
This year, National Treasure, trained by Bob Baffert, won the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational by a neck over Senor Buscador. National Treasure then was fourth in the Group 1 Saudi Cup, before bouncing back with a 6 1/4-length victory in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap.
The Met Mile has a history of being a stallion-making race, won through the years by prominent sires such as Tom Fool (1953), Native Dancer (1954), Buckpasser (1967), Tentam (1973), Cox’s Ridge (1978), Fappiano (1981), Gulch (1987-88), Ghostzapper (2005), and National Treasure’s own sire, Quality Road (2010), who is now emerging as a sire of sires, with the likes of City of Light, sire of champion Fierceness. Spendthrift currently stands two other Met Mile winners in Mitole (2019), who was 2023’s leading freshman sire, and Vekoma (2020), who is among the leaders of this year’s freshman class.
Following the Met Mile, National Treasure was sixth in the Grade 1 Whitney, then second by a head in the Grade 1 California Crown. He was withdrawn from consideration for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile the week before the race with a bruised foot. He concluded his three seasons of racing with more than $5.5 million in earnings.
“National Treasure was one of the most consistent and reliable horses I have ever worked with,” SF Racing’s Tom Ryan said in the horse’s retirement announcement. “In addition to his elite race record – competing in 13 Grade 1 races over 28 months – he completed 75 published workouts in California, demonstrating an insatiable appetite for training. His physical makeup contributed to his longevity: He is very streamlined, almost light, but possesses great power and efficient motion with a high cruising speed. It’s unfortunate that we missed the chance for a third Breeders’ Cup appearance due to the bruised foot. It was just bad timing.”
As the only older male horse to win multiple Grade 1 races on dirt in 2024, National Treasure is considered a candidate for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding older dirt male. The finalists will be announced in January.
Dornoch
After Mage won the 2023 Kentucky Derby, there were high hopes for his full brother Dornoch. It took the colt three tries to win his maiden – finishing second to Seize the Grey and Noted – but he ended his 2-year-old season by defeating Sierra Leone in the Grade 2 Remsen. Dornoch then opened his 3-year-old season with a win in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
A few misadventures followed for Dornoch, who was trained by Danny Gargan for West Paces Racing, R. A. Hill Stable, Belmar Racing and Breeding, Two Eight Racing, and Pine Racing Stables. An attempt at teaching the colt to rate led to a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Blue Grass behind Sierra Leone. He then drew the dreaded rail post in the Kentucky Derby and finished 10th after racing in traffic.
Five weeks later, Dornoch was a game half-length winner of the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga, giving Good Magic two classic winners from as many crops as he follows in the mold of sire Curlin as a powerful stamina source.
“It was a great race, gutty race that he ran,” Toothaker said.
Dornoch delivered a similarly gritty performance to win the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park. Back in Saratoga, he was fourth in a deep field for the Grade 1 Travers Stakes behind champion Fierceness, Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna – the current favorite for Horse of the Year – and eventual Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone. That proved to be his final start.
“We decided to have the vets go over him thoroughly before we started to really ramp up his works for the Breeders’ Cup,” Gargan said in the colt’s retirement announcement. “That’s when some bone bruising was discovered. The [Classic] was going to be his last race anyway, so, given the timing, the right thing to do is to retire him.
“Dornoch owes us nothing,” Gargan said of the colt, who earned more than $2.4 million. “He’s the best horse I’ve ever trained, and our team is going to miss having him around the barn. But we are also excited about his future. He’s going to a great place in Spendthrift, and I think Dornoch has a big chance to be a good sire.”
Hill was one of the owners of Spendthrift sire Vekoma, and that relationship helped Spendthrift come to the forefront among the farms interested in seeking out the Belmont winner’s rights.
Dornoch is one of three 3-year-old males to win multiple Grade 1 races this year. The others are Sierra Leone, in the Blue Grass and Classic; Fierceness, in the Florida Derby and Travers; and Seize the Grey, in the Preakness and Pennsylvania Derby.
Kingsbarns
While National Treasure and Dornoch were acquired from other operations, Kingsbarns raced in Spendthrift Farm colors throughout his career after the farm purchased him as a yearling.
Kingsbarns won his first three starts by a combined 13 lengths for trainer Todd Pletcher, including the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby. He was then 14th in the Kentucky Derby – won by Mage – after racing in contention early. He was second in the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth before being given plenty of time to freshen up.
Kingsbarns was consistent through the first half of this year as an older runner. After winning an allowance race and then the Grade 3 Ben Ali at Keeneland, he was a close second in the Grade 3 Pimlico Special to Pyrenees. He turned the tables on that one with a 2 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster in June at Churchill Downs. The Breeders’ Cup Classic was the long-term goal.
“Unfortunately, at the time, we didn’t know it would be his last race,” Toothaker said. “We all watched him work when we were up there at Saratoga for the yearling sale this year, and he breezed lights-out. We couldn’t have been more excited. And unfortunately, we get a call from Todd that he had a tear in the right suspensory. This business will punch you in the gut.”
While the career-ending issues for all three Spendthrift newcomers were ill-timed, none were seriously threatening, and the farm is looking forward to its new class.
“All three of the new horses have been hugely received,” Toothaker said. “It’s been fun.”