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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Actually, 2024 wasn't that bad of a year for horse racing. There were no major scandals and the rate of horses breaking down fell again. At the tracks under HISA's jurisdiction, it looks like the fatality rate for the year will be about 84 horses per 1,000 starters. Considering that same rate in 2009, the first year statistics were kept, was 2.00 per 1,000 shows just how far the sport has come. The GI Kentucky Derby was as thrilling a Triple Crown race as the sport has seen in some time, with three horses a nose apart at the wire and Mystik Dan (Goldencents) winning primarily because he got a perfect ride from Brian Hernandez Jr. With Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) giving Fierceness (City of Light) and the rest of the boys everything they could handle in the GI Travers, that was another race that none of us will soon forget. Plans for a new Pimlico and new Belmont, two tracks that have seen better days, are underway, which will make the Triple Crown even better. But that doesn't mean the future is bright. Far from it. There are still many problems that threaten the sport's long-term health. The latest crisis is California racing, and where is it headed with so many problems and with purses so low they can't even compete with Turfway Park? There are no magic wands to get this sport back to the “good old days” but there are things that can done. Here are some fixable problems that racing can tackle in 2025. And if some of them seem trivial, remember that if the sport can't even do the little things right, how is it going to do the major things right? Consider these racing's New Year's resolutions for 2025. Here goes: –Deal with the CAW problem. The computer players are driving people out of the game, even some bettors who used to be considered major players. No one can compete with these groups who have the best data, have computer programs and algorithms that find underlays, can bet at the very last second and then receive rebates that are substantially higher than anyone else can get. The more the CAW players win, the more everybody else loses. The day will come when the betting will be wales vs. wales while everyone else has either quit betting or finds another game to wager on. That's when you can turn out the lights, and that may be closer than you think. The problem is that you can't live with these guys and you can't live without them. If the tracks got together and banned them, the hit to the handle would be catastrophic. It's estimated that the computer players account for about 35% of the total nationwide handle. That's about $4 billion, $4 billion that the tracks can't afford to lose. Without a full-out ban, CAW players will continue to chase other players out of the business, but there are a few steps that can at least soften the blow. Every track should do what NYRA has done, which is to ban them from the win pool. That way, no horse at NYRA goes into the gate at 4-1, breaks on top and goes to 5-2 and then crosses the wire as an 8-5 winner. That doesn't mean that CAW players aren't cleaning up in other pools. But at least NYRA players aren't routinely made to feel like chumps when they bet the straight pools. That's not a lot, but it is something. Coady Photography —Do what Maryland and Virginia are doing and create more circuits. There used to be a time when racing would move from track to track with Track A running for three or four months before Track B has its run. We haven't seen that in some time, but the Laurel/Pimlico-Colonial Downs circuit is going to be revived in 2025. Laurel won't run when Colonial is running and Colonial won't run when Pimlico-Laurel is open for business. There is way too much racing in the Mid-Atlantic region and this will help solve the problem. It's a win-win for everybody. Horsemen from both circuits will have what amounts to year-round racing, the purses should increase at both tracks since the same amount of slots money will be divvied up amongst fewer races and the tracks will save money because they will be shut down for a part of the year, lowering fixed costs. Circuits should be revived at a lot of places, but the most obvious place for it to happen next is at Parx-Monmouth. Let Monmouth have the summer dates and let Parx have everything else. To make it fair for the horsemen, the tracks will have to arrange for free or, at least, inexpensive shipping. And the state breeding programs need to be taken care of, which should be easy to do. There's no reason why Pennsylvania-bred races can't be carded at Monmouth and Jersey-bred races at Parx. –Let's see HIWU catch some actual bad guys. The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit never seems to let common sense get