The beauty of this business is that for all the ‘expert beliefs’ and market forces, a successful stallion can still emerge from anywhere if he’s good enough. Wootton Bassett was certainly proof of that while the likes of Havana Grey and Sands Of Mali are rising up the ladder from humble enough beginnings, helping smaller breeders in the process.
Starspangledbanner has always attracted a fair following, initially in light of a race record that identified him as a brilliant dual-hemisphere sprinter. But against that, he’s had a chequered stud career, starting with the well-documented fertility issues that reportedly almost had him gelded.
Just over a decade on and the stallion who almost became a gelding is now responsible for two of the best two-year-olds in Ballydoyle in Precise and Gstaad. Precise, yet another top-flight performer bred by Aidan and Anne-Marie O’Brien’s Whisperview Trading, looks a likely candidate for champion two-year-old filly honours following authoritative wins in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and Cheveley Park Stakes while Gstaad, a half-brother to Vandeek bred by Kelly Thomas’ Maywood Stud, followed up his win in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes by running second in the Group 1 Prix Morny, National Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes.
Both are high up in the betting for next year’s respective Guineas while Precise is also around a 10-1 shot for the Oaks. Given Starspangledbanner’s reputation as a source of speed, a mile and a half might not be up her street although her female family does offer some encouragement given that her dam Way To My Heart is a Galileo sister to Ascot Gold Cup runner-up Kingfisher. She descends directly back to Sheikh Mohammed’s top miler Sonic Lady via her Rainbow Quest daughter Lady Icarus, who foaled the Classic-placed pair Furner’s Green and Lady Lupus during her productive stud career for the O’Brien family.
He currently sits in second on the leading European two-year-old sires’ list.
Precise and Gstaad are not the only juveniles to represent Starspangledbanner to good effect this year, however. Moyglare Stud’s homebred Suzie Songs won the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes while Avicenna and Secret Hideaway are both Listed winners.
As such, Starspangledbanner currently sits in second on the leading European two-year-old sires’ list. He is unlikely to trouble the late Wootton Bassett at the top but such a bold showing should still be commended given his 128-strong crop of juveniles was bred off a fee of €35,000. By comparison, Wootton Bassett commanded €150,000 in the same year.
Winner of the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate over six furlongs and Group 1 Caulfield Guineas over a mile in his native Australia, Starspangledbanner first came to attention in this part of the world when sweeping the 2010 Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and July Cup at Newmarket on his second and third starts for Aidan O’Brien. Both were displays of raw speed, in particular at Royal Ascot where he powered away from Society Rock in a manner reminiscent of the Royal Ascot raid of his sire Choisir seven years before.
Starspangledbanner joined the Coolmore roster for the 2011 season at an affordable €15,000, which made him a popular option with commercial breeders. Unfortunately, so tricky was his fertility that by 2012 he was back at Ballydoyle in preparation for a return to the track. That proved fruitless, with six starts around the world yielding a runner-up effort in the Curragh’s Group 3 renaissance Stakes at best. By the autumn of 2013, the horse was ensconced at Rosemont Stud in Victoria, Australia, with his European chapter to all intents and purposes well behind him.
Then his first crop of two-year-olds hit the track. Quickly, it became apparent that he was throwing fast animals with a bit of class, a notion that was underlined when that initial crop of 33 foals came to include Banner coming of age the Group 1 Prix Morny winner The Wow Signal and Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes winner Anthem Alexander. In all, that 2012 group of representatives came to contain eight stakes winners – which equates to 24 per cent of that crop.
His progeny are also capable of training on and staying beyond sprint distances
As such, Starspangledbanner returned to Coolmore for 2015, since when he hasn’t looked back. Stationed at the operation’s Castle Hyde Stud, he has become something of a go-to horse for the Irish commercial breeder, his ability to sire fast, precocious horses advertised by the likes of California Spangle, a top sprinter in Hong Kong, champion two-year-old Millisle and the Group 1-placed juveniles Flotus and Castle Star in addition to Precise and Gstaad.
His progeny are also capable of training on and staying beyond sprint distances, as illustrated by the likes of last year’s Group 1 Prix Jean Prat winner Puchkine, who received a book of 111 mares in his first season at Haras de Beaumont this year. However, arguably his best older performer so far has been the globe-trotter State Of Rest, whose ambitious campaign for Joseph O’Brien took in Group/Grade 1 wins in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, Prix Ganay at Longchamp, Saratoga Derby in the US and Cox Plate in Australia. Now based at Rathbarry Stud in Ireland, State Of Rest’s first yearlings have sold for up to 300,000gns.
