Nineteen years ago, Bernardini won the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga. It was one of six victories, including three G1s, from seven starts that allowed the handsome bay son of 1992 Horse of the Year A.P. Indy to be named champion 3-year-old colt in 2006.
Retired to stud at Godolphin’s Jonabell Farm outside Lexington, Bernardini began a stud career of equal distinction, and among other accomplishments, he sired a pair of Travers Stakes winners: Stay Thirsty (2011) and Alpha (2012).
In 2025, Bernardini has added a second Travers to his record as a broodmare sire. In addition to 2018 Travers winner Catholic Boy (More Than Ready), Bernardini picked up his second Travers as a broodmare sire on Aug. 23 when division leader Sovereignty (Into Mischief) rolled home by 10 lengths in the time of 2:00.84.
Junior Alvarado celebrates winning the G1 Travers with SovereigntyJoe Labozzetta/NYRA
The Travers was the most dominant performance by a 3-year-old so far this season, and the result further enhances Sovereignty’s standing as this crop’s top colt of classic type and aptitude.
Another event on the Travers card, however, highlighted one reason that Sovereignty’s sire is such an epic powerhouse as a stallion. In the G1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes, another 3-year-old son of Into Mischief, Patch Adams, posed a powerful case for himself as the leading member of the crop at distances up to a mile.
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Racing the seven furlongs of the Jerkens in 1:21.61, Patch Adams was winning for the third time consecutively since finishing fourth in the G3 Tampa Bay Derby back in March. After indicating the Kentucky Derby wasn’t for him, the muscular bay was put to racing shorter distances.
After winning an allowance at Churchill Downs on Derby Day going 6 ½ furlongs, Patch Adams moved up in racing class to challenge for the G1 Woody Stephens at Saratoga, winning that race at seven furlongs by 2 ¼ lengths in 1:21.36. The Jerkens is the second race at the distance and class designation for Patch Adams, and one of the questions now for his connections is to decide whether to train the colt for the slightly longer distance of the Breeders’ Cup Mile or the slightly shorter distance of the BC Sprint.
Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm and racing for CHC, Inc. and WinStar Farm LLC, Patch Adams is out of the stakes winner Well Humored (Distorted Humor). A winner in three of her five races, Well Humored won the Wayward Lass Stakes at Tampa Bay. The mare has a 2-year-old full brother to Patch Adams who is unraced but is named Wall Street.
Luis Saez teamed with Patch Adams to win the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (G1)Walter Wlodarczyk/NYRA
Patch Adams is the third G1 winner of the year sired by Into Mischief, whose son Practical Joke won the G1 Allen Jerkens Memorial in 2017. Into Mischief’s most successful stallion son to date, Practical Joke won the G1 Hopeful and Champagne Stakes at 2 and is the sire of Captain Cook, who was second in the Jerkens. Third in the race was the early-season talking horse Barnes, who is yet another son of Into Mischief.
There is no embarrassment of riches among stallions. That’s probably a good thing because Into Mischief is leading the national sire list for the seventh consecutive year with earnings of more than $21.1 million. He has the most runners, the most winners, the most stakes winners and graded winners, and that simply translates into the most money won.
Nor is list leadership the simple measure of Into Mischief’s superiority. He is currently leading the list by $9 million over his nearest competitor, Gun Runner (Candy Ride). The latter has $12.1 million in progeny earnings, and his sire Candy Ride (Ride the Rails) is at $11.4 million. A trio of top sires follow at more than $10 million: Not This Time (Giant’s Causeway) $10.7, Curlin (Smart Strike) $10.6, and Constitution (Tapit) $10.2.
Practical Joke (Into Mischief) is in seventh place nationally with $9.9 million, followed by Nyquist (Uncle Mo) at $9 million and the near dead-heat of Twirling Candy (Candy Ride) and Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado) at $8.6 million each to round out the top 10 sires.
The overall level of Into Mischief’s dominance is something we haven’t seen in a domestic stallion since the days of Bold Ruler and his sire Nasrullah (Nearco) in the 1950s and ’60s. The immense increase in mare books and foal crops has left their earning statistics in the realm of history, but they showed the same level of superiority among their stock.
These stallions clearly possess a genetic consistency that allows them to get fast racers from foal after foal. Their consistency, however, isn’t the same sort as what we might see with Bernardini, or his sire A.P. Indy, who sired almost exclusively classic type horses.
Essentially, Into Mischief, Bold Ruler, and Nasrullah sired speed, but it isn’t speed of a limited aptitude. Instead, it is speed that allows a talented horse to race a mile effectively, and if produced from a more classic mare, like daughters of Bernardini, creates the potential for a supreme classic racer like Sovereignty.
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Aug 27, 2025, where it first appeared in the Features section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.