in the way of a suspension. We've seen dozens of trainers get suspended, many for drugs that likely got into a horse's system through environmental contamination. And most of these are people who common sense will tell you are not cheaters. Take Ohio-based trainer William Pribble. He hasn't won a race since 2022 and is 1-for-22 from 2022 to 2024. If he's a cheater, he's the world's worst cheater. HISA has eased up and doesn't hand out provisional anymore for jaywalking. But Pribble has been charged with possessing Metformin, and for that reason, his suspension has not been lifted. The man's career has been destroyed and it's highly unlikely that he did anything wrong. Meanwhile, there are a couple of dozen trainers out there that are still way too good to be true. Every handicapper knows who they are, but with very few exceptions, HIWU hasn't caught any of them. How about a bettor's advisory board that can make recommendations to HIWU any time they see a miracle worker work another miracle? The bettors are always the first to know. –How can we consider ourselves a major league sport when we can't ever seem to get the running order right during the a race? It seems to happen every day and at more than one track. The naked eye may tell you that the three horse is clearly in front but the chicklets have the two leading. There were plenty of examples Saturday at Aqueduct. In the second race, the No. 8 is clearly leading but the chicklets have the four in front. In the 3rd, the Gravesend Stakes, the running order down the backstretch is listed as 5-7-4 when the actual order is 5-4-7. This is minor league stuff that wouldn't be tolerated in the minor leagues. It can't be that hard to fix. The post The Week In Review: Some New Year’s Resolutions For The Sport Of Horse Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Forever Young dominated the best of Japan's imposing dirt runners in the Tokyo Daishoten Dec. 29 and is poised to return for another global campaign in 2025.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Twice a winner at group level on foreign soil and placed in two of America's greatest races in 2024, Susumu Fujita's Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) patched the one hole that existed in an already remarkable career, coming from just off the speed before proving comfortably best in a high-class renewal of the G1 Toyko Daishoten at Ohi Racecourse. In defeating the consistent Wilson Tesoro (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) and fellow 3-year-old Ramjet (Jpn) (Majestic Warrior), the son of US Grade II winner Forever Darling (Congrats) was succeeding for the first–and in all likelihood–not the last time at the highest level. “He's a horse that's aiming to be the best in the world, so I felt like I couldn't lose in Japan,” said winning jockey Ryusei Sakai. “I'll do my best [for him] to become the world champion next year.” The $1.30 (3-10) jolly was exiting a third-place effort to his 'TDN Rising Star' close relative Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) when arguably too close to the pace in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic Nov. 2 and jumped alertly from barrier four before allowing fellow G2 UAE Derby hero Crown Pride (Jpn) (Reach the Crown {Jpn}) to take up the running at the first corner of the right-turning track. Tracking comfortably from second down the back straight as Crown Pride set the pace a path or two off the inside running rail, Forever Young was ridden along to maintain his spot 600 metres out and was poised to strike under a bit of urging on the swing for home. Roused to the front with about a furlong to race, Forever Young crossed the line 1 3/4 lengths to the good of recent G1 Champions Cup runner-up Wilson Tesoro to give big-spending owner Susumu Fujita his first top-level success. Ramjet sat an inside trip and battled on gamely for third ahead of the swansonging 7-year-old Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}), winner of this contest the last two seasons. The latter used the 2022 Daishoten as a springboard to success in the G1 Dubai World Cup three months later, and tentative plans call for Forever Young to first return to Saudi Arabia–where he overcame a world of adversity in the G3 Saudi Derby this past February–for a crack at the world's richest race, the $20-million G1 Saudi Cup, a contest won by the Yoshito Yahagi-trained Panthalassa (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) in 2023. All things equal, the colt would travel on to Dubai for the World Cup six weeks later. The Daishoten was just the second Japanese appearance of the year for Forever Young, who took out the Oct. 2 Listed Japan Dirt Classic over course and distance when prepping for the Breeders' Cup. That was his first run after his eventful third