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Dependable Dubawi a Deserved Champion

The recent football World Cup featured a few surprises, with several high-profile teams losing out to supposed lesser lights. That situation is not a mirror of what happened in the General Sires' Table of Great Britain and Ireland in 2022, when the established stars held their position so well that the first five in the 2021 table are the first five in the 2022 table, albeit in a different order. The most notable change in the order is one which many observers will applaud: Dubawi (Ire) has gained his deserved reward for years of consistent excellence by finally claiming the crown after many honourable near misses.

Dubawi's consistency as a stallion has been remarkable. An unbeaten Group 1 winner as a two-year-old in 2004 before taking the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas and G1 Prix Jacques le Marois the following year, he retired in 2006 to Dalham Hall Stud, where he has spent his entire career bar one season, 2008, when he stood at Kildangan.

One could say that there was guarded optimism about Dubawi's prospects at the outset, witness his first-season fee of £25,000, which at the time was a fair sum, but no more extravagant than that, for a horse with his form. It turned out that there was even less optimism that that figure implies because his fee had dropped to £15,000 by the time that he started to have runners in the spring of 2009. It was easy to see why opinions might have been divided. Dubawi was the star of the one and only crop of the fabulous Dubai Millennium (GB) who had covered for a fee of £100,000 in his only season (2001) but, while Dubai Millennium had been large, magnificent and very imposing horse, the diminutive Dubawi didn't look much like his dad at all.

It didn't take long for Dubawi to demonstrate that a great book doesn't have to have an eye-catching cover. He had a very good year with his first three-year-olds in 2010, most notably thanks to Makfi (GB) winning both the G1 2,000 Guineas and the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois. In the former race Makfi became the first of the three winners (so far) of the first Classic of the British year sired by Dubawi; in the latter he inflicted a rare defeat on the mighty Goldikova (Ire). At the end of the season, Dubawi, despite only having two crops to represent him, stood in a very creditable eighth place in the General Sires' Table. He has never looked back, and from 2013 onwards he has never finished out of the first five. In the ten seasons 2013 to '22 inclusive, his 'form figures' read 3422325231. Under the circumstances, the title of 'Champion Sire' is richly deserved by Dubawi, to be savoured by his connections and his many admirers all the more for how many times he has come close.

It didn't take long for Dubawi to demonstrate that a great book
doesn't have to have an eye-catching cover

As one would expect, Dubawi's fee has been a reflection of his success. In 2011 he covered at £55,000 before his fee rose to £75,000 the following year. By 2014 it was in six figures. It crossed the £200,000 mark in 2016, hit £250,000 in 2017 and, on the back of his first sires' championship, will be £350,000 in 2023. He will be full at that price, although in fairness one should point out that it is likely that only a relatively small number of nominations will be bought because so many are retained for use on the Darley/Godolphin broodmare band.

Until 2021, in all the seasons in which Dubawi was what one might term a 'minor place-getter' in the sires' championship the crown was held by Galileo (Ire). To date, Galileo (who died in July 2021 at the age of 23) has been champion sire 12 times, which means that he is currently one short of the total of titles achieved by his father Sadler's Wells. There is still time for him to equal, or even surpass, that total, but doing so will clearly be far easier said than done.

It was just a coincidence that Galileo's reign as champion sire ended in the year of his death because, obviously, a stallion's representation on the track does not start to drop off as soon as he dies, but a handful of years later. However, in Galileo's case a different obstacle had started to appear in the sense that he had become what one would could call a victim of his own success. So dominant had Galileo been for so long that a significant portion of the best mares in Europe were his daughters (and, in particular, such mares are numerous in the Coolmore band). Consequently he had ceased to be an option for a high percentage of the best mares, hence Coolmore having to look elsewhere and the 'Deep Impact over a Galileo mare' having become so conspicuously successful. In 2020 Galileo became champion broodmare sire of Great Britain and Ireland for the first time (making him the first horse in history to be champion sire and champion broodmare sire in the same season) and he has retained that title in both 2021 and '22.

