Dubawi | Horse Racing Free Tips

2023 Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Peter Brant-Mares in Europe

With the doors to the breeding sheds set to open any day, the TDN has been talking to owners and breeders about what matings they have planned for their top mares in 2023. Up today: Peter Brant, whose mares in America are profiled in today's TDN American edition, and his European mares below. Click here to read about his American mares.

ROSA BONHEUR (15, Mr. Greeley-Rolly Polly {Ire}, by Mukaddamah) to be bred to Churchill (Ire)

Rosa Bonheur is the dam of Raging Bull and the dam of a nice horse we have in Europe called Kubrick (Ire). I bred her to Churchill. I like the distance that Churchill is getting and I wanted to breed a grass horse that could really go the distance. I thought the Galileo through Churchill with the speed of Rosa Bonheur would be a good cross.

JUSTLOOKDONTTOUCH (IRE) (15, Galileo {Ire}-Hellenic {Ire}, by Darshaan {GB}) will be bred to Dubawi

She is going back to Dubawi because she has a Dubawi colt called Francesco Clemente in Europe with John Gosden who is three-for-three and looks to be a really nice horse.

BLOWOUT (GB) (7, Dansili-Beauty Parlour {GB}, by Deep Impact) will be bred to Kingman

She won the GI First Lady and a number of stakes (GII Longines Distaff Turf Mile, Pebbles S., Wild Applause S.) Again, I'm breeding miler to miler, both good speed horses, but who rated well.

BEAUTY PARLOUR (GB) (14, Deep Impact {Jpn}-Bastet (Ire), by Giant's Causeway) to be bred to Sottsass

She's the dam of Blowout and some other very nice horses. She's been throwing mile to mile-and-a-sixteenth horses. Sottsass was good to a mile and a half, with a lot of range, very scopey, I thought it would be a good cross.

BONANZA CREEK (Ire) (13, Anabaa-Bright Moon, by Alysheba) to be bred to Frankel

Bonanza Creek is the dam of (G1-placed) Stone Age (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), and I'm going to breed her to Frankel. I like the Galileo influence here; Stone Age is by Frankel, Frankel is also Galileo, and she is a beautiful mare. I just thought Frankel would be great there.

MY SISTER NAT (FR) (8, Acclamation {GB}-Starlet's Sister {Ire} by Galileo (Ire}) to be bred to Dubawi

SISTERCHARLIE (FR) (9, Myboycharlie {Ire}-Starlet's Sister {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}) to be bred to Dubawi.

My Sister Nat (Fr) and Sistercharlie (Fr) are both being bred to Dubawi. It's a great, great cross. Dubawi is a great stallion. They are mares that loved to go a distance of ground. Dubawi is a super middle-distance sire. This is a triple A-plus cross. Sistercharlie is current in foal to Dubawi, and My Sister Nat is in foal to Kingman.

QUIDURA (GB) (10, Dubawi-Quetana (Ger), by Acatenango {Ger}) to be bred to Sea the Stars

She is a multiple Group winner in the US. She's by Dubawi, and we're breeding her Sea the Stars. She's a beautiful mare. She's a middle-distance mare. Sea The Stars gets nice long-distance horses as well as milers, and we wanted to breed to Sea The Stars because he's a great stallion, and she was the best mare we thought suited him. She's an exceptional-looking mare, a very choice mare. I bought her after she retired.

PRECIEUSE (IRE) (9, Tamayuz {GB}-Zut Alors {Ire}, by Pivotal {GB}), to be bred to Frankel

We have a really beautiful two-year-old that is by Frankel who is at Ballydoyle, and who is a wonderful example of the horse, so she'll go back to Frankel.

NEWSPAPEROFRECORD (IRE) (7, Lope De Vega {Ire}-Sunday Times {GB}, by Holy Roman Emperor) to be bred to Frankel

UNI (GB) (9, More Than Ready-Unaided by Dansili), to be bred to Frankel

These are two different-style mares. Both had tremendous speed ratings and both were great middle-distance horses. Frankel gets you great middle-distance horses and great classic horses. I'm trying to breed Classic horses. If they turn out to be sprinters, great, but I try to raise a great mile-and-a-quarter horse. The greatest horse races in the world are the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders' Cup Classic and they're both at a mile and a quarter.

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Value Sires Part I: Profitability from the Top

Value is relative. A homebred yearling by a lowly stallion who goes on to reap rich rewards on the track, or one by a more fashionably expensive name who brings a bonanza return in the sale ring could each be considered to have offered 'value' for their breeders.

In a slight departure from the norm for this annual series, we will be looking at the profitability of stallions in four key price brackets according to their yearling sales returns of 2022 set against their fees at the time of covering, in this case 2020.

