Never before in the past 50 years has there been a more speed-orientated Britain and Ireland champion sire with a profile like Dark Angel, whose stock aged three and up have an average winning distance of 7.8 furlongs. Traditionally, racing in Europe has been organised to favour the sires that can produce top-class middle-distance performers as Group 1 championship races outside the sprint spectrum have been lavished with far more prize-money, thus handicapping some of our top-class stallions down through the years.

It is therefore to Dark Angel’s great credit that he will become the first such sire to land the championship and he will have achieved the feat with no major two- or three-year-old contributor, as is normally the case. In essence, the 20-year-old grey son of Acclamation has combined the quality of older horses like European Champion Miler Charyn and Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes winner Khaadem – with the earnings from over 260 runners, which is the most by any other sire this year.

History shows us that only 15 other sires, based in Britain or Ireland, have been crowned champion sire since 1970, and only five of them had a lifetime progeny stamina index of less than ten furlongs. The champion sire that comes closest to Dark Angel’s profile is Coolmore’s Danehill Dancer, who was champion in 2009. Like Dark Angel, Danehill Dancer was a smart two-year-old (Timeform 117) rated just four pounds higher than Dark Angel which was good enough form to land him the Phoenix Stakes. But unlike the Yeomanstown Stud stallion, many of Danehill Dancer’s top runners conceived in Ireland were middle-distance horses. In fact, he never sired a Group 1-winning sprinter as Dark Angel did with the likes of Battaash (Timeform 136) and Harry Angel (Timeform 132). Danehill Dancer’s top six Group 1 winners by Timeform rating all stayed a mile-and-a-quarter and feature the 129-rated Mastercraftsman, who contributed greatly to his sire’s title in 2009.

The only other champion sire with a stamina index of less than nine furlongs is Danehill Dancer’s sire Danehill, who bridged the gap between the Sadler’s Wells (14 titles) and Galileo (12 titles) dynasties with three championships from 2005 to 2007. As everyone knows, Danehill was an extraordinary sire, not least for his ability to come up top-class progeny at all manner of distances. His Timeform 130-plus Group 1 winners from his northern hemisphere crops feature sprinter Mozart (131), milers Rock Of Gibraltar (133) and George Washington (133), middle-distance stars Dylan Thomas (132) and Duke Of Marmalade (132), as well as top-class stayer Westerner (130).

Dark Angel is also unique among the home-based champion sires in that the six furlongs of both his Middle Park and Mill Reef Stakes victories was his maximum winning trip

Dark Angel is also unique among the home-based champion sires in that the six furlongs of both his Middle Park and Mill Reef Stakes victories was his maximum winning trip, and it was unlikely he would have been tried over longer had he stayed in training at three. There is no question that both he and Mehmas have excellent prospects of extending their sire’s lineage well into the future, which is a fitting tribute to Acclamation who was retired from stud duty this year a few weeks before he passed away, just as his best-ever progeny Romantic Warrior won his third Hong Kong Cup.

While prize-money tables still decide who wears the champion sire crown in every breeding jurisdiction, it is well worth looking at some other metrics.

It is Dubawi that leads the stakes-winner count in Britain and Ireland with 16, as he does in Europe with 25. At the time of writing and with virtually no opportunities for his rivals to close the gap, he leads the field by six in Europe, but by only two on the home front. Internationally, he has also delivered more stakes winners than another sire, his 33 currently just one ahead of Lope De Vega. Moreover, among the sires with ten or more stakes winners, his strike-rate at 10.2 per cent is better than all others bar his own remarkable sire son Zarak, who weighs in with 19 stakes winners at an impressive 12.1 per cent to runners.

Dubawi has also sired the most Group winners (20) across the world but has to give way to Lope De Vega (six) and Wootton Bassett (five) among the active sires when it comes to Group 1 winners.

On the two-year-old front, this season has been all about Wootton Bassett’s first crop of Coolmore-sired two-year-olds, and they have certainly lived up to expectations. His 20 stakes horses, 13 stakes winners, and ten Group winners all represent single-crop world records for a sire of two-year-olds, while his four Group 1 winners equals the number sired by Justify last year and is only one fewer than Sadler’s Wells’ five sired in 2001.

Moreover, Wootton Bassett’s strike-rates are broadly similar to all the major sires he’s eclipsed this year, so his records are not all due just to sheer weight of numbers – they are the result of his access to better mares at his new home. Remarkably, 66 per cent of Wootton Bassett’s 56 stakes winners to date are two-year-old stakes winners, although his five Timeform top-rated Group 1 winners, Almanzor (133), King of Steel (125), Al Riffa (125), Wooded (121), and Audarya (120), were all at their best at age three and above.

Wootton Bassett also leads the race to be Britain and Ireland’s champion two-year-old sire by earnings and occupies the same place on the European chart. However, given that all his four Group 1 winners earned their top-flight status abroad, it is Mehmas and No Nay Never that are joint top with seven juvenile stakes winners apiece in Britain and Ireland.

Mehmas, too, has been rewriting the record books with his world record tally of 69 individual single-season two-year-old winners (56 in Britain and Ireland) so far, already eight more than his stud companion Kodiac’s record 61 winners sired seven years ago. Bred on the same Acclamation/Machiavellian cross as champion sire elect Dark Angel, Mehmas also delivers plenty of classy types and he has nine juvenile stakes winners to his name this year, including three – Magnum Force, Scorthy Champ and Vertical Blue – at Group/Grade 1 level, which ties him with five other sires behind only Wootton Bassett and Galileo on the all-time list of leading sires by single-season stakes winners. Just like Wootton Bassett, Mehmas has benefitted enormously from the better-class mares, in his case those he covered in his fifth season, earned on the back of his world-best 56 first-crop winners which featured Middle Park Stakes winner Supremacy.

None of this year’s first-crop sires has got anywhere near Mehmas’s first-year score and the tables in Britain and Ireland, as well as Europe, are delicately poised, with Sergei Prokofiev leading with 22 winners ahead of Mohaather (19) and Pinatubo (17) in the Britain and Ireland race. Sergei Prokofiev (26 winners) also leads the race in Europe from Mohaather and Pinatubo, with 21 apiece. Mohaather (three stakes winners) is the only freshman so far this year to sire more than two stakes winners.