When Galileo lost his champion sire's crown in 2021, he ceded it to his best son, Frankel (GB). Eight horses had finished runner-up behind Galileo during his 12 championships. Dubawi was the most successful of them with four second-place finishes, while Montjeu (Ire) was the only other stallion to occupy that position more than once. The other six stallions to finish second to Galileo were Danehill Dancer (Ire), Dansili (GB), Teofilo (Ire), Invincible Spirit (Ire), Dark Angel (Ire) and Sea The Stars (Ire). Ironically, Frankel was not one of those runners-up, but even so he had already been consistently successful in the small number of seasons since he had first appeared on the table. Frankel retired to stud in 2013 and entered the upper tiers of the general sires' table merely four years later (2017) when his oldest offspring were aged only three. He finished fourth that year, and from then to his first championship season (2021) he recorded form figures of 43401. When Frankel deposed Galileo in that 2021 season, the latter dropped merely one place to second. Both horses have enjoyed a good year again in 2022, finishing second and fourth in the sires' table respectively.

Frankel retired to stud in 2013 and entered the upper tiers of the general sires' table merely four years later when his oldest offspring were aged only three

This table obviously only includes performances in Great Britain and Ireland. Additionally, both stallions have had considerable further success overseas. Galileo's most notable international success of 2022 came when Oaks heroine Tuesday (Ire) supplemented her Classic triumph by taking the G1 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. Frankel was the sire of the Irish Classic winners Homeless Songs (Ire) and Westover (GB), not to mention the outstanding juvenile Chaldean (GB), but his tally of overseas victories is even more impressive. Seven of the 13 Group/Grade 1 victories for his offspring in 2022 came outside the British Isles, headed by the victory of Alpinista (GB) in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and also including the triumph of Nashwa (GB) in the G1 Prix de Diane. These two wins have helped to ensure that Frankel ends the year as Champion Sire of France by a margin of over €2 million over second-placed Siyouni (Fr), who thus takes the title of leading French-based sire of the year.

Dubawi, of course, also enjoyed significant international success again in 2022. The highlight of his spring came when he was responsible (with three different colts) for the winners of the G1 2,000 Guineas and its equivalent in both Ireland and France. In the autumn, he couldn't quite match his previous record (achieved in 2021) of three Breeders' Cup winners but still had two, courtesy of that Poule d'Essai des Poulains hero Modern Games (Ire) in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile and Rebel's Romance (Ire) in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. The latter had already scored twice in Group 1 company in Germany earlier in the season.

Aside from Dubawi, Frankel and Galileo, the other two horses to feature in the top five on the sires' table are Sea The Stars (third) and Dark Angel (fifth). These two are also proven to be thoroughly dependable, with the strengths of each clearly defined. Sea The Stars has put himself firmly in line to take up the mantle of his half-brother Galileo as the most reliable source of high-class stamina in Europe; while Dark Angel has proved himself a master at siring tough, fast horses who can come to hand quickly and also continue to progress over a number of seasons. Each is firmly established in the elite tier of European sires: not only did each finish second to Galileo in one of his championship seasons (in 2019 and 2017 respectively) but they (like Dubawi, Frankel and Galileo) are both part of the same quintet which has now dominated the table for two years running.

There must be a strong chance that Dubawi and Frankel will again 'fill the quinella' in the 2023 sires' table, not least because many onlookers regard Frankel's son Chaldean as Europe's most impressive two-year-old of 2022. Furthermore, one can expand that observation to say that if the past is a good guide to the future, all five of the principals from the standings of both 2021 and '22 are likely to enjoy yet another good season in the year ahead. All have reached the stage of seeming to be part of the furniture of the top tier of the leader-board, which makes the sixth-place finish of Dubawi's young Ballylinch-based son New Bay (GB) all the more creditable.

Winner of the 2015 G1 Prix du Jockey-Club, New Bay retired to stud in 2017 so he has reached this eminent position with his eldest offspring still aged only four. In an era in which the established stallions dominate the standings, it is encouraging to see so young a sire so prominent, particularly as his winners-to-runners ratio (49%) is second only to the figure recorded by his father Dubawi (51%). New Bay's excellent season, highlighted by the Group 1 double on QIPCO Champions Day at Ascot of his first-crop son Bay Bridge (GB) and his second-crop son Bayside Boy (Ire), marks him firmly down as potentially a leading sire of the seasons ahead.

The same comment could also apply to the only other 'third-season sire' in the top 20: Mehmas (Ire). His finishing position (19^th) is particularly creditable because, notwithstanding that he won two Group 2 races and was placed in two Group 1s in 2016, he didn't have the chance to put together a full racecourse CV because of his retirement after only one season in training. That meant that that Mehmas wasn't necessarily everyone's tip for the top at the outset, as is shown by the fact that he was covering for as little as €7,500 as recently as 2020. (The extent of the blossoming of his reputation is shown by the fact that he will cover for €60,000 in 2023).

