first-season sire championship | Horse Racing Free Tips

Blue Point Blasts His Way To Champion First-Season Sire Honours

There will be a lot of I-told-you-sos when looking back on the first-season sires' championship with Blue Point (Ire) living up to his lofty billing by amassing 50 individual winners in Europe including two Group 1 scorers in what can only be described as a dream debut season.

The pledge of support behind Blue Point from a very early stage, in what was viewed by many as the most competitive first-season sires' championship in a long time, was telling.

Perhaps one of the most accurate predictions came from trainer Richard Hannon in his TDN two-year-old tour back in April. He said, “I don't think I will be able to afford many of these Blue Points next year–he could have a big year which will make them very expensive.”

Little did Hannon know at the time but it was the stable's Rosallion (Ire) who would go on to add to that growing reputation for the stallion in running out an impressive winner of the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at ParisLongchamp on Arc weekend.

Add that to the exploits of Big Evs (Ire), winner of the Windsor Castle S. at Royal Ascot before signing off on a brilliant campaign by scorching to GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint honours at Santa Anita, Blue Point didn't just live up to expectations in 2023; he smashed it.

So, how does he compare to previous champion first-season sires and is his fee jump to €60,000 justified?

The answer is that Blue Point compares favourably with each of the past five leading first-season sires–Havana Grey (GB), Cotai Glory (GB), Mehmas (Ire), Gutaifan (Ire) and No Nay Never–on almost every metric.

In terms of prize-money amassed, only Havana Grey has managed to better Blue Point's debut season haul of €1,235,165 in Britain and Ireland, albeit by just €21,747. Standing on 41 individual winners in Britain and Ireland, Blue Point has bettered each of the previous five leading first crop sires bar Mehmas, who ended his respective campaign with 46.

Meanwhile, 57 wins all told in Britain and Ireland is just eight shy of what Mehmas recorded in 2020 but is on a par with what Havana Grey achieved last year.

These are the sort of statistics that led Con Marnane, one of the titans of the game, to label Blue Point as 'pound for pound the best stallion in Europe' while top pinhooker Paul McCartan is another man to have been heard singing the praises of the young stallion on the sales circuit this year.

It is one thing having a clatter of winners but something altogether different to produce quality performers and this is another area where Blue Point excelled this season. Along with top-notchers Rosallion and Big Evs, Blue Point was responsible for another 100-plus rated juvenile in Action Point (Ire), who scored at listed level and reached an official rating of 101 for Archie Watson.

It is clear that Blue Point, a tremendous racehorse in his own right who recorded an amazing Royal Ascot double when landing the King's Stand S. and the Diamond Jubilee S. in the same week, is injecting a lot of class into his offspring with 17 of his two-year-olds ending the campaign on an official rating of 90 or above.

Too Darn Hot (GB) put the cherry on top of what was a memorable year for the Darley roster by ending the campaign strongly with a host of high-class winners, including G1 Moyglare Stud S. winner Fallen Angel (GB).

A genuine 1,000 Guineas contender for Karl Burke to look forward to next season, Fallen Angel was one of five juveniles by Too Darn Hot to achieve official ratings of 100 or more.

Too Darn Hot ended the year with 22 individual winners in Britain and Ireland, which was the same number that Soldier's Call (GB) managed. However, the latter amassed 29 total winners, which was just one more than Too Darn Hot managed.

Too Darn Hot is set to stand for £65,000 in 2024 while Soldier's Call, who has recently switched from Joe Foley's Ballyhane Stud in Ireland, where he has stood since 2020, to Dullingham Park, will command a fee of £8,500.

The move makes sense. For all that Soldier's Call lived up to what was expected from him in 2023, and in many ways hardened his reputation as a rock-solid producer of sprinting talent, he might stand out a little better in the British market compared to in Ireland, where there are plenty of options at a similar level.

Calyx (GB) may not have racked up the numbers Soldier's Call managed but he was represented by a number of talented juveniles, not least the Dewhurst third Eben Shaddad and the unexposed Purple Lily (Ire), who justified her €155,000 price tag at the breeze-ups when winning on debut at Galway for Paddy Twomey. She rates an exciting filly going forward for the stallion next season and featured among the 19 individual winners and 26 total wins recorded by Calyx in 2023.

Advertise (GB) [19 individual winners in Britain and Ireland], Phoenix Of Spain (Ire) [17], Inns Of Court (Ire) [16], Land Force (Ire) [14], Ten Sovereigns (Ire) [14] and Invincible Army (Ire) [12] were others who managed to get into double figures this year.

Perhaps Phoenix Of Spain is deserving of most credit out of that group for what he achieved with his first crop two-year-olds as his progeny are almost certain to improve at three and beyond.

