Stallion Deep Dive: Vekoma

Spendthrift's son of Candy Ride currently leads the first-crop sire standings with eight winners in fourteen starters

Vekoma currently leads the first-crop sire standings of 2024 by winners, with eight, and is second to Complexity by earnings, with $328,551. In addition to those eight winners, he’s had a number of runners make exciting debuts without winning - his Colloquial was beaten just a nose by the promising Pletcher/Repole runner Mentee (a full brother to last year’s two-year-old champion Fierceness) in a track-record setting performance :56.97 for five furlongs at Belmont Park, while yesterday Jimmy’s Dailys was a fast-closing third in a Churchill Downs maiden special weight.

In addition to that impressive performance, Vekoma had two debut winners yesterday, with Murdock blitzing a Hawthorne maiden special weight field by 10 3/4 lengths, despite bobbling at the start, and Faster Gator taking a Laurel Park maiden special weight field gate-to-wire by 2 3/4 lengths. Next weekend, he’ll have a chance to add a stakes winner to his resume, as Fortuna Mia is entered in Churchill Downs’ Debutante Stakes. Today, I want to take a deep dive into Vekoma, see if there are any early patterns emerging around his offspring, and make some predictions about what sire lines he figures to excel with moving forward.

The hype around Vekoma has been buzzing from the time his foals first entered the sales ring, with his first crop of weanlings selling for an average of $92,222 and median of $70,000 on a $20,000 stud fee. Last year, that same crop of foals sold for an average of $96,825 and median of $60,000 as yearlings, and this year, he’s had 53 two-year-olds sell for an average of $136,066 and median of $90,000.

As a racehorse, Vekoma was a brilliant sprinter-miler type who could also carry his speed two turns. He won both of his starts as a two-year-old, which included a graded stakes win in the Nashua Stakes, and won the Blue Grass Stakes as a three-year-old after finishing third in the Fountain of Youth. He finished 12th in the Kentucky Derby, fading after sticking close to the pace for the first six furlongs. Though the plan was for him to return in the Dwyer, he grabbed a quarter in training that June and ended up not racing again as a three-year-old. He returned as a four-year-old to win all three of his starts that year, most notably a 7 1/4-length win in the G1 Carter Handicap going seven furlongs over a sloppy track in 1:21.02. He followed that up with a second G1 win in the Metropolitan Handicap, where he missed the track record by just over 3/5ths of a second, completing a mile in 1:32.88. He suffered an abscess in his foot about a month after the race, and though he was entered in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and installed as the 3/1 morning line favorite, he was scratched after spiking a fever and subsequently retired.

Though he was lightly raced, Vekoma put together an exceptional resume and proved that he had the kind of brilliance that makes a stallion career, and he was well-supported in his first season, covering 222 mares in 2021. Despite his characteristic paddling gait - or perhaps because of it, - he was exceptionally fast, and it would seem he’s passing his speed onto his offspring. At this year’s OBS April sale, he had four foals work a furlong in under ten seconds, and had ten sell for six figures, including an $800,000 purchase by Donato Lanni as agent for Zedan Racing.

Vekoma’s racetrack performance is just one aspect of his appeal, as his pedigree also suggests potential sire power. He’s a son of Candy Ride, the sire of Gun Runner and Twirling Candy, both currently top-20 leading sires of 2024. His dam, Mona de Momma, was a G1 winner out of a half sister to multiple graded stakes winner and sire Mr. Greeley. Vekoma’s third dam, Long Legend, is also the third dam of Street Sense, another sire ranked among the top 20 leading sires of 2024. Going back another generation, to Vekoma’s fourth dam Lianga, presents a connection to champion sire Danehill Dancer, whose third dam is Lianga. Mona de Momma was a daughter of Speightstown, who has also proven his mettle as a sire of sires with the likes of Munnings, currently 13th on the leading sire list, as well as Central Banker, a top three leading sire in New York since 2019.