Well, he's not going to give it up without a fight. Yes, of course the whole narrative is random: he can hardly sit the boys down, tell them to get out there and remind everyone who's boss. But however unwittingly, Into Mischief has certainly obliged us with a dramatic and immediate response to the first serious test of his monopoly since claiming a first general sires' title in 2019.It has been clear for a while that the eventual succession was likely to concern Not This Time and Gun Runner, respectively second and third in 2025. But even as the latter lost the services of his leading Classic prospect, Paladin, his rival sent Magnitude over to the desert to plunder a prize so valuable that it would on its own very nearly have closed the gap on Into Mischief last year. And that's without taking into account that Not This Time is only now about to launch his first juveniles conceived even at $135,000, with his current sophomores unbelievably still only sired at $45,000. With that upgrade about to cycle through, Not This Time was looking a potential challenger even before this older horse suddenly lobbed $7 million into the pot.What happened next was a bit like one of those westerns when someone rides into town, gets into an argument in the saloon, and puts a hand on his gun–only to recognize, belatedly, some distinctive identifying mark that reveals his adversary as the fastest draw in the West.Bang! Commandment wins the GI Florida Derby. Bang! Renegade wins the GI Arkansas Derby. Bang! Cannoneer melts his pursuers by nine at Gulfstream. Bang! Cornucopia gets it all back together in the GIII San Carlos Stakes. And that's before Ponente takes aim at the GI Santa Anita Derby this weekend.So while Not This Time has thrown down the gauntlet, with Magnitude helping him to $10.4 million for 2026, Into Mischief is now up to $7.6 million. And if Ponente happens to impress, the champion could yet find himself with the first three in the betting as he seeks the outright record we've had on the radar for a while, with that fourth GI Kentucky Derby winner. Not bad, when you remember that winter favorite Ted Noffey bowed out in January.Into Mischief | Sarah AndrewJust looking at these horses, and what they cost, it's hard to resist a sense that Into Mischief has become something we have seen very rarely, if at all, since Northern Dancer. Cannoneer was a $1.75 million yearling at the 2024 Keeneland September Sale; Renegade cost $975,000 in the same book, while Commandment was a “bargain” $500,000. In the same ring, a year previously, Cornucopia brought $1.1 million. Potente, meanwhile, made the second highest price at the 2024 Saratoga Sale at $2.4 million. Big money is consistently bringing big horses.If we live in a world of Mischief, it's obviously one very different from that bestrode by Northern Dancer. But that's the point, really: these are epoch-making brands, their individual careers modelling whole new markets. One ushered in the commercial era; the other became poster boy for industrial books.That has partly been a function of his freakish physiological capacity, in terms of fertility and libido. Not even he can go on indefinitely, but for now he's leaving the pretender in no doubt as to the Magnitude of his task. NICE WORK ADDS INTEREST TO PENNY LEGACYAs and when Into Mischief presents his last foals at auction, then, it will certainly mark the end of an era. Northern Dancer's final two yearlings went to market in 1989–and one, a colt out of the wonderful Mrs. Penny (Great Nephew {GB}), topped the Keeneland July Sale at $2.8 million. As Northern Park, he became his sire's final stakes winner, in a French Listed race as a 4-year-old, before making a limited impression at stud.Renegade as a foal | courtesy of Taylor MadeMrs. Penny had endeared herself to fans in Europe in battling to Group 1 wins over six and 12 furlongs, but that represented only a brief detour over the water for a maternal line that had reached America way back in the 1830s. She was quickly repatriated for her breeding career, which did yield a rather more lasting footprint in her daughter by The Minstrel, Mrs. Jenney, the dam of GI Whitney Handicap winner Unaccounted For (Private Account) and French stakes winner A Votre Sante (Irish River {Fr}).The latter's daughter Vole Vole Monamour (Woodman) won her sole start in France and made up for whatever prevented her building on that promise by producing two elite winners: Mrs. Lindsay (Theatrical {Ire}), who emulated Mrs. Penny by winning the G1 Prix Vermeille 27 years on; and Dame Dorothy (Bernardini), whose 7-for-12 career was crowned in the GI Humana Distaff.Dame Dorothy was sent to Curlin for her first cover and produced a filly picked out by Jacob West as a $1.05 million yearling for Robert and Lawana Low, who named her Spice Is Nice. She won four of nine starts, included a graded stakes in the GIII Allaire DuPont Stakes over 9f of dirt at Pimlico. And now the cycle has repeated, in that her first foal–an Into Mischief colt–was bought by West for $975,000 on behalf of another patron, Mike Repole, at the 2024 Keeneland September Sale. Repole was doubling down on the family, having bought Dame Dorothy, in foal to Gun Runner, for $900,000 in the same ring the previous November. (The Gun Runner colt cleared that investment in one hit, making $1.6 million last September.)With West as their link, the Lows then made a deal to stay in the Into Mischief colt with Repole. And his name, of course, is Renegade. ANOTHER TALENT TO HAVE BLOSSOMEDIt was a hell of a weekend for the Lows's broodmare band. Besides the monster update for Spice Is Nice, they have another young Curlin mare whose page has really lit up.Her name is Hanavave, and she was purchased as a weanling in 2022 for $750,000 as the second foal out of Sippican Harbor (Orb)–the meteor who won her maiden at Saratoga by 17 lengths, following up in the GI Spinaway Stakes only to burn out soon after.Hanavave failed to make the racetrack but that disappointment could now be redeemed by her half-brother Commandment, whose Gulfstream success paired up Renegade's Into Mischief flair with some Into Mischief fight.Given Orb's deeply disappointing stud career, departing for Uruguay in 2021, we must treat Sippican Harbor's brilliance–first on the track and now as a producer–as a considerable credit to her unraced dam Blossomed (Deputy Minister).Albeit the self-fulfilling prejudice against ageing stallions may have somewhat more pertinence in the era of megabooks and shuttling, the distaff legend Deputy Minister certainly left us something potent when siring Blossomed at the age of 23. (Grade I winner Miss Shop came from the same crop.) Besides Sippican Harbor, Blossomed produced an 8-for-11 Japanese star in Awesome Result (Justify); his brother Crudo, who won the Sir Barton Stakes last year by daylight; plus the graded stakes-placed dam of millionaire Royal Star (Violence).Some of this quality presumably percolated from Blossomed's dam, a Mt. Livermore half-sister to British Group 1 winner Peter Davies (Bering {GB}), whose third dam was Leallah, a sensational juvenile in 1956. Leallah was by Nasrullah out of the great Lea Lark–a daughter of Bull Lea, the last stallion before Into Mischief to sire three Kentucky Derby winners. SEEING THE HUMOROUS SIDECommandment gave Into Mischief his second consecutive Florida Derby, Tappan Street having last year been the last horse to beat Sovereignty. Tappan Street represents the Distorted Humor cross–also responsible for Practical Joke, Life Is Good, Citizen Bull etc–that gets respect even from those of us who automatically mistrust all formulaic breeding.Commandment nets GI Florida Derby | Ryan ThompsonCornucopian is the work of another Distorted Humor mare, but that is scarcely an adequate shorthand for a producer as accomplished as Magical World. Here's a top mare who has managed perfectly pretty well without Into Mischief, giving Ghostzapper triple Grade I scorer Guarana; Pioneerof the Nile, the graded stakes winner Beatbox; and More Than Ready, the stakes winner Magic Dance.Magical World is duly much the most significant foal of GI Breeders' Cup winner Pleasant Home (Seeking the Gold), whose sisters Country Hideaway and Matlacha Pass contributed at least as much to the reputation of their dam Our Country Place (Pleasant Colony) in branding one of the many branches of the dynasty under her dam Maplejinsky (Nijinsky)/granddam Gold Beauty (Mr. Prospector). Multiple graded stakes winner Country Hideaway produced another in Boca Grande (A.P. Indy), while Matlacha Pass produced elite scorers Point of Entry (Dynaformer) and Pine Island (Arch).Such are the rewards of Into Mischief's giddily upgraded books. Again, those rewards are unwitting. But they would sure give Not This Time heart, if only he knew.The post Breeding Digest: Time Not Yet Up For Mischief appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.