Henny Hughes, a leader on the 2-year-old sires' list this year, will stand the 2013 breeding season at Walmac Farm near Lexington under a lease arrangement for a fee of $7,500 stands and nurses. The 9-year-old stallion (Hennessy—Meadow Flyer, by Meadowlake) currently stands at Rangeview Stud in Western Australia for Aust$7,700.
Henny Hughes, who began his stallion career at Sheikh Mohammed's Darley near Lexington, ranks first this year in North America by number of 2-year-old stakes winners with six including Grey Goose Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) winner Beholder. Also this year, Henny Hughes ranks second by both juvenile progeny earnings and stakes horses (with 10).
"What a brilliant year Henny Hughes has had," said John T.L. Jones III, managing director of Walmac Stud Management LLC. "He is arguably the top sire of precocious 2-year-old performance in North America today, being the leading sire of 2-year-old stakes winners and getting such a freak of a filly in Beholder, who impressed us all with her two-turn victory in the Breeders' Cup."
In addition to Beholder, Henny Hughes is represented by 2012 juvenile stakes winners Star Contender, winner of Canada's important Cup and Saucer Stakes, and Keiai Leone in Japan.
Hughes ranks third this year on the leading third-crop sires' list with progeny earnings of more than $4.9 million.
Lifetime, Henny Hughes has sired 32 stakes horses and the earners of more than $10.1 million.
At 2 Henny Hughes won the Saratoga Special Stakes (gr. II) and the Tremont Stakes and was second in three grade I stakes including the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I). At 3 he won three graded events including the Vosburgh Stakes (gr. I) and the King's Bishop Stakes (gr. I). He was retired with earnings of $1,124,820.
