Uncle Mo Makes Headlines as Emerging Broodmare Sire

Uncle Mo made one of the most remarkable starts to his stud career of any stallion in living memory. From his first crop, he was represented by no less than 25 individual black-type winners (19.6% stakes winners to starters), 14 of them graded. Inevitably, given the variability of sires to which his daughters would have been mated, his impact as a broodmare sire has been less instant, but in its own way no less spectacular. In this role he has already been represented by 24 stakes winners, 17 of them 4-year-olds foaled in 2020 or later. Another revealing statistic with regard to the speed of Uncle Mo's rise as a broodmare sire is that if one looks at the leading broodmare sires of 2024, one finds that not only is Uncle Mo—a foal of 2008 who occupies the 21st position—the youngest horse among the top 40, but by three years to the next most recently foaled (Into Mischief). Twelve offspring of Uncle Mo have captured graded stakes. They include last year's Haskell Stakes (G1) victor, Geaux Rocket Ride, and the 2024 grade 1 winners Thorpedo Anna, a lock for an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old female; Muth, and Howard Wolowitz. Another potential star in that category emerged Dec. 14, when Journalism stamped himself among the leaders of the juvenile colts division with a victory in the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) for trainer Michael McCarthy. The Futurity, which he took by 3 1/2 lengths, with Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) runner-up Gaming back in third, was Journalism's third start. He was a late-running third over six furlongs at Santa Anita Park on his debut, then scored a convincing win in a mile maiden special weight at Del Mar in mid-November. Journalism—who is by Curlin, North America's most prolific sire of classic distance stakes winners—is the first foal of Mopotism, a mare who would rank among Uncle Mo's more accomplished daughters. Successful in the La Canada Stakes (G2) and Island Fashion Stakes, Mopotism took second in three other graded stakes and third in another six, including the Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1), Santa Margarita Stakes (G1), La Brea Stakes (G1), and Starlet Stakes (G1). Mopotism's dam, Peppy Rafaela, a daughter of Bernardini, is half sister to the speedy Songster, winner of the Woody Stephens Stakes (G2), Bold Ruler Handicap (G3), and Hirsch Jacobs Stakes (G3). Peppy Rafaela's third dam, Fresh Pepper, was, like Journalism, a major stakes winner in California at 2, taking the Oak Leaf Stakes (before the advent of the graded stakes system, but the equivalent of a grade 2). Fresh Pepper was half sister to another accomplished runner in Slewpy, who captured the Young America Stakes (G1) at 2 and outfought the older Deputy Minister in the Meadowlands Cup (G1) at 3. Rare Bouquet, the dam of Fresh Pepper and Slewpy, is out of the noted tap-root mare Forest Song, the ancestress of nearly 90 stakes winners, also including 2017 Belmont Stakes (G1) victor Tapwrit and other grade 1 winners Croeso, Top Corsage, Super May, Appealing Zophie, Ryans Charm, and Celestine. Forest Song's dam, Sylvanaise, was imported from France by Elmendorf Farm in the 1960s. Journalism is the first stakes winner from six starters by Curlin out of an Uncle Mo mare, but we can also note the multiple grade 1 winner Muth (Good Magic) and graded stakes winner West Saratoga (Exaggerator) as black-type winners by sons of Curlin out of Uncle Mo mares. In addition, graded stakes winner Souper Sensational is by Curlin out of a mare by Uncle Mo's sire, Indian Charlie. Journalism also has Curlin's broodmare sire, Deputy Minister, 3x5 in his pedigree, and that makes him one of 17 Curlin stakes winners with a double of Deputy Minster, the others including champion older male Vino Rosso and other grade 1 winners Keen Ice, Curalina, Highland Falls, and Grace Adler.