Add to that Paynter isn't a commercial sire and that Knicks Go didn't get really good til he was pretty much 5. Breeders hate that. Sure he was precocious enough to win a G1 at 2 and place in the BC Juvenile. But he didn't do anything at 3 and missed almost his entire 4yo year. Commercial breeders would rather breed to a horse that was brilliant at 3 than a horse that was brilliant at 5.Falinadin wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 12:47 pm It's all about "brilliance". Charlatan had that 'it' factor, where he ran horses off their feet for most of his career, short as it was. It's how Army Mule and similar horses get mares.
Charlatan in a first year sire and Authentic is a 2nd year sire, most stallions have lesser books their 2nd year. I think Charlatan is better looking than Authentic. Charlatan also sold better as a yearling which might attract the commercial breeders. His female side is better, with his dam being a G2W/mG1P (you have to go back to Authentic's 3rd dam to find a stakes winner). Charlatan's stud fee is $20k cheaper. Into Mischief is still going strong and already has more sons at stud than Speightstown and will continue to make more. At 24 years old Speightstown's books may be being reduced in size to help him out, which would funnel more mares to his son.
I'm not necessarily saying that I 'agree' with so many nice mares going to Charlatan.... but I also get it.
As far as Knicks Go goes, he's California Chrome 2.0. Nice racehorse, but the family isn't great and he'll be overseas in a couple years.
As for Yaupon, who was mentioned in another post, he is a G1 winning sprinter by Uncle Mo. That is enough to get breeders to flock to him.