Leading New York sire Bucchero is already booked to 100 mares for the 2025 season at Ironhorse Stallions. Serita Hult Photo.
Bucchero has settled in nicely at his new home at Ironhorse Stallions and looks to be set for a big 2025 breeding season with more than 100 mares already booked.
Along with strong outside support, the Ironhorse Stallions team has gone on a bit of a holiday spending spree, purchasing 10 mares at auction between Keeneland and Tattersalls in the United Kingdom.
“As we said at the outset of both moving Bucchero to New York and to Ironhorse Stallions, we are all in with the New York breeding program,” said Harlan Malter, managing partner of Bucchero and Ironhorse Stallions. “We have had a strong response from individual breeders, both in state and those moving mares for the first time into the New York program, along with some larger breeders who have purchased lifetime breeding rights that we have made available on a limited basis, it is an exciting time to be breeding in New York.”
Bucchero, who has been the leading stallion in New York throughout 2024, is yet to have a runner compete for a New York-restricted purse, which will not come until his first New York crop hits the track in 2027.
“In anticipation of getting our first New York-sired runners on the ground, we have substantially increased our broodmare band,” said Malter.
After purchasing eight mares out of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, the Ironhorse team headed to Tattersalls to add some European bloodlines to Bucchero and New York.
“Having Bucchero run in the 2018 Kings Stand really was the start of my appreciation for European racing and pedigrees and has led us to buy five mares at Tattersalls over the past three years,” Malter said. “We even sent a Bucchero yearling to campaign in the U.K.”
Cyclonite, an Ironhorse homebred by Bucchero, was sent to James Ferguson in Newmarket, where he has won two of four starts on the synthetic surface, capped off with a victory at Kempton December 4 to earn an official rating of 86. (Watch Cyclonite win at Kempton)
“Seeing Cyclonite win at Kempton in person, on my way home from buying two more mares for Bucchero at Tattersalls, was a bucket list thing and solidified my belief that the push we are seeing to diversify the U.S. bloodlines along with encouraging interest in racing internationally, is a vital part in the growth of the game,” said Malter, on his way to New York for the Ironhorse Stallions open house and New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. annual holiday party.
The Ironhorse Stallions team will host an open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. December 13 from as a lead up to the NYTB’s holiday party that evening.
The stallion show, at 58 Dunn Road in Stillwater at Questroyal North, will allow breeders to see Bucchero; meet John Dowd, head of operations and bloodstock; and enjoy some light refreshments and Bucchero swag. For more information, contact info@ihstallions.com or call 27B-UCC-HERO (272-822-4376) or visit ihstallions.com.
