Musket Man was Leading General Sire in Korea in 2022. Korea Cup and Grand Prix Stakes winner Winner’s Man saw his sire to the title accounting for almost 30% of his earnings of 6.5 Billion Korean Won.
Musket Man finished 700 Million Won ahead of nearest rival Cowboy Cal despite having just 304 race starters compared with Cowboy Cal’s 1,003. The late Menifee was 3rd with Hansen and Old Fashioned rounding out the top five.
Standing privately for owner Son Chun-soo, who heads up the Raon breeding and racing juggernaut, Musket Man arrived in Korea in 2016 and spent his early years covering mostly Raon’s own mares. Aside from the exceptional Winner’s Man, he has also produced the Group race winning fillies Raon Pink and Raon The Spurt, along with Seoul’s 2022 champion juvenile filly, Raon Giant.
In his first four seasons in the country, Musket Man covered no more than 64 mares in a single year. However, this jumped to 74 in 2020 and then 108 and 99 in 2021 and 2022 so he is likely to be in and around the top of the list for years to come.
The final crop of Menifee, who died in 2019, scored well enough to see their late sire to the Leading Sire of Two-Year-Olds, the bulk earned by Champion Juvenile Speed Young.
Emerging sires include To Honor And Serve and Girolamo, both of whom had their second local crops running with To Honor And Serve cracking the top-ten. The highest placed non-Korea based sire on the General list was Algorithms in 23rd place, almost all earned by Korea Sprint winner Eoma Eoma.
December saw the passing of Isidore Farm’s Ecton Park, who dueled with Menifee for years at the top of the Leading General Sire table, beating him in 2018. That was a standout achievement as Ecton Park was standing privately for a commercial fee whereas Menifee was owned and stood by the Korea Racing Authority.
Horse Racing in Korea 