This article first appeared in the August edition of Owner Breeder
This season’s European leading sires’ ranking based on earnings has a strange look to it. Unlike in the past two years, neither perennial leaders Frankel nor Dubawi are among the first three. Moreover, there are plenty of candidates further down the European hierarchy that deserve to have their 2024 accomplishments recognised while some others have hit or surpassed specific career milestones.
Let’s start with Coolmore’s Gleneagles, Galileo’s son from Giant Causeway’s prodigious female line was first past the post in eight consecutive races, seven of them at Group level, before soft ground scuppered what could have been a glorious end to a very successful career. That said, he could still count the National Stakes, 2,000 Guineas, Irish 2,000 Guineas and Royal Ascot’s St James’s Palace among his Group 1 successes, so it was unsurprising that the first nomination fee was set as high as €65,000 even though his final Timeform mark at 128 was significantly below the 134 awarded to his contemporary Golden Horn, whose own fee was £65,000.
History now recounts that the star of that year’s intake was Night Of Thunder and neither Gleneagles, Golden Horn nor their contemporary Muhaarar have since ever been entrusted with the same quality of patronage they enjoyed during their first year at stud. Breeders kept the faith in years two, three and four as much as could have been expected, and there was a surge of interest in Gleneagles after his first two-year-olds had completed their initial season on the racecourse but still not to the level he attracted in his first year. The Group 2 July Stakes winner Royal Lytham and Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes scorer Royal Dornoch, plus Listed Windsor Castle Stakes hero Southern Hills hinted at the start of something significant.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. His first-crop three-year-old could only muster a pair of Group 3 wins, one in Germany and the other in Ireland. On top of that, his second-crop juveniles contained just a lone Group 3 winner in Japan. The Group 1 Prix de Royallieu winner Loving Dream did emerge from that crop albeit later the following year, but it was too little and too late for Gleneagles and nothing could prevent a mass defection of quality from his subsequent books.
The Coolmore stallion has been mounting a strong response on the racecourse which has been reflected in increased book sizes
However, since his sixth-year book of just 35 mares, the Coolmore stallion has been mounting a strong response on the racecourse which has been reflected in increased book sizes, now back to the levels of his early years, although without anything like the quality of his early books.
This year alone he’s had eight stakes winners and five Group winners, including Group 1 July Cup winner Mill Stream (Timeform 122) and Group 3 Diomed Stakes scorer Royal Scotsman (Timeform 117) from among his current four-year-olds. His three-year-olds also feature some very smart horses, including Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes winner Calandagan (Timeform 123p), Group 1 Derby second and Irish Derby third Ambiente Friendly (Timeform 119) and Group 1 Deutsches Derby winner Palladium (Timeform 108).
Gleneagles’ stakes-winner output currently stands at 8.1 per cent from runners and although it is significantly adrift from his mares’ normal output, one stat that does impress is his 12 per cent stakes winners from his better mares. Therefore, breeders can rely on him to produce the goods if they send him a good mare.
There were a few other noteworthy milestones in the past few weeks. Kingman passed the 50 Group winner mark worldwide, although his progeny foaled in the northern hemisphere haven’t hit that mark yet and contain 49 stakes winners at the time of writing.
His continued success this year is no surprise really. Don’t forget that the Juddmonte sire’s current four-year-olds and three-year-olds are from some of his best-bred crops conceived after he proved his mettle with his first runners. His four-year-old crop now has his highest number of stakes winners with 20 and the joint highest number of Group winners with 13. The two new members of this group are the Group 2 Summer Mile winner Quddwah (Timeform 122p) and Alsakib (Timeform 115), who opened his Group race account in the Group 3 Silver Cup.
It is certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility that Kingman may find another Group 1 winner from among his 2020 crop to join Commissioning, Sauterne and Feed The Flame. His three-year-olds, meanwhile, already boast two Classic winners in 1,000 Guineas winner Elmalka (Timeform 112) and Prix de Diane heroine Sparkling Plenty (Timeform 114), while another daughter Blush (Timeform 101) was successful recently in the Group 3 Prix Chloe.
Two-year-old filly Celandine became his first stakes winner from Kingman’s 2022 crop when winning the Listed Empress Stakes at Newmarket and both her and January are both already Group 2-placed (Celandine subsequently won the Lowther Stakes).
Another milestone generated during the Newmarket July meeting concerned Whistlejacket’s sire No Nay Never. Whistlejacket’s success in the Group 3 July Stakes – his first in Group company – was the 16th for his sire in a juvenile pattern race over five of six furlongs, which means he has already caught up with Kodiac and Exceed And Excel with years to spare. His strike-rate of 5.1 per cent Group winner to runners is way ahead of Exceed And Excel’s 2.3 per cent and Kodiac’s 1.4 per cent.
Other active sires doing well in this realm include Wootton Bassett (3.6 per cent) and Havana Grey (3.3 per cent). In terms of outright number of stakes winners, Kodiac is still 11 clear of No Nay Never, but by percentage of stakes winners to runners, the top three are No Nay Never (8.3 per cent), Wootton Bassett (7.3 per cent) and Havana Grey (5.5 per cent). It is perhaps a little surprising that Wootton Bassett is so adept in this field given that he is also more than capable of siring very high-class mile-and-a-quarter horses.
Finally, we must acknowledge the fact that Dark Angel has led the Britain and Ireland earnings table this far into the season. I suspect that one or other of the big guns will have too much fire power through the autumn months, but if Charyn, Khaadem, Alflaila or Art Power can continue to contribute to his total, the possibility still exists that he will be there or thereabouts. Whatever his fate, there is a fair chance we will have a different champion sire at the end of the year as Frankel is having a quieter time of it than usual. Could Dark Angel go one better than his second-place last year?
