News

Group 1 Stallions - Cream Rises To The Top

22nd Jun 2009

Racing And Sports - Nathan Exelby - Monday, 22 June 2009

They make up just 1.5% of the stallion population, but stallions that stood for $60,000 or more in 2008 provided the winners of 28% of Australia's Group 1 races this season.

The curtain came down on the 2008-09 Group 1 races when Commands' daughter Russeting won the Winter Stakes (1400m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

Commands stood for $66,000 last season and that victory took the tally to 24 (36%) wins for progeny of stallions in the $60K+ plus bracket.

In total, 67 Group 1 races were run in Australia this season, with 53 individual winners, including 12 multiple winners, highlighted by Niconero (Danzero) and Theseo (Danewin), who won three G1's each.

The number of stallions to provide G1 winners was 40, including nine with multiple winners, headed by Encosta De Lago, who had four individual winners. Redoute's Choice and Scenic had three each.

Of the 67 Group 1 races, 17 were won by progeny of stallions either deceased or no longer standing in Australia (comprising 12 individual sires - Belong To Me, Celtic Swing, Diesis, Galileo, Genuine, Germano, Lion Cavern, Montjeu, Mujahid, Scenic, Secret Savings and Street Cry).

Note, Whobegotyou's sire Street Cry is returning to Australia for the 2009 season.

While it is expected that the highest priced stallions should dominate the Group 1 racing, figures from this year reveal just how dominant the higher end sires have been.

There were just seven stallions that stood for $100K or more in Australia last year (0.8% of the 834 total), yet their progeny won 19.4% (13 wins) of the Group 1 events on offer.

Add in the three wins for New Zealand-based Zabeel and stallions standing for $100,000 or more took out almost 24% of the Group 1 races on offer.

Redoute's Choice (2 winners/4 wins), Encosta De Lago (4/4), Hussonet (1/1), More Than Ready (1/1), Flying Spur (2/2) and Exceed And Excel (1/1).

The odd one out is Danehill Dancer, who failed to land a G1 winner for the season, but helped contribute considerably to the stakes tally for the expensive brigade, with nine individual black type winners.

Of note, Australia's two highest priced stallions - Redoute's Choice and Encosta De Lago - won 11.9% of the Group 1 races between them.

Another six stallions stood in the $60K to $100K bracket last season, with Red Ransom (3 winners of 3 races) and Commands (2 winners of 3 races) helping to add to the Group 1 tally (the others in that bracket were Rock Of Gibraltar, Fastnet Rock, Elusive Quality and the now deceased General Nediym).

Those six races makes it 19 wins - 28% of the races on offer - for stallions that made up just 1.5% of Australia's sire population last year.

Add in Zabeel's trio and two for Waikato Stud's $60,000 boy O'Reilly and the tally reaches 36%.

Going further down the scale, 53.7% of the Group 1 events were won by stallions that stood for $20,000 or more last year.

At the other end of the spectrum, Clang (Black Piranha) can lay claim to being the 'cheapest' Group 1 stallion to have stood in Australia in 2008, off a fee of just $5500.

Golden Snake (Gilded Venom) and Bellotto (Littorio) both had advertised fees of $6600.

SNAPSHOT

67 Group 1 races - 53 individual winners - 40 individual sires

16 races (23.8%) - won by stallions standing at $100K or more (including 3 by NZ'based Zabeel)

24 races (36%) won by stallions standing at $60K or more (including 3 for Zabeel and 2 for O'Reilly)

Australia Only

834 stallions registered with Stud Book in 2008

7 (0.8%) stood at $100K or more

13 (1.5%) at $60K or more

13 races (19.4%) won by progeny of Australian-based sires standing at $100K or more in 2008

19 races (28%) won by progeny of Australian-based sires standing at $60K or more

*Service fees and stallion numbers sourced from Australian Stud Book