Darley | Horse Racing Free Tips

Ghaiyyath, Pinatubo and Earthlight To Shuttle To Australia

Darley has confirmed the addition of four champions to its Australian roster for 2021. The treble Australian Group 1 winner Bivouac (Aus) will be joined by European shuttlers Pinatubo (Ire), Earthlight (Ire) and Ghaiyyath (Ire), as first reported in TDN AusNZ.

The announcement marks a significant show of faith in the Australian market just 12 months after Microphone (Aus), Blue Point (Ire) and Too Darn Hot (GB) made their debut on Darley's Australian roster.

“The Australian market is going very well and, at the same time, having access to these horses is quite extraordinary. Retiring seven champions to stud in two years, I doubt it has ever been done before. The four we retire this year, Ghaiyyath, Bivouac, Earthlight and Pinatubo, they are the proper, proper articles,” Darley Australia's Head of Sales, Andy Makiv, told TDN AusNZ.

“What is exciting about this is that these are horses that raced in the blue and that we bred, or are by our stallions. To have sons of Dubawi, sons of Shamardal and sons of Exceed And Excel, who are all champions to stand on the roster, it's really exciting for the whole team.”

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Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: Road To The Gold Mine For Medaglia d’Oro Had Many Twists And Turns

With the graded stakes victories of Moonlight d'Oro and Risk Taking over the weekend, their sire Medaglia d'Oro now has 76 graded stakes winners worldwide, from 148 stakes winners bred in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Moonlight d'Oro won the Grade 3 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 8, and shortly thereafter on Saturday, Risk Taking won the G3 Withers at Aqueduct. It was the first stakes victory for each horse.

Their sire is most famous for the champions Rachel Alexandra (Kentucky Oaks, Preakness Stakes, Haskell) and Songbird (Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and eight other Grade 1 races), but there is no question that Medaglia d'Oro is a gold medal stallion.

But it was not always so. A three-time winner at the G1 level himself, Medaglia d'Oro was a leading racer by his sire El Prado, who in turn was the lone successful representative of the Sadler's Wells line in the States at the time. Scarcity, in this instance, would not be considered a virtue among breeders, who flock to the horses who succeed the most and equally shun those who do not.

So the relative lack of success from the Sadler's Wells branch of Northern Dancer was a serious impediment to Medaglia d'Oro, and being out of a mare by the Damascus stallion Bailjumper, the horse's pedigree wasn't the sort that brought stallion farms racing to stand the horse, no matter how strong his racing career had been.

In the imminently capable hands of trainer Bobby Frankel, Medaglia d'Oro had won $5.7 million with victories in the G1 Travers, Whitney, and Donn, along with prestigious seconds in the Dubai World Cup, Breeders' Cup Classic (twice), and the Belmont Stakes. The race in Dubai was the last one for Medaglia d'Oro, and he was sold to Richard Haisfield in May 2004.

As a 6-year-old, the horse entered stud in 2005 with John G. Sikura at Hill 'n' Dale Farms, then was transferred to Audrey Haisfield's Stonewall Farm in 2006. Now an independent bloodstock consultant, Clark Shepherd was then the seasons and matings manager for Stonewall.

Shepherd recalled that “since the Haisfields already owned the horse, when the stallion barn was finished at Stonewall, he yanked the horses – Medaglia d'Oro, Doneraile Court, and Marquetry, as I recall – and put them all at Stonewall.”

In addition to these, Stonewall also stood champion older horse Lawyer Ron (by Langfuhr) and champion turf horse Leroidesanimaux (Candy Stripes), plus several others.

These were bullish years in racing and breeding, and Shepherd recalled that he didn't have “a lot of trouble getting mares to the horses, especially Medaglia. In part, that was because the farm had started a deal of awarding complimentary matings to mares who were either graded stakes winners or graded stakes producers. That kept the mare volume at a level that second- and third-year stallions don't usually enjoy these days.”

Part of the rationale behind that aggressive approach to bringing mares into the stallions' books was to make the resulting foals as commercially appealing as possible, as well as to get many mares of racing quality into the stallions' books.

The first-crop yearlings by Medaglia d'Oro made him a successful commercial sire at the sales in 2007, and he was well-ranked in fourth among the 2008 freshmen sires, led by Tapit (Pulpit), when Rachel Alexandra was her sire's first-crop leader, and the filly backed up that early promise with classic greatness in the 2009 Kentucky Oaks and Preakness Stakes.

Entrepreneur and sportsman Richard Santulli, along with businessman Barry Weisbord, had purchased a minority interest in Medaglia d'Oro in August 2008, as first the national, then the world, economy tipped into deeper collapse.