The most successful 'second-crop sire' in Great Britain and Ireland in 2022 has been Churchill (Ire), who finishes the year in 23^rd position and whose potential was splendidly advertised during the season by the Cartier Champion Three-Year-Old Colt of Europe, Vadeni (Fr). The latter's victory in the G1 Eclipse S. at Sandown helped Churchill to be the best of this bunch of young stallions, while the Aga Khan homebred's G1 Prix du Jockey-Club triumph enabled Churchill to finish as high as fourth in the sires' table in France. Leading first-crop sire (by a wide margin) was Havana Grey (GB) who was represented by 36 individual winners of 56 races within Great Britain and Ireland. Collectively, his two-year-olds earned in excess of £1,000,000, a magnificent achievement which sees him finishing in a very creditable 39^th place in the General Sires' Table.

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Dubawi 13/8 Favourite To Be Champion Sire

The bookmaker Fitzdares makes Dubawi (Ire) 13/8 favourite to be champion sire for the first time. Darley's 20-year-old elite sire was third in last year's table in Britain and Ireland behind Frankel (GB) and Galileo (Ire), and he enjoyed an annus mirabilis on the international stage, becoming the first stallion to be responsible for three Grade I winners at the same Breeders' Cup meeting in Yibir (GB), Space Blues (Ire) and Modern Games (Ire).

Juddmonte's reigning champion Frankel is second-favourite to retain his title at 15/8, with the 12-time champion Galileo (Ire), who died last year, at 14/1 and his half-brother and fellow Derby winner Sea The Stars (Ire) priced at 11/4. Kingman (GB), whose eldest runners are now six, was seventh in last year's championship and is 14/1 to take this year's title.

“I think the first thing that was obvious was the lack of older horses in the Aidan O'Brien yard this year and this was a big factor in the price of Galileo,” said Fitzdares' Sam Hockenhull.

“Splitting up the other three was much harder. They all look like they have a potential superstar or superstars that could propel them to the title. However, it was Dubawi who came out on top. The quantity of proven top-class performers running this year is incredible and he looks to hold a very strong hand in the 3-year-old colt department this year.”

Hockenhull added, “We couldn't put Frankel far behind. After what he did last year, we definitely feel he will be popular in this market. His two Derby winners both remain in training and with his 1000 Guineas favourite Inspiral, it looks set to be another big year for him.

“Last but not least was Sea The Stars, who in Baaeed may have the best miler since Frankel himself. He will almost certainly have a very strong hand in the staying division with the likes of Mojo Star and Manobo joining Stradivarius.”

The betting for this year's champion sire in Great Britain and Ireland on total prize-money is as follows:

Dubawi 13/8
Frankel 15/8
Sea the Stars 11/4
Galileo 14/1
Kingman 14/1

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Frankel: The Best Just Got Better

Sadler's Wells, winner of the G1 Eclipse S. during a tough campaign as a 3-year-old in 1984, didn't take long to establish himself as an outstanding stallion (siring two Dewhurst Stakes winners, ie dead-heaters, in his first crop and thus swiftly making his aptitude for his second career clear) but for quite a long time the jury was out as to his effectiveness as a sire of sires. Ultimately, though, any such doubts were utterly dispelled. His best son on the racecourse, Montjeu (Ire), became a terrific stallion and then the horse who won the Derby, Irish Derby and King George And Queen Elizabeth S. two years after Montjeu won the Prix du Jockey-Club, Irish Derby and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Galileo (Ire), became an even greater one. Galileo, born when Sadler's Wells was aged 17, truly became his father's heir. The consequence of this was that the question of who would become Sadler's Wells's heir was replaced by a next-generation query as to who would become Galileo's heir?

Galileo, like his father, was an immediate star at stud, notwithstanding that his first juveniles did not make anything like the impression that had been created by Sadler's Wells's first bunch of 2-year-olds. By the time that Galileo's first crop had been racing for two seasons, he had sired two Classic winners, Nightime (Ire) having won the Irish 1,000 Guineas and Sixties Icon (GB) having taken the St Leger, as well as a Dewhurst Stakes winner (his second-crop son Teofilo (Ire)). In retrospect, Sixties Icon's St Leger can be said to have foretold the subsequent changing of the guard which would later see Galileo inherit his father's mantle: Galileo sired the first three colts across the line while the fourth and fifth place-getters were sons of Sadler's Wells.

