When Belmont Park reopens in 2026, it will sport an all-weather Tapeta track alongside its existing courses, with the one-mile oval eventually becoming the exclusive winter racing surface on the New York Racing Association circuit. Planning ahead for the reimagined circuit, it’s a boon for New York breeders that the top synthetic-surface sire in the United States resides in New York. Bucchero is preparing to stand the 2025 season at the new Ironhorse Stallions, which will be based out of the established Questroyal North in Stillwater. Among stallions standing in the United States, Bucchero’s progeny earned $1,435,866 on synthetic surfaces in 2024, placing him ahead of four Kentucky sires who rounded out the top five – Mendelssohn at $1,388,105, Kantharos at $1,362,380, Twirling Candy at $1,241,897, and Cairo Prince at $1,224,330. All had more starters than Bucchero. After standing his first five seasons in Florida, Bucchero moved to New York for 2024, standing at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds. His first in-state sired foals will race in 2027. Bucchero enjoyed a strong season with runners in open stakes company in 2024, led by Book’em Danno, winner of the Grade 1 Woody Stephens and third in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens, among other stakes performances. Those efforts and others placed Bucchero a narrow second to McMahon’s Central Banker, who has stood in New York his entire career, on the state’s general sire earnings list, regardless of progeny conception area. Central Banker’s progeny earned $5,436,573 on the season – just $17,717 clear of Bucchero, with $5,418,856. This fall, the connections of Bucchero, who raced under the Ironhorse Racing Stable banner, announced that they would launch Ironhorse Stallions to continue to support their stable star. “We have tremendous respect for the McMahon family and their history in New York, and both parties wanted to see how Bucchero would fit with McMahon’s in-house stallions,” Bucchero’s managing partner Harlan Malter said. “With Bucchero, Central Banker, and Solomini the top three stallions in New York in 2024, it made sense to let the McMahons focus on their homegrown stallions and our group focus exclusively on Bucchero.” Malter went on to say that Ironhorse, which campaigned Indiana-bred Bucchero in his home state, around the country, and at the Royal Ascot meeting in England, plans to expand its focus on the New York program moving forward. “With the lucrative breeder awards offered in New York, the combination of Bucchero’s in-the-money stats, surface versatility, and ability to produce open-company horses, we firmly believe that breeders will be richly rewarded by breeding to Bucchero,” Malter said. “We are all in on New York, both breeding and racing. Starting Ironhorse Stallions will give us the ability to not only support New York breeders as a partner in producing the best possible New York-bred and -sired runners, but from a selfish side, we will be big buyers of New York-sired Buccheros and expect Ironhorse Racing Stable to focus the majority of its stable in New York.” As of December, more than two months before the official start of breeding season, Ironhorse reported that Bucchero was already booked to a triple-digit book of mares for 2025, with time to add more. Along with outside support, he will have his pick of mares from Ironhorse Stallions, which purchased mares at both the Keeneland November breeding stock sale and the Tattersalls sale in England. Honest Mischief cracks top 10 freshmen Honest Mischief was the only freshman sire in the top 10 nationally who stood outside of Kentucky, and the young New York resident appears poised to have a continued impact in the Empire State. Honest Mischief, who stands at Sequel Stallions, recorded 12 winners from 31 starters, including two New York-bred stakes winners, from his first crop to the races in 2024. His progeny bankroll of $1,625,157 ranked eighth nationally among freshman sires. Every other stallion in the top 10 stands in Kentucky and had significantly more starters than him. The next-fewest starters belonged to Coolmore’s Tiz the Law, with 50. In New York, Honest Mischief’s season made him the state’s leading 2-year-old sire by earnings, easily outpacing McMahon of Saratoga’s Solomini with $721,192. And with just that one crop, Honest Mischief was eighth on the state’s general sire earnings list, regardless of progeny conception area. Honest Mischief, who raced as a homebred for Juddmonte, won four times from nine career starts, missing the top three only once. His career was highlighted by a win in the City of Laurel Stakes in Maryland, a runner-up effort in the Aristides Stakes at Churchill Downs, and a third in the Grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga. He retired to Sequel with the support of Juddmonte, helping him to get solid numbers of mares in his early seasons, which doubtless contributed to his success. Honest Mischief, by leading sire and emerging sire of sires Into Mischief, also brought one of Juddmonte’s stellar families to New York breeders. He is out of Grade 1 winner Honest Lady, also the dam of Grade 1 winner First Defence, sire of champion Close Hatches. Honest Lady is out of Broodmare of the Year Toussaud, whose foals include Belmont Stakes winner and influential sire Empire Maker. Honest Mischief’s top runners in 2024 were Sacrosanct and Stone Smuggler, both multiple stakes winners who capped their sire’s year with a double in the New York Stallion Series Stakes contested Dec. 14 at Aqueduct. Sacrosanct went unbeaten in four starts as a juvenile, including wins in the Bertram F. Bongard and Sleepy Hollow Stakes, and finally, the Great White Way division of the NYSS. Stone Smuggler, who did not miss the board in four starts last year, added the Fifth Avenue division of the NYSS, to go with an earlier win in the Lady Finger Stakes. “We ended up buying four Honest Mischiefs pretty early at the weanling and yearling sales,” Dan Zanatta of NY Final Furlong Racing, which co-owns Stone Smuggler with Sunset Ridge Racing Stable, told the New York Racing Association after that win. “They were all really balanced . . . they all had tremendous hips, great girths, great toplines, and great walking motion.”