Instagrand blasts to Rising Star status in debut

Instagrand coasts to his maiden win – Benoit photo

Into Mischief’s $1.2 million Fasig-Tipton March sales-topping colt Instagrand paid immediate dividends in his five-furlong maiden special weight unveiling June 29 at Los Alamitos, rocketing to a 10-length score and earning a TDN Rising Star tag (VIDEO).

The OXO Equine colorbearer faced a stiff challenge at the top of the stretch, but proved no match as he rapidly accelerated away from the field to win with supreme ease in 56 seconds flat, just missing the track record and earning a lofty Beyer Speed Figure of 88, the highest for any 2-year-old of 2018.

The bay colt is trained by Jerry Hollendorfer and was bred in Kentucky by Stoneway Farm.

Into Mischief is North America’s leading sire of winners (97) and black type horses (27) this year. Among his 10 stakes winners are millionaire and Florida Derby (G1) winner Audible and Eight Belles S. (G2) winner Mia Mischief.

Instagrand pedigree notes from the TDN:
Assets of War, a debut winner for Stoneway at Churchill Downs in 2012 and half-sister to MGSP The Best Day Ever, had a colt by Cairo Prince in 2017 and a colt by Noble Mission (GB) in 2018. Her first foal, the 3-year-old filly Aerial Assets (Into Mischief), earned her diploma at third asking in a maiden special weight at Laurel Friday afternoon. The winner’s second dam Added Asset won the 1993 GIII Arlington Heights Oaks. This is also the extended female family of GI Spinaway S. heroine Irish Smoke.