For the fourth consecutive year and fifth time in the past six years, FREUD led all Northeastern-based sires in 2019 progeny earnings, as his runners topped $4-million ($4,013,126) for the ninth year and seventh consecutive season. He has led all New York-based sires six times, beginning with his first four crops to race more than a decade earlier. Freud is the only North American-based stallion standing outside of Kentucky that has sired Grade 1-winning millionaires on both dirt and turf.

Freud also was the leading Northeastern-based sire in turf earnings for 2019 and is the only Northeastern sire with a Lifetime Average-Earnings Index higher than 1.50, improving on his mares’ Comparable Index by 23 percent. His runners have earned more than $60-million world-wide.

In Argentina, Freud’s consistent dirt-routing Argentine-bred son, MUCHA CHANCE, scored his second Group 2 victory at 2,000 meters (about a mile and a quarter) for Dap Stable by winning the Clasico Otono at Palermo by four lengths against 10 rivals on March 9, clocking 1:59.10. A winner on turf as well as on dirt, Mucha Chance still holds the 2,000-meter track record at another Argentina facility, La Plata.

Freud’s most recent of five North American black-type stakes winners in 2019 was the juvenile (and now 3-year-old) stakes-winning filly, A FREUD OF MAMA ($399,818), who captured Aqueduct’s $518,250 New York Stallion Fifth Avenue at seven furlongs against 10 rivals in her dirt debut on December 15. A homebred for William J. Butler, Freud’s 67th stakes winner returned to Aqueduct 34 days later (on January 18) to win the 6½-furlong Franklin Square Stakes by the widest margin (six lengths) in the Franklin Square’s six renewals despite being squeezed at the start. Winning jockey Jorge Vargas Jr., who also had been aboard for A Freud of Mama’s Fifth Avenue tally (coming from seventh to win by a length and a half on a muddy track), remarked that his mount: “really proved to me that she wants to be a good horse. Whenever I got a seam, she went for it. I really loved it. She likes coming off the pace.”

Described as “scary good” in a NYRA Communications’ press release, A Freud of Mama had placed in Belmont’s graded Matron Stakes on turf last October – 22 days after having won a $62,000 juvenile maiden special on Belmont turf in 1:08.79 for six furlongs. She is the sixth named offspring, fourth starter, and fourth winner out of her dam but is her dam’s first runner to win or place in a stakes (even though that mare has offspring by fairly pricey Kentucky-based stallions) and her first offspring by Freud.

Freud’s first stakes winner of 2019 was All In The Family Racing’s BAVARO ($344,785), who won Aqueduct’s six-furlong Hollie Hughes Stakes as the favorite among six in February for his second Big A tally in 38 days. Nineteen days later, on March 9, the 5-year-old multiple stakes winner placed in Belmont’s graded Tom Fool Handicap while beating the 2018 Tom Fool winner.

Freud’s second North American stakes winner of 2019 was Oak Bluff Stable’s THERAPIST ($490,345), who scored his sixth career stakes victory in Belmont’s open and listed Elusive Quality Stakes at seven furlongs on yielding turf on April 27. The 4-year-old homebred won the Elusive Quality in his 2019 debut.

Freud’s fourth stakes winner of 2019 and second in South America was Dona Licha Stable’s multiple listed winner, CHARPENTIER, who won the Clasico Kevin at 1,900 meters (about 1 3/16 miles) on dirt at Monterrico in Lima, Peru on August 3. The 6-year-old Argentine-bred beat nine in his two-length victory.

Freud’s multiple stakes-winning DOT MATRIX ($487,487) won Belmont’s $125,000 Ashley T. Cole Stakes on September 22 against one of the best Cole fields ever, clocking 1 1/8 miles on turf in 1:46.57 (second-fastest Cole and under one-fifth of a second off the 2004 stakes record set under nine pounds less). Owned by Ten Strike Racing, the 6-year-old subsequently placed third among 11 in his graded stakes debut and first effort beyond 1 1/8 miles, Aqueduct’s 1 3/8-mile Red Smith Stakes on wet turf on November 23. That performance encouraged trainer Brad Cox to enter Dot Matrix into Sam Houston Race Park’s graded $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup at a mile and a half on grass on January 26, 2020.

Also placing in her graded (and 2020) debut, closing to within a half-length of the more lightly-weighted winner, was Freud’s dramatically-improving daughter, MUNCHKIN MONEY ($441,615), who finished second among seven in Gulfstream Park’s Marshua’s River Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on turf (in 1:39.67) on January 11. Racing for Sweet Home Stables, Mark Parkinson, Brian F. Martin, Steven Bouchey, and Tony Weintraub, the consistent mare won three turf allowances at Belmont and Gulfstream Parks in 2019 while also placing in three stakes. There are five more graded stakes opportunities for fillies and mares going a mile to 1 3/16 miles on turf at Florida tracks through the first week of March, so stretch-running Munchkin Money is coming into form at the right time.

In addition to A Freud of Mama, Freud’s winners in 2019 include another stakes winner who also has won his 2020 debut: Daniel J. Feiss’s DR. SHANE ($589,657), who captured Gulfstream Park’s 7½-furlong allowance optional turf feature against 10 rivals (three graded winners) on January 20. Although a stakes winner on dirt, Dr. Shane’s last four victories have been near course record efforts on turf, including a six-furlong Belmont allowance romp last May in 1:07.15 and the January 20 tally in 1:27.47 (.41 of a second off the 7½-furlong course record) following a four-month layoff. Freud’s five 2020 debut winners also include three newly-minted six-figure-earners: Dennis Narlinger’s SADIE LADY ($124,265) by 4¼ lengths going six furlongs at Aqueduct on January 17; Dennis and Barbara Pohl’s JOEY B going a mile against 10 on Turfway Park’s Polytrack on January 18; owner-trainer Ron G. Potts’ MORGAN’S Z VA, who won at three tracks at three different distances on turf and all-weather in 2019 and scored at a mile on Tampa Bay Downs turf on January 18 as the topweight among 10, beating the runner-up favorite.