WinStar Farm hopes to see a lot of activity from their stallion division in the near future. In 2025, the farm’s flag bearer Constitutioncurrently ranked as a top five overall sire, will account for a fee of $110,000 while his son and other WinStar residents Independence Hall will see their first 2-year-olds take to the racetrack. Even in the coming year, Life is good and Nashville will be represented by their first crop of yearlings while Country Grammar and Two Phil expecting her first foals.

Meanwhile, three new sires have been added to the farm’s 2025 roster with record sprinter Cogburn (Not this time), 2023 GI Champagne Stakes winner Timberlake (Into Mischief) and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Heartland (Justify).

Fletcher Mauk of Small Batch Thoroughbreds was among the breeders who stopped by to check out the newcomers during last weeks open house at WinStar.

“Those are exciting stallion prospects,” Mauk said after inspecting the trio. “All three have good legs and nice feet. They were all done as 2-year-olds, which I think is important for many breeders to know that you have the ability to get something to run out of a mare. All three of them are from very nice sire lines as well.”

Four-time stakes winner Cogburn leads the charge of new recruits at WinStar with a $30,000 payday. He is one of six Grade I winners Not this time (found in Saturday Sires here) and will be the first son of the fast-starting sire to stand at WinStar.

WinStar’s Liam O’Rourke reported that the multi-millionaire arrived at WinStar shortly after the Breeders’ Cup and settled in immediately.

“It’s rare you see a colt come in and have as much composure and as much presence as he’s had since the first day he came in,” he said. “He went up there, put his head down, walked like he’d been doing this for 10 years, stood up perfectly and didn’t move a hair. He’s been incredibly well received, a beautiful horse that goes down very well with the breeding public.”

Although Cogburn’s greatest achievements came this year as a 5-year-old, including a record-breaking GI Jaipur victory covering 5 ½ furlongs in 59:80 and another memorable win in the GII Turf Sprint Stakes at Kentucky Downs where he completed six furlongs in 1 :07.68, O’Rourke said breeders also take note of his past resume. The Steve Asmussen trainee broke his maiden by over four lengths on dirt as a youngster and finished second in the GIII Chick Lang Stakes on the main track the following year before eventually switching to grass.

“He really excelled as a 2-year-old and showed a ton of ability on the dirt,” O’Rourke said. “When Steve moved him over to the turf he definitely hit another level. Speed ​​is speed. That’s something we’ve always been attracted to here at WinStar. We’ve had a lot of success with horses like Distorted Humor, Speightstown and More Than Ready who had that really elite speed.”

Fletcher Mauk said he has plans to send one American Pharoah mare to Cogburn who was placed twice in stakes over a mile on the turf.

“For me, the big thing is to incorporate speed into this pedigree,” he said. “It’s more than likely we’ll end up with a grass horse that’s just got its female side, but you never know and that’s what’s exciting about a horse that has been able to run on all surfaces. Anything is possible and I don’t think even that he will throw speed only in view of his father. I think you can go as far as you want too.”

Timberlake, a “TDN Rising Star” in his 9 1/4-length maiden win for WinStar and Siena Farm, finished second in the GI Hopeful Stakes before soundly claiming the GI Champagne over a field that included future 2-year-old champions Hardness (City of Light).

“Champagne places him as the only Grade I-winning 2-year-old by Into Mischief apart from Practical joke in Kentucky,” O’Rourke said. “We’ve had a great response from breeders on that. He was talented, very precocious and just a big, strong, handsome horse that people really fall in love with when they come out here.”

Timberlake, winner of the GII Rebel Stakes this year as a 3-year-old, will account for 20,000.

After taking a look at the newcomer, Mauk said he believes the son of Into Mischief shows the potential to be a versatile sire.

“I don’t think he’s necessarily your typical 2-year-old stakes winner,” he explained. “To me he has a bit more range in his body, a longer shoulder and perhaps a more sloping hip. The fact that he won a very important race as a 2-year-old in the Champagne and then went on to win the Rebel I think is a good indication of that you are not limited in your scope by being only a sprinter or a 2-year-old horse.”

After completing the trio, Heartland only made one career start, but the team at WinStar believe he has the resume to succeed in the next chapter. A homebred to WinStar and a half-brother to juvenile champion Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile), Heartland sold for $575,000 at the Keeneland September Sale, going to China Horse Club and Siena Farm with WinStar remaining for a share.

“He was at the top of the class among our 2-year-olds that year,” O’Rourke reported. “David Hanley, Elliott Walden and (trainer) Neil McLaughlin raved about this horse. He was our first 2-year-old that we sent on.”

Heartland made his debut for Bob Baffert at Del Mar last July, ranking off the pace before picking off rivals around the turn and then opening up for future stakes winner Slider (Jimmy Creed) by two lengths, completing 5 ½ furlongs in 1:03, 20 and earns a 90 Beyer Speed ​​Figure.

While Heartland was never able to make it back to the starting gate, the WinStar team hopes he can make his mark as a sire. At $10,000, Heartland will be the second son of Justify to stand in Kentucky after Spendthrift’s Arabian Lion retired last year.

“It’s very intentional that he’s here at WinStar,” O’Rourke said. “We will support him very strongly in his first several years of breeding and we have some creative incentives for our breeders which we believe make him a really good value proposition. Justify obviously doing incredible things as a stallion and I think it’s a great asset to Justify at the $10,000 level. He has the pedigree to support being a half-brother to Classic Empire and by one of the most elite horses in the world, so we think he has a great chance and we are getting good breeder support on him.”