Things progressed nicely from there, with Galileo's third crop headed by New Approach (Ire) who became his father's second Dewhurst winner and the first of his five (so far) winners of the Derby. With such a galaxy of stars, for a few years it seemed as if it would be hard to provide a definite answer to the identity of Galileo's best son or daughter, never mind his best sire-son. However, a member of Galileo's sixth crop provided so clear-cut an answer to that one that we knew that, however many crops the great horse went on to produce afterwards, Frankel (GB) was and always would remain the best racehorse sired by Galileo. As Sir Henry Cecil, a man whose natural modesty had led him spend his career shying away from superlatives and avoiding making extravagant claims on behalf of his charges, was eventually forced to concede after Frankel's final race, that Frankel wasn't just the best horse whom he had ever trained nor even the best horse whom he had ever seen, but “probably the best horse anyone has ever seen”.

That was all well and good, of course; and Frankel's flawless 14-from-14 racing record certainly ensured that he was given every chance when he retired to stud by virtue of stellar early books of mares. But when any horse ceases racing and retires to stud, the clock is turned back to zero. Success as a racehorse implies a strong possibility of success at stud, but it certainly doesn't guarantee it, irrespective of how well supported a young sire may be. In fact, there can be an element of tall poppy syndrome when people contemplate the likelihood of a great racehorse excelling at stud. One will always find people ready to peddle the myth that top-class fillies/racemares are unlikely to become good broodmares, and one can always find people who will brush an outstanding colt off as having been 'a freak', unlikely to display similar excellence as a stallion. In Frankel's case, of course, an element of that is inevitably true because it is nigh on impossible that he could sire a horse as talented a racehorse as he himself had been. But, even so, in retrospect it was folly to predict anything but stardom for Frankel the stallion.

We do, of course, have the benefit of hindsight, but now that we have had time to digest the evidence of the 2021 racing season (which ended with Frankel as champion sire of Great Britain and Ireland, relegating Galileo to the runner-up position) the conclusion is inescapable: Frankel has stepped into his father's shoes as seamlessly as Elisha took up Elijah's mantle. If only the correlation between racing ability and success at stud was always so strong! It is going to be very interesting to see how things go from here, not least because, although Galileo may have died in July, there remains a handful of seasons in which he will still be sufficiently well represented to have a realistic chance of increasing his haul of General Sires' Championships.

Sadler's Wells holds the record for the most British/Irish sires' titles. His final year as champion sire, 2004, saw him take the title for the 14^th time, passing the record of 13 (which he had equalled the previous year). The magnitude of the achievement is shown by the fact that he was breaking a record which had stood for over 200 years, the previous record-holder Highflyer (GB) having won his 13^th and final championship in 1798. Galileo's total of championships currently stands at 12, courtesy of his being champion sire in 12 of the 13 seasons from 2008 to 2020 inclusive. (The sole interruption in his reign came in 2009 when his fellow Coolmore resident Danehill Dancer (Ire) topped the table).

Many of us had blithely assumed that Galileo would remain as champion sire for the next few seasons, would equal Sadler's Wells's total in 2022 and would pass it in 2023. The season just ending has blown that assumption out of the water, with Frankel winning the sires' championship almost as emphatically as he used to win his races. He will end the current season with progeny earnings in Great Britain and Ireland in excess of £5.25 million, not far off £1.5 million clear of the sum earned by Galileo's offspring. In fact, third-placed Dubawi (Ire), fourth-placed Sea The Stars (Ire) and fifth-placed Dark Angel (Ire) are all set to finish considerably closer to Galileo than Galileo will finish to Frankel. Looking ahead, it is, of course, very possible that Galileo could regain his crown in 2022, although the current ante-post market for the Derby is not encouraging in that respect: five horses, including two trained by Aidan O'Brien, are at odds shorter than 25/1 for the great race and none is a son of Galileo, which by recent standards is an almost unthinkable situation.

What the next 12 months will bring for Frankel is also, of course, impossible to predict. But the one thing which we can say is that, if the past is any guide to the future, his career will continue to thrive. What he has achieved so far, even allowing for the fact that he was blessed with first-class support from the outset, has been phenomenal.

