If ever there was a sireline known for producing sires, Preakness Stakes (G1) winner WAR OF WILL hails from it with his female family also doing its part to create a top stallion prospect.
Sire success is written in WAR OF WILL’s pedigree with every stallion in his line for over a century siring not only successful racehorses but also multiple successful stallions, led by the great Northern Dancer and his son Danzig. WAR OF WILL’s own sire WAR FRONT is the newest to take the honor with 18 different sons siring at least one stakes winner in less than a decade.
Four different sons of WAR FRONT have sired at least one Grade 1 winner with all his sons combining for 51 graded stakes winners and 126 stakes winners from Australia to France and everywhere in between.
Even more impressive about WAR FRONT’s rise to prominence as a sire-of-sires is that his first major sons to stud entered the picture less than a decade ago. That first son was The Factor in 2013, who also helped put WAR FRONT on the map when that first crop runner won two Grade 1 events at three.
Just like his sire, The Factor’s first crop came out swinging with Noted And Quoted winning a juvenile Grade 1 event in 2016. Ever since then, WAR FRONT sons have just added to the tally.
Today, 12 Grade 1 winners anchor the 126 stakes winners and 265 stakes performers by WAR FRONT sons with arguably his best dirt horse in WAR OF WILL looking to be the next major stallion from the line.
“WAR FRONT is one of the most successful sires of his generation, and there is no doubt he is becoming a sire of sires,” Claiborne’s Walker Hancock said in July of 2020. “We believe WAR OF WILL has the capability to follow his father’s success.”
Since then, WAR FRONT’s sire-of-sire credentials have gotten even more impressive with one son siring that year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) winner Fire at Will and others siring Grade 1 winners further abroad.
His sire-of-sires ability was again on display in the past month when his Grade 1 winning son American Patriot registered his first stakes winner from his first crop with Be Astonished crossing the line first in the Sho Spring Stakes (G2) on March 20. Only one week later son Summer Front nearly added to that tally when Summer Is Tomorrow was second in the UAE Derby (G3) – that colt may now be headed to the Kentucky Derby (G1) on May 7.
On April 2, WAR FRONT saw another son with a horse potentially headed to the Kentucky Derby when Hit It A Bomb’s Tiz The Bomb won the Jeff Ruby Steaks Stakes (G3) to earn 100 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Tiz The Bomb is one of those dual-surface runners for the WAR FRONT line with a Grade 2 win and Grade 1 placing on turf and a Grade 3 win on the synthetic, in addition to a Maiden Special Weight win on dirt. Tiz The Bomb’s Jeff Ruby win came only an hour after WAR FRONT’s son Sumter won his second straight stakes race.
Be Astonished’s March 20 win came only six days after another WAR FRONT son in Sweet Orange scored his first group winner. Already the sire of a stakes winners and multiple stakes performers from his 57 runners, Sweet Orange hit that graded stakes milestone when Daqiansweet Junior won the Adelaide Cup (G2) for his seventh career victory.
Between his sire’s prowess for producing stallions and the sire power in his female family, WAR OF WILL has every chance of becoming another top stallion for WAR FRONT.
His own Irish champion half-brother Pathfork is a successful South African sire with two Grade 1 winners, 12 stakes winners, and 27 stakes performers from limited runners and his stallion-making pedigree only gets stronger from there.
WAR OF WILL’s dam is a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) winner and European champion Spinning World, who was a successful sire around the world. His eight Grade 1 winners headlined a group of 21 graded stakes winners and 43 stakes winners with those including Grade 1 winning U.S.-bred Ancient World and English Grade 1 winner Spinning Queen.
In all, there are successful stallions listed under each of WAR OF WILL’s first five dams, with the stallion tracing back to the great Best In Show.
A dual surface Grade 1 winner, WAR OF WILL’s first foals already look the part of racehorses, making his $25,000 look like it’ll soon to be a bargain price when they hit the track in 2024.