Last week I opined that Uncle Mo fully appears to deserve his crown as leading freshman sire. However, could there be a 2015 freshman sire to challenge Mo in future years? Consider the following.

One possible challenger raced first at age 5 but has produced 16% stakes winners from foals. Then there is the freshman sire with a stratospheric 4.82 AEI, despite being by little-known Not Impossible. And what about the stallion that had three stakes-winning fillies last year from only seven starters?

Do any of these clues ring a bell? If you’re stumped, a further clue is that all three descriptive sentences refer to the same stallion, a horse that has three winners (all stakes winners, including recent grade II Santa Ynez second Code Warrior) from 19 named foals. The stallion’s name—Society’s Chairman.

Can a horse by Not Impossible who didn’t race until 5 have sire power? Arika Everatt-Meeuse, manager of Shannondoe Farm in Ontario, and daughter of farm (and Society’s Chairman) owners Jim and Janeane Everatt, had that question in mind when she rather reluctantly looked at Society’s Chairman as a stallion prospect. She started asking more questions when she was wowed by his conformation. She was told that he split a pastern at 2 (he still has three screws), cracked a tibia at 3, but won his first start at age 5 at Gulfstream, going 8.5 furlongs in 1:39:88.

A late debut didn’t deter Society’s Chairman from becoming an extraordinary racehorse, a grade III stakes winner and thrice grade I stakesplaced. He had family, being out of a half sister to grade I winner Hodges Bay, and from the family of Belmont winner Summing. His sire, Not Impossible, a son of Sadler’s Wells, boasts three stakes winners, including champion Not Bourbon and Impossible Time, from 45 foals.

Code Warrior is one of two Society’s Chairman runners who sports a 91 Brisnet speed rating, a higher figure than the average Uncle Mo stakes winner. Precocious? His three stakes winners all won first starts.

In recent weeks Society’s Chairman has received a steady stream of visitors, most resulting in bookings. Check back in 2019 to see if Society’s Chairman’s reprises his magical freshman year, perhaps on an even bigger scale.

-edited from January 20, 2016 edition of Blood-Horse Daily, by Robert L. Losey, Ph.D.