Frankel's achievement which has been given the most air-time is perhaps the fact that this year he became the fastest sire to reach 50 Group winners in history. Obviously this record is meaningless compared to what stallions achieved up to and including the 1980s, when it was still the norm for stallions to cover no more than 45 mares each season and to be restricted to one stud season per year (because dual-hemisphere shuttling had not yet become an accepted practice). However, the explosion in the size of stallions' books and the widespread acceptance of shuttling took place over 30 years ago now, and there have been a lot of good sires, including Galileo obviously, whose stud careers started in the last 30 years. Furthermore, Frankel has never shuttled, although obviously he has been able to gain extra representation by covering a limited number of mares at Banstead Manor to southern hemisphere time to produce progeny to race in the Antipodes or South Africa.

An obvious example of this type of mare is Harlech (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) whom he covered in the late summer of 2016 and who produced Hungry Heart (Aus) in August 2017. Hungry Heart did plenty to boost Frankel's worldwide progeny earnings in 2021, taking the G2 Phar Lap S. at Rosehill in March, then both the G1 Vinery Stud S. at Rosehill and the G1 ATC Australian Oaks at Randwick in April. These were the first two of the 14 Group/Grade 1 races won by sons and daughters of Frankel in 2021, won by eight individual horses and spread over six countries. In fact, it is a remarkable aside to Frankel's sires' championship that fewer than half of the top-level triumphs recorded by his progeny during the year actually counted towards the title. In fairness, it has obviously helped that his two brightest stars this year have both been trained in England: Adayar (Ire) and Hurricane Lane (Ire), whose wins between them have included the Derby, Irish Derby, King George And Queen Elizabeth Stakes and St. Leger.

Overall, one has to say that Frankel's concentration of top-level triumph is remarkable. For a stallion who has recently recorded his 50^th individual Group winner, to have sired as many as 20 Group 1 winners (as he has) shows an abnormal concentration at the elite level of the stakes programme. But that's Frankel: his statistics go way beyond what in the modern world is regarded as an achievement. Historically, it used to be the case that a figure of 10% stakes winners to foals was the benchmark of a very good stallion, but the onset of big books meant that reaching the 10% mark came to be regarded as more or less unattainable. Frankel, though, has reached it comfortably. At the time of writing, and including only horses currently aged two or more, Frankel has sired 777 foals, 548 runners, 361 winners of 896 races, and 83 stakes winners of 154 stakes races, including 57 Group winners of 95 Group races. These statistics produce some stunning percentages: 10.7% stakes winners to foals, 7.3% Group winners to foals, 15.1% stakes winners to runners, 10.4% Group winners to runners. Ultimately, of course, the percentages for these crops will be even higher than this as plenty of the current two-year-olds who will turn out to be stakes performers have not yet run, never mind won at stakes level.

It would be premature to say that Galileo's ultimate total of sires' championships has been reached, or that Frankel's progeny achievements over the next, say, three seasons will outshine what the sons and daughters of Galileo will achieve in the same period. However, we can say that Frankel's annus mirabilis in 2021, following on from the very successful seasons which he had enjoyed in every year from 2016 (when he was represented by his first crop of 2-year-olds) onwards, an heir apparent to Galileo has definitely emerged. The fact that that horse happens to be the one who was himself the best racehorse ever sired by Galileo merely adds a further layer of quality for lovers of top-class thoroughbreds to savour.

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Galileo: The Hardest Of Acts To Follow

In a temporarily upside-down world, a comforting air of normality can be found in a perusal of the end-of-year stallion tables. To Benjamin Franklin’s certainties of death and taxes, in this smaller world we can add just about the only sure thing in racing and bloodstock: Galileo (Ire) is champion sire.

Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid to the King of Tipperary is the fact that, even at his home at Coolmore, the operation which naturally has free-flowing access to the supersire via some of the best mares on the planet, the hunt is still on for his rightful heir. It may be too much to expect that a son will be able to continue the line with a show of such dominance, as Galileo did for his own sire Sadler’s Wells, and he in turn for Northern Dancer. Galileo certainly has some very good sire sons out there—not least his greatest achievement, Frankel (GB), and the former champion 2-year-old Teofilo (Ire)—but he once again remains way out in front of allcomers after another record-breaking year.

Galileo officially turns 23 on New Year’s Day and he has now been champion sire in Britain and Ireland for more than half of his life. After the most unsettling year in living memory, when the Guineas, Oaks and Derby were all delayed, Galileo once again left his increasingly imposing mark on the season’s Classics.