Starspangledbanner has always attracted fans in the ring – Fozzy Stack springs to mind as someone who has consistently enjoyed success with his stock, notably as the trainer of Group winners such as Aloha Star, Castle Star and Hermana Estrella – but his popularity reached a new high last month at Tattersalls in the sales of a sister to Avicenna for 900,000gns to Godolphin and a filly out of Rapacity Alexander for 500,000gns to Al Shira’aa Racing; appropriately, she was bred by Noel O’Callaghan’s Mountarmstrong Stud, also the breeder of Anthem Alexander.
Today, Starspangledbanner’s fertility is well managed by Castle Hyde Stud, which allows him to cover sizeable books. Still, he has never operated beyond a fee of €50,000, the level set in 2023. He covered 133 mares this season at €45,000, a figure that is likely to rise off the back of his current success. Starspangledbanner is now an elder statesman of the European sire ranks at 19-years-old.
Thankfully, he has a number of sons at stud led by State Of Rest and Castle Star in Ireland and Puchkine in France. While both are unproven, some heart will be taken by the brief stud career of The Wow Signal, another fertility-challenged horse who sired the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine Coeursamba out of a group of just 15 representatives.
American Pharoah a coup for the JBBA
The news that American Pharoah would stand in Japan for the 2026 season understandably provoked some debate. The Coolmore Kentucky stallion has a large fan base in the US as the horse who broke a 37-year wait for an American Triple Crown winner.
However, when it comes to commercial breeding, the brutality of it is that as a rising 14-year-old who isn’t truly an elite stallion, he is going to continue to drop down the ladder of popularity, especially against the annual influx of younger, more exciting names to stud.
That’s not to say that American Pharoah has been disappointing as a stallion. The hype attached to his Triple Crown achievements, and the initial fee of $200,000 that resulted, made expectations abnormally high. While he’s far from being a $200,000 stallion today, he has sired close to 50 stakes winners in the northern hemisphere, among them seven Group or Grade 1 winners.
Five of those top-flight winners, as well as a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf scorer in Four Wheel Drive, arrived in his first crop, a sign perhaps that the stallion was riding off the back of power of that first book of mares. That is also probably true of his second-crop standout Van Gogh, winner of the 2020 Criterium International for Aidan O’Brien who was a half-brother to the ill-fated top two-year-old Horatio Nelson and out of Oaks heroine Imagine.
Even so, plenty of stallions fail to sire as many as 50 stakes winners in their lifetime and it is to American Pharoah’s credit that they are a varied group, ranging from a top dirt colt in American Theorem to Group/Grade 1-winning turf runners such as Harvey’s Lil Goil and Marketsegmentation in the US to Van Gogh and Prix Saint-Alary heroine Above The Curve in Europe.
There have also been two Group 1 winners – the Victoria Derby scorers Riff Rocket and Goldrush Guru – in Australia.
However, American Pharoah has fared extremely well in Japan, which is why his switch to the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders Association (JBBA) on the island of Hokkaido should prove successful.
The son of Pioneerof The Nile is set to stand under a single season lease for the operation, which has made a point of regularly importing high-profile international horses to add to its roster since its inception in 1955. Arc winner Sottsass was a case in point for the 2025 season in a significant deal that placed him on the line-up alongside other familiar names such as Caravaggio, Makfi, Declaration Of War and Noble Mission.
From its head office in Tokyo, the JBBA operates three stallion farms overall and does its best to offer breeders access into a variety of sire lines; only one of the 13-strong roster descends in sire line from Sunday Silence (the Group 2-winning Deep Impact horse Red Bel Jour).
By all accounts, the addition of American Pharoah to the JBBA’s roster arrived following several years of determined pursuit. And little wonder when American Pharoah’s record in Japan is considered. For starters, first-crop representative Cafe Pharoah won two renewals of the Group 1 February Stakes and was the champion dirt male of 2022 while Danon Pharoah won the 2020 Japan Dirt Derby. In all, American Pharoah is the sire of nine stakes winners in Japan despite naturally operating with a small pool of runners.
In a measure of the line’s popularity, he also has three sons at stud in Japan, including Four Wheel Drive, whose first crop contains multiple stakes winner Yamanin Cerchi, and Van Gogh, the sire of six first-crop juvenile winners at the time of writing.
There was understandably some dismay on social media, primarily from American racing fans, that American Pharoah was leaving Kentucky. But there is certainly the sense that he is heading to a nation of breeders that will appreciate him to the full. Indeed, the JBBA report that they have received numerous enquiries since the announcement was made and it will be fascinating to see how he fares under their management.