Study Of Man (Ire) could fit into that category as well. Nobody would have predicted that the G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner would have blasted out a host of two-year-old winners with his debut crop and he probably exceeded expectations through the exploits of Deepone (GB). Winner of the G2 Beresford S., historically a good guide for future Derby contenders, Deepone would appear to have leading Classic claims in 2024 for Twomey and his owner Vimal Khosla.

Like Study Of Man, Magna Grecia (Ire) ended the year with six individual winners in Britain and Ireland while Masar (Ire) was just two behind that pair on four. Given Magna Grecia is out of a Galileo (Ire) mare, it will be wise to judge him properly at the end of 2024 while Derby winner Masar is another deserving of more time.

It should also be noted that City Light (Fr) enjoyed a banner year in France and ended the campaign as the clear leading first-crop sire with 15 individual winners and 19 total wins. A son of Siyouni, City Light also had a winner in Britain and Ireland is shaping up to be an interesting stallion in his own right.

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Blue Point A Short-Priced Favourite For FSS Honours After Red-Hot Start

The market has reacted to the blistering start Blue Point (Ire) has had with his two-year-olds with the Kildangan-based stallion trimmed into 5-6 favouritism for first-season sire honours with Fitzdares.

Blue Point is operating at a 50 per cent strike-rate, with four winners on the board already in Britain and Ireland, as well as another in France. He has also enjoyed notable success with his offspring in the sales ring at the domestic breeze-up sales.

The in-demand youngster leads Ten Sovereigns (Ire), whose only runner in Britain and Ireland was a winner, in the market, with the Coolmore stallion available at odds of 5-2 with the betting firm.

A spokesperson for Fitzdares said on Friday, “It is of course early in the season, but Blue Point has backed up his initial appeal on paper with some impressive early runners returning a strike-rate of 50 per cent and, with plenty more to come, he looks strong at the top of the market, meaning we've trimmed him into the 5-6 clear favourite.

“We've not seen much from Ten Sovereigns yet, but he's one from one following Brighter's (Fr) win at Dundalk earlier this month. Having covered a big book of decent mares, one can expect that there are more winners to come from him, so we make him a 5-2 second favourite behind Blue Point.”

Fellow Coolmore-based stallion Calyx (GB) has enjoyed a good start to the season, which is reflected by the market. A fast two-year-old himself, being the winner of the G2 Coventry S. in 2018, Calyx has sired two winners in Europe already this season–one in France and another in Britain.

“Calyx, although lightly-raced, was a top quality two-year-old and seems to have passed this precocity onto his offspring,” the Fitzdares representative continued.

“Persian Dreamer was hugely impressive at the Craven Meeting and looks destined for Royal Ascot, whilst an additional debut winner in France and some eye-catching performances in defeat mean we think he looks a live contender and have accordingly cut his price into 9-1.”

Fitzdares make Darley's Too Darn Hot (GB) a 13-2 chance, Tally-Ho Stud's Inns Of Court (Ire) a 9-1 shot while Invincible Army (Ire) is 12-1 and Soldier's Call (GB) can be backed at odds of 16-1. Advertise (GB) is available at 16-1 and it's 25-1 and bigger the rest.

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Thormans Looking Forward To The Next Chapter At Trickledown Stud

The husband-and-wife team of Paul and Sara Thorman at Trickledown Stud, one of the most recognisable names in any sales catalogue, have revealed a change of emphasis that will see the operation concentrate more on pinhooking rather than breeding in the coming years.

Trickledown consigned over 300 horses annually in its pomp but, after reducing the broodmare band to just four ahead of the breeding season, Paul explained how he and his wife Sara will bid to enjoy life a bit more whilst running a more streamlined version of the outfit.

On the decision to scale back the broodmare band, he said, “We're only covering four mares this year. If you are paying 20 or 30 quid a day to keep them, that concentrates the mind.”

He added, “It all came down to whether I could breed each mare I had for profit and, most of the mares I had, they were there to keep stallion numbers up when I was involved with the stallions.

“I'm no longer involved with any stallions so those mares became obsolete. It's all about making economic sense of it-you're better off with four or five good mares rather than 15 ordinary ones.”

Trickledown consigned over 100 horses last year at various sales, many of which were on behalf of or in partnership with long-standing clients and, while the aim is to maintain those relationships, Thorman expects that numbers to fall over the course of time.

He said, “We thought we were cutting back last year but we've been terrifically well-supported by a number of people over the years and two or three of them have asked us to keep selling for them.

“We sold well over 100 horses last year and, at our height, we would see about three times that number. Yes, we'll keep consigning but, by natural progression, in terms of younger people tending to go to younger consignors, I'd expect that number to keep declining.”

Thorman added, “But in deciding to scale back a little, it came down to a few things; we have always pinhooked but we didn't have our own farm and, when the farm that we were operating from got sold for building purposes, we decided we wanted to spend our time doing other things.