His daughter Love (Ire) won the 1000 Guineas before posting arguably the most impressive performance by a 3-year-old all season when going on to land the Oaks. Between those two races, her stablemate Peaceful (Ire) had pushed Galileo into new record-breaking territory when becoming his 85th individual Group 1 winner in the Irish 1000 Guineas, thereby wresting the title from Danehill, the stallion with whom he has shown such an affinity.

Further records were to follow. The Derby of 2020 was a memorable one, perhaps not for the right reason, but the tearaway winner Serpentine (Ire) meant Galileo went clear as the most successful Derby sire of all time, his five winners putting him ahead of Sir Peter Teazle, Waxy, Cyllene, Blandford, and his erstwhile stud-mate Montjeu (Ire).

With over £5 million in progeny earnings for 2020-more than double the tally of his nearest pursuer Dubawi (Ire)—Galileo duly claimed his 12th sires’ championship in Britain and Ireland, and he is the European champion, with almost £6.4 million in earnings, £777,199 of which was accrued by his top earner, the mighty mare Magical (Ire). It is worth noting that this tally is significantly lower than last year’s haul of just over £16 million owing to drastic prize-money cuts during a Covid-affected racing season. Galileo was also a long way clear by number of black-type winners: 27 in Britain and Ireland, and 32 in total across Europe, which was almost 11% of his runners.

Dubawi Provides World Beater
Darley’s admirable Dubawi (Ire) is used to playing understudy to Galileo but he is a fantastically successful stallion in his own right, and clearly the best in Britain. With an increasing array of promising young sire sons, he is also responsible for the top-rated horse in in the world in 2020: Ghaiyyath (Ire). In his 5-year-old season Ghaiyyath had Enable (GB) and Magical (Ire) behind him respectively when winning the G1 Coral-Eclipse and G1 Juddmonte International, following his front-running romp in the relocated G1 Hurworth Bloodstock Coronation Cup. And Ghaiyyath is of course out of Galileo’s first Classic winner, Nightime (Ire) and thus bred on the same cross as his Kildangan Stud mate Night Of Thunder (Ire), who has made an eye-catching start to his own stallion career.

Dubawi posted 13 stakes winners in Britain and Ireland in 2020 to take second in the table, and with 23 stakes winners overall in Europe, he was third in the European championship behind Siyouni (Fr), who was responsible for Arc winner Sottsass (Fr) and is the champion sire in France. We’ll be looking at the French and German tables in greater depth in Sunday’s edition of TDN.

Dark Angel (Ire) and Kodiac (GB), representing different branches of Ireland’s O’Callaghan family at Yeomanstown Stud and Tally-Ho Stud respectively, are both hugely reliable sources of winners and they were the only two stallions to notch in excess of 150 winners, with Kodiac on 155 and Dark Angel on 152.

The latter finished ahead overall in the table, with his 11 stakes winners headed by the top-class sprinter Battaash (Ire), who was faultless in his three starts in 2020, landing the G1 Coolmore Nunthorpe S. for the second year in a row having started out with victory in the G1 King’s Stand S. He also won Goodwood’s G2 King George S. for the fourth time, beating subsequent Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint heroine Glass Slippers (GB).

Kodiac enjoyed a memorable Royal Ascot in the juvenile division as the sire of Campanelle (Ire) and Nando Parrado (GB), but leading the charge for him in Berkshire was the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. winner Hello Youmzain (Fr), who has now become the first son of Kodiac to retire to stud in France.

A Champions Day To Savour
The redoubtable veteran of the British stallion ranks is Cheveley Park Stud’s Pivotal (GB), whose range is such that he was runner-up to Galileo in the broodmare sires’ table and provided the French champion sire, his son Siyouni. In his own right he was responsible for a British Champions Day Group 1 double via Glen Shiel (GB) and Addeybb (Ire), the latter having also won two Group 1 races in Australia back in the spring while European racing was on lockdown.

Pivotal had only 79 individual runners in Britain and Ireland in 2020 – less than half of most of the sires around him in the top ten list, but he can still more than hold his own and was fifth overall.

Ballylinch Stud’s Lope De Vega (Ire) is a stallion whose popularity stretches across continents and, while his GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Aunt Pearl (Ire) doesn’t count towards his local earnings, he had a Group 1 winner on Irish turf in Keeneland Phoenix S. winner Lucky Vega (Ire). That runner’s stable-mate Cadillac (Ire), winner of the G2 KPMG Champions Juvenile S. for Jessica Harrington, looks another exciting prospect for the 2021 season.