The average profit has been determined by the stallion's fee plus a figure of £20,000 for keep fees. The profitable stallions featured must have had at least five yearlings sold in 2022 to make the list and prices have been converted to sterling from Euros according to the conversion rate on the day of the sale.

If we are to start anywhere, it may as well be at the top, with those rarefied specimens who have usually earned the right to stand for a fee of the equivalent of £50,000 or more.

Unless you've been sleeping through the last few years of sales, then it will not come as a newsflash that if you have a correct yearling by Dubawi (Ire) or Frankel (GB) then the likelihood is that you will be well paid. And you deserve to be: after all, they are the two most expensive stallions in Europe, covering only the glitterati of the equine world. At last year's Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale, nine of the 10 most expensive yearlings were by one or the other (the top four by Frankel), and that extended to 20 of the top 30, with sales from the stock of those two stallions (once all yearlings are paid for) amounting to almost 29% of the turnover of Book 1.

Dubawi is currently king of the hill, the newly crowned champion sire of 2022, and his sale-ring results reflect his excellence on the track with an average yearling price from the 28 sold last year of £796,481, giving him an average profit in excess of £500,000 when factoring his 2020 fee and keep for the mare and yearling. Of these elite stallions tabled here, Dubawi had the smallest number of offspring at the sales, and that will likely reduce further still in the years to come with his book being wisely limited by Darley as he enters his 18th season at stud.

For stallion watchers, one of the most interesting elements of the next few years will be to see how many times the champion sire baton is passed between Dubawi and Frankel. It has happened once so far, and with Frankel's assured ascent as both racehorse and sire, it will be hard to keep him off the top spot. Forty-three of his yearlings made him the only other stallion with an average price north of half a million at £584,192, which was 3.3 times his 2020 fee of £175,000 (which has now risen to £275,000).

Breeders who have supported Siyouni (Fr), Kingman (GB) and Lope De Vega (Ire) were generally well rewarded for yearlings sold last year. Siyouni has never shuttled but his popularity extends to both hemispheres, and the demand for his yearlings was stronger than ever last season. With a whopping 63 sold he showed an average profit of £173,792, and his 2020 fee of €100,000 has subsequently risen to €150,000.

Kingman was already at £150,000 in 2020 but he still shows a tidy return, with his average sales price of £328,787 translating to average profit of £158,787. Lope De Vega is another who has won over plenty of international buyers with a sterling reputation across the Atlantic and Down Under. That truly global appeal is of huge benefit when the elite sales of Britain, Ireland and France boast increasingly diverse buying benches, and the swaggering son of Shamardal pulled in an average yearling price of £245,561 last year, which was 2.7 times his fee and gave him an average profit figure of £134,439.

Of course it is hard to determine exact profit margins. Keep fees vary from farm to farm, as do consignors' charges, and any vet bills ensued are unknowable beyond the horse's owner at the time. The latter can change as well, with a number of horses having previously gone through foal sales, and some of the youngsters will have been bred under foal-share arrangements. The basis of this exercise, however, is on the assumption that each yearling is being sold by its breeder and was the product of a nomination sold at the advertised fee.

Sea The Stars (Ire) doesn't have quite the cachet attached to him as some of his rivals, which remains both surprising and disappointing as he is unquestionably a top-drawer stallion. Now 17, he had a sizeable number of yearlings at the sales last season. Of his 91 offered, 79 were sold, and on the face of it their £237,965 average price amounted to average profit of £81,282.

The only new boy in this list was Dubawi's son Too Darn Hot (GB), who started out at exactly £50,000 with an average price of £118,304, generally putting breeders who supported him in credit, with his average profit weighing in at £48,304.

No Nay Never had perhaps the biggest break-out year of any stallion in 2022. He topped the Orby Sale with a €2.6million filly, though as we know, she is one of the horses who remains unpaid for by her buyer. However, as a full-sister to his dual Group 1 winner Blackbeard (Ire), she is unlikely to fall much below that level, if and when she is re-evaluated by interested parties.

These yearlings were conceived in the year that No Nay Never's fee had shot up to €175,000 from as low as €17,500 three years earlier, so there was already much confidence behind him from the Coolmore team, and that certainly appears to be justified. An average price of £226,671 gave him average profit £47,207, and one of his biggest problems in the years to come could be the competition he will face from his own sons. Blackbeard has joined him at Coolmore this season, and Ten Sovereigns (Ire) will have his first juvenile runners in 2023, while Little Big Bear (Ire), Meditate (Ire) and Trillium (GB) are among No Nay Never's enticing 3-year-old prospects.