“We have grandchildren we'd like to spend more time with. Without the farm, we spend a lot more time in the car going around and seeing horses but, seeing them every couple of months isn't the same as seeing them every day. We will still be consigning for people and look forward to doing that for as long as we can but there is a change of emphasis to the whole thing.”

That change of emphasis has been largely funneled into the pinhooking of foals to yearlings, of which, Thorman points to it being a more practical facet of the business to concentrate on compared to breeding a large number of mares.

He explained, “We bought quite a lot of foals last year. You know that when you buy a foal, it will cost you somewhere between 10 and 15 grand to get them to a sale the following year. Win or lose, you can see how much you are in for and how long you are in for. If you do your dough, you've got a choice of either letting them go at a loss or racing them. It's finite. Whereas with mares, it's an open-ended book.”

Thorman added, “If you look at some of the sales results lately, with mares being led out without a bid, it shows that we all need to up our game. My way of trying to do that is by going from 20 mares to four mares and investing a bit more on the ones I'm paying daily keep on rather than having a farm full of soldiers and not generals.”

He may carry a reputation for being a man who knows what he is doing when it comes to purchasing young stock with a view to reoffering them at public auction in a bid to turn a profit but Thorman does not underplay the role luck plays in the transaction.

“Because the budget won't stretch to those expensive foals, we bought several foals between 10 and 30 grand knowing full well that, even at that level, something would have to happen with the individual or the pedigree for us to make it work.

“We've been lucky over the years and were buying Royal Applauses and Acclamations before they were popular. I like to do a lot of research, not so much into the families, but more so into where the half-brother has gone into training and that sort of thing. If there's a foal who is a half to a yearling that we saw and liked and say it had gone into training with an Archie Watson or some trainer who does well with 2-year-olds, those are the types of horse we tend to like.

“We bought a Mohaather (GB) filly at the Tattersalls February Sale because we knew there were two siblings to run for her. Now, we had outrageous luck because her half-sister won that night at 25-1 by about half an inch. There's a 90 grand colt to run for Richard Hannon in the pedigree so I feel we have a chance.”

He added, “One year, I decided that I was so crap at picking foals that would turn out to be improvers, that I just decided to buy brothers and sisters to yearlings who'd gone into training with Richard Hannon Snr. I bought five foals and four of the siblings won for the Hannons. Three of them made profit at the sales and I thought, why bother going around looking at foals and knocking this for turning out half an inch or that for being too big? Fresh news may not be everything but it's a big part of it, isn't it? Why not work with the most recent information you've got to work with? It's not a bad template.”

Thorman is backing Solder's Call (GB) to be the next Royal Applause (GB) or Acclamation (GB) but admitted that nobody would have tipped Havana Grey (GB) to scoop the champion first-season sire title this time 12 months ago. Therein lies the beauty of this game.

“You need luck. We picked a Ulysses (Ire) a couple of years ago, bought him out of our own draft for small money, but he turned into the most beautiful yearling and we got 140,000gns for him. We didn't get that because we were geniuses, but because the dice rolled our way and the horse came up, as did the stallion, who was hot at the time. When you do this for long enough, you realise the importance of luck.

“Who would have picked Havana Grey this time last year? Tell me who this year's Havana Grey is going to be because that's the one we all hope we've bought one by. I'm a big fan of Soldier's Call and, while I only managed to buy one by him last year, I think he has a lot going for him. “The Clipper Logistics outfit have 24 to go into training by him and they've gone to Archie Watson and Karl Burke. I think he'd have to be a pretty moderate stallion not to make a big impact this year as he's been given a great chance. I'd be big on him.

“But this is an extraordinary industry. I had clients who had breeding rights to Time Test (GB) and, when they were making 90,000 to 100,000, I told them to sell. Now the market has reacted too much the other way and I think he's a bit of value. We're great for putting horses up on pedestals and then throwing stones at them. I think we react too negatively or positively to fashion and it tends to even out to a level over time. But isn't this the best part of the season, those first-crop two-year-olds?”

Trickledown Stud has been a constant on the sales scene down through the years and, while Thorman is at pains to point out that he is not the retiring kind, he does admit to being as excited about spending more time with his grandkids as he is about seeing how Soldier's Call performs with his first runners this spring.

“Mick Channon was interviewed the other day and, to paraphrase him, he said, 'I wish could meet the fella who said life begins at 40 because I'd give him a smack in the mouth.' How right he is. When you get the other side of 60, does it matter if you sell another 100 grand horse or another winner? I'm pleased to wake up every morning and, touch wood, we're both healthy.

“Grandkids have provided us with that viewpoint. I mean, our own daughter, she spent the majority of her younger days hanging out in the hay net in the tack room whilst we were flat out on the farm. We're not retiring but we're going to try and enjoy life a little bit more.”