One of the stand-out older fillies of 2020 was Sheikh Hamdan’s Nazeef (GB), winner of the G1 Falmouth S. and G1 Sun Chariot S. on each of Newmarket’s tracks. She was also the headline act for her sire, the Irish National Stud’s Invincible Spirit (Ire), now 24 and joining his half-brother Kodiac on the leaderboard at number seven. He too was represented by a Grade I winner in America when 4-year-old Digital Age (Ire) landed the Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic at Churchill Downs for Chad Brown.

Zoffany (Ire) may struggle for attention against some of his stud-mates at Coolmore but he nevertheless can be relied upon to provide his fair share of smart juveniles. Albigna (Ire) was his Group 1 star in that regard in 2019, and the following season that honour went to the Aidan and Annemarie O’Brien-bred Thunder Moon (Ire), winner of the G1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National S. for Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez and who helped to boost his sire to the top 10.

King In The Making
The youngest of this group is Juddmonte’s Kingman (GB), whose first crop were four in 2020 and included his first Classic winner, Persian King (Ire). The classiest of his most recent Classic generation was the champion 3-year-old colt Palace Pier (GB), winner of five of his six starts, including the G1 St James’s Palace S. and G1 Prix Jacques le Marois. Kingman posted nine stakes winners in Britain and Ireland, and he was sixth overall in the European table, with 16 black-type winners to his name, including another two Group 1 wins for Persian King in the Moulin and the Ispahan.

Completing the top ten in Britain and Ireland was Gilltown Stud’s Sea The Stars (Ire), sire of the massively popular champion stayer Stradivarius (Ire) among his 18 black-type winners, eight of which came in Britain and Ireland. Fanny Logan (Ire) got the better of the colts in the G2 Hardwicke S., while another of his Royal Ascot winners, Hukum (Ire), could well be a stayer to follow this year.

Galileo’s first two sons in the table appear just outside the top ten. The profile of Australia (GB) was lifted in 2020 by his first Classic winner, Galileo Chrome (Ire), in the St Leger, while farther afield Order Of Australia (Ire) emulated the Breeders’ Cup success of his elder half-sister Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}).

By his own lofty standards, Frankel (GB) had a quieter year in Britain and Ireland, but he was responsible for 11 stakes winners and on the international stage he was represented by G1 Metropolitan H. winner Mirage Dancer (GB) in Australia and GI Asahi Hai Futurity winner Grenadier Guards (Jpn) in Japan.

Global Success
The Irish-based duo of Dandy Man (Ire) and Camelot (GB) were also represented by international Grade/Group 1 winners, with River Boyne (Ire), a son of the former, landing the Frank E. Kilroe Mile in America, and Russian Camelot (Ire) breaking new ground by becoming the first northern hemisphere-bred 3-year-old to win a Classic in Australia with his victory in the South Australia Derby. Camelot’s Australian reputation was further enhanced by the G1 Cox Plate victory of Sir Dragonet (Ire).

Closer to home, Even So (Ire) gave Camelot a domestic Classic victory in the G1 Irish Oaks, and Dandy Man’s daughters Dandalla (Ire) and Happy Romance (Ire) shone brightly. The former landed Group-race wins at Royal Ascot and Newmarket’s July meeting, while Happy Romance beat subsequent G1 Cheveley Park S. Winner Alcohol Free (Ire) when landing the G3 Dick Poole Fillies S.

Also making the top 15 was Showcasing (GB), whose list of sons at stud now stretches to five, the most recent recruit being his top performer of 2020, the G1 Sussex S. winner Mohaather (GB). In fact, Showcasing’s top two runners of the year were both trained in his ‘home’ stable of Whitsbury by Marcus Tregoning for Sheikh Hamdan, with Alkumait (GB) displaying his talent with victory in the G2 Mill Reef S.

It takes a mighty effort to make it into the top 20 stallions in Britain and Ireland with just one crop of runners, but the prolific Mehmas (Ire) achieved just that, finishing in 17th position overall with 46 winners, and 56 across Europe from his 101 runners. His tally smashed Iffraaj’s record of 39 first-crop winners and included G1 Middle Park S. hero Supremacy (Ire) and G2 Gimcrack S winner Minzaal (Ire). There will be more about his explosive season in Saturday’s edition when we review the leading first- and second-crop sires in Europe.

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