As that economic demise precipitated through the end of 2008 and reached its lowest point in the first part of 2009, bloodstock and the commercial equine market felt the sting even worse than the general economy. Then, as the financial side of the Stonewall operation began to unwind, Godolphin came in and bought the rapidly appreciating Medaglia d'Oro for a reported $40 million total valuation in a deal that closed in early June 2009.

The stallion shipped across town to Darley's Jonabell stallion farm, and that has been his base ever since.

One of the more successful shuttle stallions, Medaglia d'Oro sired two of his better colts Down Under with champion Vancouver and Group 1 winner Astern. In the Northern Hemisphere, as well, success for the stallion's progeny has become more equally divided between the colts and fillies, with such as Talismanic (Breeders' Cup Turf), and his sons at stud continue to have a following among breeders. Chief among these stallion sons is Violence, who stands at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, and Medaglia d'Oro's younger sons without foals of racing age include G1 winners Bolt d'Oro (Spendthrift) and Higher Power (Darby Dan).

Currently standing for $150,000 live foal at Darley, Medaglia d'Oro is one of the most popular and influential sires of the day.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: Road To The Gold Mine For Medaglia d’Oro Had Many Twists And Turns appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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A Legacy Of Excellence, And Still In The Making

There are few horses-or humans, for that matter-that have logged as many air miles as Exceed and Excel (Aus). The 21-year-old stallion can claim some 338,000, having shuttled for 16 consecutive seasons from his base at Darley Australia's Kelvinside Stud to Sheikh Mohammed's Dalham Hall or Kildangan Studs in Europe. Continued good results as both a sire and broodmare sire in both hemispheres mean that Exceed and Excel is a very notable absentee from the European stallion ranks in 2021, with Darley having called time on the bay's Northern Hemisphere stud career late last year, citing simply the desire to reward him for a career done well.

Exceed and Excel is not the most traveled horse of the modern shuttle era-that honour belongs to WinStar Farm/Vinery Stud's More Than Ready, who in 2019 completed his 18th consecutive year shuttling between Australia and the U.S. But it seems fair to bestow upon Exceed and Excel the honour of being the sire that revolutionized the shuttle route from Australia to Europe.

Exceed and Excel's sire Danehill (who shuttled for 14 consecutive seasons) died at the tail end of the 2003 breeding season in Ireland, and it didn't take long for an heir apparent to emerge, a horse that, like his sire, had near-equal effect on both sides of the globe-an incredibly rare feat indeed, something that even the great Galileo or Dubawi couldn't quite pull off.

Raced initially by Alan Osburg and Nick Moraitis, Exceed and Excel won the G2 Todman S. at two for trainer Tim Martin before blossoming into a Group 1-winning 3-year-old when taking the G1 Dubai Racing Club Cup over seven furlongs and the G1 Newmarket H. over six. Sheikh Mohammed purchased Exceed and Excel thereafter for a reported A$22-million-a record for an Australian homebred at the time–and shipped him to Newmarket with the intention of running in the Golden Jubilee at Royal Ascot, but plans went awry when the colt was forced to sit out the Royal meeting with unsatisfactory bloodwork. A reroute to the G1 July Cup provided a disappointing result, with Exceed and Excel beating just one horse home in the field of 20.

While Sheikh Mohammed's big buy may have yielded underwhelming results in the short term, a glimpse back over a near 20-year stud career reveals him to be an inspired purchase indeed. He was fast from the gates with his first crops Down Under after starting out at A$55,000, with 17 stakes winners across his first two headed by the G1 Blue Diamond S. scorer Reward For Effort (Aus). Exceed and Excel stood at Kildangan Stud in 2005 and 2007 for €10,000, bookending a season at Dalham Stud in 2006 where he stood for £7,500. He covered 300 mares cumulatively his first three seasons in Europe.

Exceed and Excel marked himself as a youngster to watch in 2008 with four stakes winners in his first season with runners in Europe, headed by the G2 Lowther S. scorer Infamous Angel (Ire) and the Listed Windsor Castle S. victor Flashman's Papers (Ire). The bay's first two crops would additionally go on to yield the G2 King George S. winner Masamah (Ire), the G3 Winter Derby scorer Nideeb (Ire) and the GIII Senorita S. victress Mrs Kipling (Ire), but Exceed and Excel's true breakout came with his 2018 crop, which produced the 2011 G1 Nunthorpe S. winner Margot Did (Ire) and the 2012 G1 Prix Jacques le Marois and G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. victor Excelebration (Ire), who suffered the misfortune of being a standout miler in the same era as Frankel (GB). By the time Exceed and Excel notched his first North American Grade I winner, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf victor Outstrip (GB) in 2013, his credibility had soared too Down Under, with standout juveniles Guelph (Aus), Helmet (Aus) and Overreach joining his honour roll. Earthquake (Aus) became his second Blue Diamond winner in 2014, and in 2019 Microphone (Aus) gave his sire a first winner of the G1 Sires' Produce S. and a clean sweep of the country's elite 2-year-old races.