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More Freshman Glory For Tally-Ho

It was extremely unlikely that any first-season sire this year would even get close to the record-breaking 56 winners for Mehmas (Ire) in 2020. That feat was made all the more remarkable by the fact that the start of the Flat season was delayed for several months by the pandemic-induced shutdown of racing.

Leaving this huge tally aside, in any other year 35 first-crop winners at a strike-rate of 40% would be more than respectable, and it is this number, and £788,531 in progeny earnings in 2021, that sees Mehmas's fellow Tally-Ho Stud resident Cotai Glory become the leading freshman in Europe. The son of Exceed And Excel's eight black-type performers were led by the G2 Prix Robert Papin winner Atomic Force (Ire), while Purciaretta (Ire) won a Listed contest in Italy and Eldrickjones (Ire) was runner-up in the G2 Coventry S.

On the prize-money front, Cotai Glory only narrowly shaded Caravaggio, who spent three years at Coolmore in Ireland before being relocated to Ashford Stud in Kentucky for the 2021 covering season. He remains there and now has some bragging rights from a first-crop Group 1 winner in the lightly-raced but unbeaten Cheveley Park S. victrix Tenebrism. The G2 Debutante S. winner and G1 Moyglare Stud S. runner-up Agartha (Ire) was another smart performer for Caravaggio, who had 24 winners in Europe overall.

The former breeze-up graduate Ardad (Ire) was third in Europe and is the leading freshman in Britain, with his 23 winners including the dual Group 1 hero Perfect Power (Ire) and G3 Sirenia S. winner Eve Lodge (GB), as well as the G2 Coventry S. third Vintage Clarets (GB). Ardad's popularity rose accordingly at the yearling and foal sales this year which will have made up for the fact that his 2021 foal crop consisted of just 18 members. He covered a three-figure book of mares at Overbury Stud in 2021, however, and that will be repeated this covering season.

While Tally-Ho Stud can enjoy some reflected glory in having bred both Ardad and Perfect Power, greater enjoyment will doubtless be derived from the start made by another of the farm's stallions, the 2000 Guineas winner Galileo Gold (GB). He too had a Group 1 winner, from his former stable of Hugo Palmer, in Ebro River (Ire), as well as Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed Oscula (Ire) and the Listed winner System (Ire) among six stakes performers and 24 winners.

The G2 Queen Mary S. winner Quick Suzy (Ire) was the star of the first crop of Darley's Profitable (Ire), who amassed a decent haul of 28 winners, with two Listed scorers among them.

In sixth in Europe and leading the French contingent was the regally-bred Zarak (Fr), whose 2022 book was full early on the back of his 17 winners, led by the Arqana sales race winner and G1 Criterium International third Purplepay (Fr), who subsequently sold for €2 million in December to race on in America. Zarak was also represented by the German Group 3 winner Lizard (Ger) and G1 Prix Marcel Boussac runner-up Times Square (Fr).

A trio of Listed winners and the Group 2-placed Unconquerable (Ire) and The Acropolis (Ire) led a bunch of 25 winners for Coolmore's Churchill (Ire), while Yeomanstown Stud's El Kabeir has the champion juvenile in Italy in Group 2 winner Don Chicco (GB), as well as Listed winners Sa Filonzana (Ire) and Masekela (Ire), the latter having also been runner-up in the G2 Superlative S.

Behind him in ninth was the National Stud's Aclaim (Ire), who steadily compiled a list of 26 winners, the leading light of which was Cachet (Ire), with four stakes places including third in the G1 Fillies' Mile.

Completing the top ten on prize-money was the Queen's son of Galileo (Ire), Recorder (GB), who stands in France under the Sumbe banner and had Listed victrix Hot Queen among his eight winners.

Just outside the European top ten, Time Test (GB), like Zarak a son of Dubawi, caught plenty of people's attention with his quartet of stakes winners from 11 winners in total.

Dream Ahead's son Al Wukair (Ire) made a pleasing start in France at Haras de Bouquetot with 15 winners, while similar comments apply to his stud-mate Zelzal (Ire), by Sea The Stars (Ire), who notched 11 winners.

Towards the end of the season there were some decent maiden winners being posted by two sons of Galileo (Ire) whose stock can be expected to progress: Ulysses (Ire) and Highland Reel (Ire), who ended the year with 16 and 12 winners respectively.

The Irish National Stud's National Defense (GB) was represented by only 14 runners, but they included five winners, with the standout being the French Listed winner and G2 Queen Mary S. runner-up Twilight Gleaming (Ire), who went on the win the GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint for Wesley Ward and Stonestreet Stables.

The aforementioned Zarak headed the first-season sire lists in his native France and also in Germany, where he has one of the best juveniles in the country in Lizaid, while El Kabeir's Don Chicco ensured that he topped the list in Italy.

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