Darley America announces fees for 2026

G1 winner Highland Falls and multiple Graded Stakes winner First Mission will join the Darley stallion roster at Jonabell Farm in 2026.

Highland Falls, a son of Curlin out of G1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Round Pond, will stand for $10,000. Highland Falls was a brilliant four-length winner of the 2024 G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, running a 104 Beyer and beating three G1 winners, and was runner-up by a length to Sierra Leone in this year’s G1 Whitney, running a 107 Beyer and beating G1 winners Fierceness and White Abarrio. He is Curlin’s only G1-winning son out of a multiple G1-winning mare. Due to a minor injury, he will miss his planned final start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and will be available for viewing at Jonabell during the November sales.

Four-time Graded Stakes winner First Mission will also stand for $10,000. By sire of sires Street Sense, whose sons at stud include star freshman Maxfield and multiple G1 sire McKinzie, First Mission won the $1.25m G2 Oaklawn Handicap running a 109 Beyer, the G2 Alysheba at Churchill with a 106 Beyer, plus the G3 Essex Stakes and G3 Lexington Stakes. He was also third in the G1 Stephen Foster to Mindframe and Sierra Leone, beating Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan and Dubai World Cup winner Hit Show, and ran six triple-digit Beyers during his career. First Mission will be available for viewing at Jonabell following his final start in the G2 Clark Stakes at Churchill Downs on November 28th.

Nyquist, the sire of ten career G1 winners, will once again top the Jonabell roster after a 2025 season which included G1 victories by Cavalieri, Velocity, and Argos, plus Graded wins by Nysos, Crimson Advocate, Gosger, Verity, Tenma, Johannes, and Randomized. No other stallion can match his total of ten G1 horses in 2025. Nyquist’s fee will be announced after the Breeders’ Cup where he is expected to be represented by several contenders including Nysos in the Dirt Mile, Argos in the Juvenile Turf, Johannes in the Mile, and Litmus Test in the Juvenile. 

Freshman sire Maxfield’s first two-year-old runners include Stakes winner Max Ciao along with three TDN Rising Stars in Magna Victor, G1-placed Five Bars, and the exciting Englishman, who earned a 97 Beyer on debut at Churchill Downs and is a candidate for the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on November 28th. Maxfield will stand for $50,000 in 2026.

Two-time Eclipse Champion Essential Quality, whose first juveniles include Ellis Park Debutante winner Chopsticks, Stakes winner Essential Time, and Saratoga debut MSW winner Aye Eye, will stand for $25,000 next season.

Speaker’s Corner and Mystic Guide are coming off a very strong showing with their first-crop yearlings at the sales and will see their fees remain at $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish and G1 winner Proxy, who will both have their first weanlings selling in November, will stand for $60,000 and $12,500, respectively.

Rounding out the 2026 roster are Street Sense at $40,000, Hard Spun at $20,000, Midshipman at $15,000 and Frosted at $12,500.

Perennial leading sire Medaglia d’Oro, whose 30 career G1 winners include this year’s G1 Kentucky Oaks winner Good Cheer and G1 Alabama winner Nitrogen, will be retired from the roster, while future plans for multiple G1 winner Sovereignty will be determined after the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

The complete 2026 Jonabell Farm roster is listed below: