We know that the majority of stallions, in this day and age, get their biggest and best books precisely when we know least about their competence. But the other side of the same coin is that very few breeders stick around should a stallion fail to seize that first, fleeting opportunity.Just as well, then, that a historically underachieving group of rookies has got its act together with its maturing first crop, to the extent that four have managed to get a son into the GI Kentucky Derby gate.Collectively, this intake mustered a solitary graded stakes winner from their first juveniles. Given the levels of support these new sires command, that was abject even compared with the three scraped together by the class of 2023, never mind with scores of 12 and 16 registered by those either side.But they are rallying now and one of them secured top billing on a weekend of unsurprisingly meagre rations, pending the upcoming Churchill banquet.Charlatan was already the only one with a second graded stakes scorer to his credit and on Sunday he won two stakes inside 20 minutes.Fitz Right wins the Memories of Silver | CoglianeseAs we'll see, both Fitz Right (Memories of Silver Stakes, Aqueduct) and Arbiter (Woodstock Stakes, Woodbine) could draw on pretty eligible maternal blood. But that's no less than one would expect of a stallion retired at $50,000, second only to Essential Quality ($75,000).Both were this spring down to $25,000, even though no sensible judgement could be passed on either until their maturing stock routinely ran a second turn. True, both were themselves pretty natural racehorses, one as champion juvenile and the other able to win the GI Arkansas Derby after disposing of seven inferiors in two educational starts. But Essential Quality was a son of Tapit favored by a bunch of Classic mares, while Charlatan didn't reach the starting gate until February himself, and both his parents matured late: Speightstown famously so, while his dam Authenticity (Quiet American) made only three starts before the age of six, when she won two graded stakes and was placed in four Grade Is.Storm Cat's influence has become a recurring theme of late and Speightstown's damsire reappears in the bottom half behind both Arbiter, whose granddam is by Storm Cat; and Fitz Right, who's out of a mare by his grandson Henny Hughes.Her name was I'm A Looker, and she dead-heated for the GIII Winning Colors Stakes, highlight of a 4-for-23 career over four campaigns. That helped turn her from a $4,500 short yearling to a $475,000 Stonestreet recruit at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale. But her elevation in the world was also accelerated by her unraced dam's half-sister Our Josephina (Tale of the Cat), herself a graded stakes-placed sprinter and meanwhile dam of dual Grade I winner Dortmund (Big Brown).Arbiter wins the Woodstock Stakes | Michael BurnsThese half-sisters have duly redeemed their dam Ropa Usada (Danzig), who never made the racetrack herself and otherwise produced anonymous runners and producers. Some lasting dividend was finally achieved, then, from the access to Danzig secured by her own dam Lakeville Miss (Rainy Lake), as champion juvenile filly of 1977.Lakeville Miss, purchased by the young Peter Brant, proved a rather trying broodmare but showed what might have been with her first foal actually to make the starting gate: Mogambo, from Mr. Prospector's second Kentucky crop after Brant had been instrumental in transferring him from Florida, won the GI Champagne Stakes by nearly 10 lengths. (Only a couple of weeks ago, incidentally, we happened to record how Mogambo did that nine days after a gruelling three-way drive for the GI Young America Stakes with Storm Cat and Danzig Connection.)Arbiter's P360 ProfileSo this is a pedigree that has extended a delicate path of quality over some fairly fragile bridges, as condensed by Fitz Right's first four dams: graded stakes winner, unraced, unraced, champion. I'm A Looker has been given every chance by Stonestreet, and she rewarded them handsomely when her son by Quality Road made $1.1 million from Amo at Saratoga in 2022. He has not surfaced since but her next yearling, the $200,000 Keeneland September graduate we know as Fitz Right, has discovered an aptitude for turf that would not have been immediately obvious on either side of her pedigree. That said, both Charlatan and his dam had siblings that reserved their best moment for Kentucky Downs, while his third dam Appealing Missy (Lypheor {GB}) began her career as a Listed winner in France before a fertile graded stakes career on Californian grass. And of course we also know that Storm Cat, top and bottom, will enhance your versatility as well as your toughness. SOME DERBY SUBPLOTSStorm Cat had none of the advantages of modern rookies. From 39 foals in his first crop, even so, eight were stakes winners including two at Grade I level. Charlatan's is now up to six stakes winners from 84 starters. Class leader Yaupon has 10 from 105; Essential Quality, six from 79.These young guns, as noted above, get a huge footprint today: Charlatan sent no fewer than 125 members of his first crop into the ring as yearlings, and Yaupon 133. Their relative precocity can be gauged from the fact that only 54 Charlatans made the gate at two, compared with 82 for Yaupon. Both maintained sufficient volume to offer over 100 yearlings from their second crop, too, though obviously the modern market automatically cools even on successful sires: not even Yaupon achieved quite the same yields, and only Beau Liam punched sufficiently above weight early to make a big leap through a small second book of cheap covers.Danon Bourbon | Coady MediaThe stakes are high, then, for the Derby quartet: Essential Quality appears to have the biggest chance, with The Puma; studmate Maxfield has Danon Bourbon, while Tacitus and Yaupon respectively field Silent Tactic and Albus.Maxfield, with three stakes winners from 78 starters, also has a big hope in the GII Pat Day Mile, Englishman, whose opponents include Beau Liam's aptly-named son Crude Velocity, once sold for $3,000 but author of a 100 Beyer on his second start. It's a weekend full of these little subplots.An obvious one is whether the Japanese raiders can redress the defeat of Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) in 2024. Danon Bourbon's Kentucky antecedents are well signaled by his name, whereas a lot more than his handlers' horsemanship would be to Japan's credit with Wonder Dean (Jpn) (Dee Majesty {Jpn}), whose pedigree represents generational work by an industry that seems to learn all the lessons that seems missed in commercial haste either side of the Atlantic.One other quick thought, heading into the rose garden. The way Fulleffort (Liam's Map) has been breezing over the dirt suggests that he could be yet another to land running at Churchill from the Turfway preps. Perhaps trials over that synthetic circuit take somewhat less out of a horse. Of course, Deterministic and Burnham Square have transitioned the other way for their sire, having started out on dirt before joining others to excel on turf, such as Colonel Liam and Roses for Debra.With Not This Time, the obvious temptation is always to credit his stock's versatility to Giant's Causeway. But his half-brother by Unbridled's Song seems equally adept at producing grass runners. By this stage we've all pored over those Tartan Farm brands behind their dam Miss Macy Sue (Trippi), and I'm not sure many of us looked at her pedigree and decided that it shouts turf. Miss Macy Sue at Taylor Made | Sarah AndrewA MARE SHOWING HER TRUE COLORSMiss Macy Sue's finest hour came in the Winning Colors Stakes, the race also won by Fitz Right's dam. That qualified Miss Macy Sue as favorite for the GII Honorable Miss, but she disappointed behind Burmilla (Storm Cat)–who just happens to be the granddam of Charlatan's other stakes winner on Sunday, Arbiter.That was Burmilla's fourth win in four starts but unfortunately she derailed in the GI Ballerina Stakes later that month. She had been an $850,000 yearling, as a sister to GII Schuylerville Stakes winner Magicalmysterycat, their dam being triple graded stakes winner Nannerl (Valid Appeal). Burmilla has bred 14 named foals at Godolphin, including as many as a dozen fillies, and while plenty have evidently struggled with soundness, she has produced graded stakes scorers Snowbell (Tapit) and Ragtime (Union Rags).Her daughter by Tiznow, Bicolour, showed little in a light career in Britain, and was cheaply culled at the sales. She found her way over the water and has since changed hands a couple of times, including when bought by Machmer Hall for Tollgate Farm, in foal to Epicenter, for just $35,000 at the 2024 Keeneland November Sale. The Epicenter made $90,000 in the same ring last September, and the mare's owners will now be taking a keen interest in any further progress by her son after his runaway win at the weekend. The post Breeding Digest: Charlatan Sets Tone For Second-Crop Derby Sires appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.