If there is a trend of sires becoming less prolific with age, Exceed and Excel has well and truly bucked it. In Australia alone he provided 14 individual stakes winners during the 2019/20 season, his second-highest number ever in a year. He has provided back-to-back winners of the G1 Coolmore Stud S. in Exceedance (Aus) and September Run (Aus), and Godolphin homebred Bivouac (Aus) has marked himself out as an heir apparent with wins in the G1 Golden Rose S., G1 Newmarket H. and G1 Sprint Classic-excellent credentials with which to go to stud, perhaps in a dual hemisphere capacity? While Exceed and Excel's shuttle days are over, his career as a sire seems to keep finding another gear. He stood for a career-high A$132,000 during the recently completed Australian season-a remarkable accomplishment at age 20 when even the top-tier sires are often seeing their popularity dwindle in favour of the flashy youngsters.

Exceed and Excel's Northern career followed a similar trajectory. After starting out at €10,000 and £7,500 his first three seasons, Exceed and Excel's fee didn't dip for 13 years, rising to €50,000 in 2019, 2018 and 2019 before being trimmed to €40,000 in 2020.

While Exceed and Excel has carved out a reputation as a source of top-class 2-year-olds-he was the first stallion in the world to reach 500 juvenile winners-he has also had a knack for siring tough-as-teak horses that train on, like the dual G1 Hong Kong Sprint winner and G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize victor Mr. Stunning (Aus), who ran up until the age of seven last year; G1 Al Quoz Sprint winner Amber Sky (Aus), who ran until the age of eight; Heavy Metal (GB), who won the G2 Coventry S. and G2 Richmond S. at two, won three group races at the Dubai carnival at eight and was still running up to last year at age 10; Championship (Ire), who won a pair of Group 2s at the Dubai carnival in 2017 aged six; and Secret Ambition (GB), who won last week's G3 Firebreak S. at age eight.

With two crops still to hit the racetracks in the North, Exceed and Excel has left behind 144 stakes winners, 64 of which are group winners, and 815 overall winners-and he has a few sire sons coming up through the ranks that could yet build on his legacy. While Excelebration has since moved on from Coolmore his stud career has not been without merit, he having thrown the classy Group 1 winner Barney Roy (GB) and the evergreen group-winning sprinter Speak In Colours (GB). Helmet provided the first-ever dual winner of the G1 Dubai World Cup, Thunder Snow (Ire). Buratino (Ire) showed some promise with his first 2-year-olds last year, while among those yet to have runners are Cotai Glory (GB) and James Garfield (Ire). Or perhaps it will be the aforementioned Bivouac or Microphone who eventually follow their sire's well-trodden path down to Europe.

If there is any need to put further proof to the abundance of class that Exceed and Excel has spread, it is there for all to see in his broodmare daughters. During a golden summer in 2019, Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) won the G1 Epsom Derby just weeks before Ten Sovereigns (Ire) (No Nay Never) added a win in the G1 July Cup to a victory at two in the G1 Middle Park S. Margot Did has made a flying start at stud, with G2 Prix de Sandringham winner Mission Impassible (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and G3 Prix Vanteaux and GI Belmont Oaks Invitational scorer Magic Attitude (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) her first two foals. Interestingly, a handful of Exceed and Excel's daughters have already thrown multiple big-race winners: Anthony Van Dyck's dam Believe'N'Succeed (Aus) is also responsible for the G1 Railway S. winner Bounding (Aus), while Darley's excellent mare Essaouira (Aus) has provided Group 1 winners Alizee (Aus) and Astern (Aus). Exceed and Excel's daughters have thus far been responsible for 49 stakes winners, 29 of those group winners and nine Group 1 winners.

It cannot be overlooked, either, the doors that Exceed and Excel opened for Australian shuttlers in the Northern Hemisphere. His success could only have been encouragement for breeders to back another Group 1-winning son of Danehill, Fastnet Rock (Aus), when he shuttled for the first time as a proven sire in 2011, and he has been a rousing success in Europe with the likes of One Master (GB), Fascinating Rock (Ire), Qualify (Ire), Zhukova (Ire) and Diamondsandrubies (Ire) to his credit. Though no longer shuttling, Pride Of Dubai (Aus) caught the eye with five stakes winners from his first European crop last year, and yearling buyers will this year have the chance to get their hands on members of the first European-breds by G1 Coolmore Stud S. winner Zoustar (Aus), who has made such an exciting start Down Under.

Exceed and Excel's legacy will continue for generations to come through a multitude of channels, and it is very plausible that the best could be yet to come.

The post A Legacy Of Excellence, And Still In The Making appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Value Sires Part 6: Proven Sires

As breeding sheds prepare to swing open their doors in the coming weeks, we bring you the final installment of our 2021 Value Sires series. Gone are the days of dissecting sales averages and speculating on the comments of the judges; these elder statesmen have proven their mettle on the racecourse, and a few of them are even available at their lowest ever fees.

While value exists in all price brackets and for all budgets, we have chosen to limit the scope of this analysis to stallions standing in Europe for £/€20,000 and below, selecting two sires apiece that stand between 15,000 and 20,000; 10,00 and 12,500 and below 10,000. As we have covered in depth the sire crops up to those which have first-crop 3-year-olds this year, stallions highlighted here will be those with at least two crops of racing age fully behind them.

Selecting the final six was far from an easy exercise. There were many worthy candidates, and in addition to the raw data likes percentages of winners and stakes winners and overall career performances, other factors taken into consideration included price point and the current trajectory of the horse's career.

15,000 to 20,000

This price bracket must be one of the most intriguing of them all: it includes not only the ever-reliable Iffraaj (GB) and Nathaniel (Ire) at a career-low fees, but also the incredibly popular Dandy Man (Ire) and the rising talent Make Believe (GB). But two stallions stand out in this price range on both percent of stakes winners to runners and winners to runners: Oasis Dream (GB) (£20,000) and Mastercraftsman (Ire) (€15,000).

One would be hard-pressed to nominate a sire in this price range that has compiled a body of work over a career that compares with Oasis Dream's. The 21-year-old former G1 July Cup winner was fast out of the gate with his first crop and soon established himself as a world-class sire, with the likes of Midday (GB), Muhaarar (GB) and Power (GB) among his 17 Group 1 winners. The dark bay stood for up to £85,000 at Juddmonte's Banstead Manor Stud, and is this year down to a career-low £20,000. His 9.5% rate of stakes winners to runners puts Oasis Dream in a class with sires that stand for many multiples of his fee, and he likewise gets 66% winners/runners. The dip in his fee goes hand-in-hand with the reality that his numbers of stakes winners have leveled off in recent seasons, but an average of seven per season since 2016 is still nothing to scoff at, and he is still turning out Group 1 winners, with three of his 17 having come since 2016: Muarrab (GB) won the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen as a 7-year-old in 2016 while Pretty Pollyanna (GB) and Polydream (Ire) won the G1 Prix Morny and G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, respectively, in 2018. Oasis Dream has sired 122 stakes winners and his daughters have produced 58 stakes winners and five Group 1 winners. He had a remarkable year in 2020 alone as a broodmare sire, with G1 Irish 2000 Guineas winner Siskin, G1 Melbourne Cup winner Twilight Payment (Ire), G1 Cox Plate scorer Sir Dragonet (Ire) and G1 Prix Saint-Alary victress Tawkeel (GB) on his honor roll in addition to standout juveniles Miss Amulet (Ire) and Chindit (Ire). A mark of his consistent brilliance is that Oasis Dream is still well-supported in the sales ring, too: his 29 yearlings sold in 2020 averaged €86,669/£76,604. It's hard to imagine a horse in Oasis Dream's price range with a better chance to get a breeder anything from a sales horse to a potential broodmare or a top-class runner.

The six years younger Mastercraftsman (Ire) is following a similar trajectory; in fact, he has an average of 9.6 stakes winners per crop, versus 8.7 for Oasis Dream. From eight crops of racing age, the grey has supplied 77 stakes winners (6.3% of starters) and he gets winners at a rate of 62.3% (of starters). Mastercraftsman has 15 Group 1 winners, just two off Oasis Dream, and he likewise gets them at the highest level: Alpha Centauri (Ire) was champion 3-year-old filly and won the Coronation S., Falmouth S., Irish 1000 Guineas and Prix Jacques le Marois; The Grey Gatsby (Ire) took the G1 Prix du Jockey Club and G1 Irish Champion S., and Amazing Maria (Ire) and A Raving Beauty (Ger) each won a pair of Grade/Group 1s apiece. Mastercraftsman's 2021 fee of €15,000 is his lowest since 2013, and his crop bred off the back of Alpha Centauri's championship season will be 3-year-olds when his 2022 crop are going to the yearling sales.

10,000 to 12,500

There are plenty of horses in this price range across Britain, Ireland and France that offer eye-catching stats-with Coolmore stalwart Footstepsinthesand (GB) and French up-and-comer Galiway (GB) certainly among them-and once again we landed at Coolmore and Juddmonte for our top two choices: Bated Breath (GB) (£12,500) and Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) (€12,500).

A Group 2-winning sprinter for Roger Charlton who was second in four Group 1s, Bated Breath marked himself out early as a prolific source of high-class winners, his first three crops including the likes of G2 Rockfel S. and G3 Albany S. winner Daahyeh (GB), G2 Railway S. winner Beckford (Ire), G2 Dahlia S. and G3 Prix Minerve S. winner Worth Waiting (GB) and G2 Boomerang S. and G3 Jersey S. scorer Space Traveller (Ire). The bay has continued to build on those results, and in 2020 notched his first Group 1 winner in the GI Matriarch S. victress Viadera (GB). Bated Breath's juveniles had another outstanding year, too, in 2020, highlighted by Makaloun (GB) winning the G3 Prix de Conde and Cairn Gorm (GB) taking the G3 Prix de Conde. His winners to runners ratio is 60.2%, and the crop bred after his first successful season with 3-year-olds are three themselves in 2021. His yearlings are providing a return for their breeders and pinhookers, too: 53 sold at auction last year realized an average of €50,018/£44,162 that was 4.4x their £10,000 covering fee.

The 17-year-old Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) has carved out a truly remarkable stud career that has seen him sire Group 1 winners all across the world and across a great variety of trips. His 13 top-level scorers range from Guineas winners Homecoming Queen (Ire) and Romanised (Ire) to G1 Australian and New Zealand Derby scorer Mongolian Khan (NZ) to G1 Oakleigh Plate victress Sheidel (Aus) and GI Santa Anita Sprint Championship winner Rich Tapestry (Ire). They can be fast and precocious-like he was as a G1 Phoenix S. and G1 Jean-Luc Lagardere S. winner-but also have plenty of scope to train on. Holy Roman Emperor sires stakes winners at a rate of 6.1% of his starters (he averages 8 stakes winners per crop), and winners at 66.2%. He is still producing the goods and is this year available for the second-lowest price he has ever commanded.

Below 10,000

At last we deviate away from the Danzig sireline as we land on Raven's Pass. The G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. and GI Breeders' Cup Classic-winning son of Elusive Quality has long had his books restricted at Kildangan Stud-his crops of racing age average 57 foals apiece–but he will certainly have his admirers; he is currently turning out stakes winners at a rate of 8.3% of his runners, and winners at 62.6%. His 2-year-olds of 2021 were bred off the back of his career-best season in 2017 when he provided 12 stakes winners, four of which were group winners including the G3 Prix Imprudence scorer and G1 Prix Rothschild second Via Ravenna (Ire). The chestnut has supplied three Group 1 winners: the G1 Sprinters S. winner Tower Of London, who was also a Group 2-winning 2-year-old on the competitive JRA circuit; G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Royal Marine (Ire) and in 2020 the G1 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 victor Matternhorn (Ire). Raven's Pass is available for four figures for the first time in 2021: he stands at Kildangan Stud for €7,500.

Our second selection in this price bracket also resides in Co. Kildare: Rathasker Stud's elder statesman Clodovil (Ire). The 21-year-old Clodovil is the sire of 25 stakes winners and, remarkably, had one of his finest years yet in 2021 with six black-type winners headed by his third Group 1 winner, the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac and Prix Francois Boutin victress Tiger Tanaka (Ire). In fact, 2020 was a notable year for Clodovil's juveniles, he having also sired the G3 Molecomb S. winner Steel Bull (Ire). Clodovil is siring black-type winners/runners at a rate of 4.6%, and winners at a rate of 65.2%; those are pretty attractive numbers for a €5,000 fee-like Raven's Pass, Clodovil is at his lowest-ever fee. It is worth noting that Clodovil's triple group-winning son Gregorian (Ire) is also available at Rathasker at the same fee, and he has gotten off to a promising start with five stakes winners from his first three crops to race, including last year's G2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte winner Plainchant (Fr) and G3 Summer Fillies' S. victress Queen Jo Jo (GB).

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