And then to the brothers. What a pair of stalwarts Invincible Spirit (Ire) and Kodiac (GB) have been for the Irish National Stud and Tally-Ho Stud respectively. Now 26, Invincible Spirit's fee is listed as private this year and he stood at €100,000 when his current 2-year-olds were conceived, with a 2022 yearling average of £124,293, while Kodiac, a proper blue-collar stallion, grafted his was up from a starting fee of €5,000 to his four-year high of €65,000 which was eased for this season. The latter is now 22, and both horses have helped plenty of breeders along the way. The number of their sons and grandsons at stud stands testament to both their popularity and their success.

With some exciting young stallions on the rise, the likes of Night Of Thunder (Ire), Baaeed (GB), New Bay (GB) St Mark's Basilica (Fr), Mehmas (Ire), Zarak (Fr) and Palace Pier (GB) will be represented in this bracket in the years to come, some having been pitched straight in at this level on the back of a stellar racing career, others gradually working their way up thanks to the results of their progeny.

They say it's tough at the top, and it is even tougher to get there, which is why my pick of this celebrated bunch is Ballylinch Stud's Lope De Vega. It is easy to be wise in hindsight, but a dual Classic winner retiring to stud at a fee of €15,000 looks very good value indeed. After a dip to €12,500 in his third and fourth seasons, he set about marching up the price list and has commanded a six-figure fee for the last four seasons. That puts the 16-year-old out of the reach of many, but for those who are able to avail themselves of his services then, as this table shows, Lope De Vega is still the breeder's friend, just as he has been throughout his career, and especially for those shrewd enough to have bought a breeding right in him at the start.

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Frankel’s Tour de Force Brings French Champion Honours

Having provided the winners of this year's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Prix de Diane, Prix Jacques le Marois, Grand Prix de Paris and Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, Frankel (GB), unsurprisingly, has been named the champion sire of France in 2022. He ceded his position as champion in Britain and Ireland to Dubawi (Ire), whom he finished in front of when it comes to overall European earnings.

Of the winners of the above named Group 1 races–Alpinista (GB), Nashwa (GB), Inspiral (GB) and Onesto (Ire)–all bar Alpinista remain in training in 2023 giving Frankel an impressive battalion of older horses, which should also include 2021 Derby hero Adayar (Ire) and Irish Derby winner Westover (GB). Then of course in the Classic division for next season there's Chaldean (GB), who is in the running to be named European champion 2-year-old when the 2022 international classifications are announced in January.

There are few certainties in life, let alone in horseracing, but what we can say with some certainty is that these titles so early in Frankel's stud career will only be multiplied as the years progress.

Leaving aside this interloper in French territory, the Aga Khan Studs resident Siyouni (Fr), who was champion in his home country in 2021, again finished best of his compatriots and second in the table overall. He is the great hope for now as France seeks up-and-coming stallions to show themselves worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as him, Le Havre (Ire), who died in March and was ninth overall this year, and Wootton Bassett (GB), who was bought by Coolmore in 2020 and relocated to Ireland.

Siyouni was more than €3 million behind Frankel in prize-money and he now owns a truly international reputation. For the past two years he has been available to cover mares to southern hemisphere time and he notched a new Group 1 winner in Australia, the extremely promising 3-year-old filly Amelia's Jewel (Aus), in November. In Europe his star of 2022 was Tahiyra (Ire), who earned her Group 1 laurels in Ireland on just her second start in the Moyglare Stud S. The Aga Khan-bred half-sister to Tarnawa (Ire) must be considered one of the leading female Classic contenders for next season.

It would be no surprise to see Siyouni start to make a proper mark as a broodmare sire, too. His leading light in this regard is Erevann (Fr), a son of Dubawi and Siyouni's first Classic winner Ervedya (Fr), who in 2022 won the G2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein and was third in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois. He looks a Group 1 winner in waiting.

Lope De Vega (Ire) of course plied his own trade in France during his racing days and was, like his sire Shamardal, a dual Classic winner there. In 2022, he sired his highest number of stakes winners (24), with three of his four Group 1 winners triumphing in France. They were led by Dreamloper (Ire), whose two top-level victories came at Longchamp, in the Prix d'Ispahan and the Prix du Moulin. Sweet Lady (Fr) landed the Prix Vermeille and Place Du Carrousel (Ire) broke the hearts of Nashwa fans in the Prix de l'Opera.

Churchill (Ire), whose first-crop runners were 3-year-olds in 2022, had only 26 representatives in France through the year. However, exactly 50% of them won, and they included both of the Coolmore sire's Group 1 winners to date. Of those, Vadeni (Fr) backed up his victory in the 'stallion-making' Prix du Jockey Club by taking on his elders when travelling to England to win the Eclipse. He is a highly exciting individual to follow next year when considering he wasn't beaten far when third to Luxembourg (Ire) in the Irish Champion S. and was subsequently only half a length behind Alpinista when trying 12 furlongs for the first time in the Arc.

Then from Churchill's second crop came Blue Rose Cen (Ire), who was asked lots of questions during her debut season by her young trainer Christopher Head, and generally answered them with ease, winning four of her six starts, including the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac and G3 Prix d'Aumale.

Churchill was the fourth-leading sire in France in 2022 and managed a top-10 finish overall in Europe when leading his intake in ninth place overall, splitting Kingman (GB) and Siyouni, which is no mean feat for a second-season sire. His haul of seven stakes winners included the Group 2 scorers The Foxes (Ire) and Ladies Church (GB).

Of Churchill's contemporaries, Zarak (Fr) continued his ascent and was 11th overall in the French sire rankings. Most impressive was his tally of seven stakes winner (8.5%), which included the G2 Prix de Sandringham winner Purplepay (Fr), while La Parisienne (Fr) was placed in both the G1 Prix de Diane and G1 Prix Vermeille. That elusive Group 1 winner will surely not be far away.

We heard plenty about Dubawi in Thursday's appraisal of the leading sires in Britain and Ireland, where he was crowned champion for the first time. The Darley sire was fifth in the French table, having sired the Poule d'Essai des Poulains winner Modern Games (Ire), who went on to glory at the Breeders' Cup for the second time, and Dubawi finished just ahead of the second of the French domestic sires, Dabirsim (Fr).

It is hard to consider Dabirsim as much more than a useful sire. From six crops of runners he has sired two Group 3 winners and another five stakes winners, but he does get plenty of winners and was second only to Siyouni in this regard. There was a flurry of excitement when he was represented by the G3 Albany S. winner Different League (Fr) in his first crop, and the offspring of the large book of mares that he covered the following year (2018) were 3-year-olds in 2022. Having stood his first two seasons in Germany at Gestut Karlshof, he moved to France's Haras de Grandcamp and from 2023 will be in his new home of Haras de Montaigu.

One can only admire Kendargent (Fr), the blue-collar lad of the French stallion ranks, who, as a non-stakes winner still has his name printed in upper and lower case in the France Galop table, which in itself, ironically, makes him stand out. And stand out he should because by now it has been well documented that from pretty humble beginnings, he has put his owner Guy Pariente's Haras de Colleville firmly on the map. He finished seventh in the table this year, his lowest ranking since 2017, having been third and fourth in the last three years. Furthermore, he is not only a successful sire but appears to be an up-and-coming broodmare sire.

Goldikova's brother Anodin (Ire), who is now at Haras de la Haie Neuve after starting his career at Haras du Quesnay, was represented by two stakes winners in 2022 and was eighth in the table ahead of the late Le Havre.

Saxon Warrior (Jpn) made a pleasing start to his stud career and ended the year as the leading first-crop sire in France. That was thanks in no small part to his GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Victoria Road (Ire), who, prior to jetting to America, won both the G3 Prix de Conde and Listed Criterium du FEE. But he wasn't his sire's sole group winner in France, as Moon Ray (Fr) won the G3 Prix Miesque, while Gan Teorainn (Ire) was runner-up in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac.

Adlerflug's Reputation Continues to Fly High

For the third year in a row Adlerflug (Ger) was the champion sire in Germany, though regrettably his premature demise in April 2021 means that the last two of those championships have been awarded posthumously. Only Dubawi could better Adlerflug's percentage of 11% stakes winners to runners in Europe in 2022, his top-flight representatives being headed by G1 Grosser Preis von Baden winner Mendocino (Ger) and G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Alenquer (Fr).

Adlerflug's Arc-winning son of 2021, Torquator Tasso (Ger), added the G2 Grosser Hansa-Preis to his record and was third in this year's Arc after runner-up finishes in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. and the Grosser Preis von Baden. He has now joined the stallion barn at Gestut Auenquelle, while Adlerflug's other representatives at stud in Europe include In Swoop (Ire) and his full-brother Ito (Ger), as well as Iquitos (Ger).

Camelot (GB) was represented by the Deutsches Derby and Grosser Dallmayr-Preis winner Sammarco (Ger) and was runner-up in the table ahead of former multiple champion Soldier Hollow (GB), who also features as the broodmare sire of Sammarco.

Sea The Moon (Ger), who, like Adlerflug, was a Deutsches Derby winner during his racing days, has the favourite for that race next year in the form of the G3 Preis der Winterfavoriten winner Fantastic Moon (Ger). The Lanwades resident was fourth in the German rankings, with Areion (Ger), who died earlier this year, in fifth. The latter has been succeeded at stud in Germany by his son Alson (Ger), who stood his first season at Gestut Fahrhof in 2022.

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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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