in the GI Kentucky Derby five months prior. Pedigree Notes: Winner of the 2016 GII Santa Ynez Stakes, Forever Darling is the dam of four winners from five to race, ncluding Forever Young's 2-year-old half-sister Brown Ratchet (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), who carried the Sunday Racing colors to a 1 1/2-length success in an 1800-meter turf event for debutantes at Nakayama Sept. 16 before adding the G3 Artemis Stakes. Given her female family, it is not entirely surprising that Forever Darling might end up in Japan. Her stakes-winning and multiple Grade-I placed dam Darling My Darling is responsible for 2017 GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes victress Heavenly Love (Malibu Moon), the dam of the aforementioned Sierra Leone, and Darling My Darling is a half-sister to Japanese Horse of the Year and G1 Japan Cup hero Zenno Rob Roy (Jpn). Forever Darling is also the dam of a yearling filly by Epiphaneia (Jpn) (Symboli Kris S), a weanling colt by Rey de Oro (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) this past April and is due to foal a full-sibling to Forever Young in 2025. Sunday, Ohi, Japan TOKYO DAISHOTEN-G1, ¥170,000,000, Oi, 12-29, 3yo/up, 2000m, 2:04.90, gd. 1–FOREVER YOUNG (JPN), 123, c, 3, by Real Steel (Jpn) 1st Dam: Forever Darling (GSW-US, $217,545), by Congrats 2nd Dam: Darling My Darling, by Deputy Minister 3rd Dam: Roamin Rachel, by Mining 1ST GROUP 1 WIN. (¥98,000,000 Ylg '22 JRHAJUL). O-Susumu Fujita; B-Northern Farm; T-Yoshito Yahagi; J-Ryusei Sakai; ¥100,000,000. Lifetime Record: GSW-KSA & UAE, MGISP-US, 9-7-0-2, $4,248,168. *1/2 to Brown Ratchet (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), GSW-Jpn, $239,613. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. 2–Wilson Tesoro (Jpn), 126, h, 5, Kitasan Black (Jpn)–Chesutoke Rose, by Uncle Mo. O-Kenji Ryotokuji Holdings; B-Ryoken Farm; T-Noboru Takagi; J-Yuga Kawada; ¥35,000,000. 3–Ramjet (Jpn), 123, c, 3, Majestic Warrior–Nefertiti (Jpn), by Gold Allure (Jpn). 1ST G1 BLACK-TYPE. O-Koji Maeda; B-North Hills; T-Shozo Sasaki; J-Kosei Miura; ¥20,000,000. Margins: 1 3/4, NK, 3HF. Odds: 0.30, 4.00, 9.50. Also Ran: Ushba Tesoro (Jpn), Grand Bridge (Jpn), Derma Sotogake (Jpn), Crown Pride (Jpn), Sayono Nature (Jpn), King of the Nile (Jpn), Grande Mare (Jpn). Click for the goracing,jp chart. The post Forever Young Earns Elusive Group 1 In Tokyo Daishoten appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
This is a fun category. Priced between $10,001 and $19,999, these stallions remain within reach of many hands-on breeders, yet include quite a few that can be legitimately described as proven. At the younger end of the scale, meanwhile, others remain full of promise. As already emphasized in this series, stallions that have shed their rookie glamor can offer real value to breeders of adequate nerve and imagination. If you're genuinely trying to get ahead of the curve, and not just cynically exploiting a vogue in which you have no real belief, the time to double down is when everyone else is getting out. If you stick with a horse “on the bubble”, and he comes good off his sliding fee, then you'll find yourself going to market with a commodity that's both in demand and in short supply. PROXY only started last year yet has already been slashed from $25,000 to $15,000, after covering 125 mares in his debut book. His sturdy resume (banked $2.75 million) and elite parentage make for a very wholesome package and, without a single foal on the ground, the case in his favor is 100 percent unchanged. The most striking of this year's breeding stats was arguably the book of 200 corralled by PAPPACAP as the most precocious member of Gun Runner's debut crop. That's a remarkable effort by Walmac after he'd been out of sight and mind for a year, and he remains $12,500. But among those about to head to the bar and celebrate their first-born, the one that excites me is ANNAPOLIS at $12,500. This beautiful animal combines a top-class grass record (stakes record in the GI Coolmore Turf Mile) with a family strewn with elite dirt performers. He was priced to recruit mares in a hurry, having only entered stud at the 11th hour, and was duly fully subscribed at 149 mares. Though the pressure is not the same this time round, the price is–and that's a real windfall for astute breeders. Corniche -05-10-2023-SA6_0696-_PRINT_Sarah-Andrew-1024x745.jpg" alt="" width="619" height="451" /> Corniche | Sarah Andrew Of five in the preceding cycle, only one would have fit this bracket when starting out in 2023. The others have all taken a cut to keep them in the game, though some coped better than others in making their sales debut. Champion juvenile CORNICHE has now been halved from his opening fee to $15,000 despite an excellent six-figure average for 17 weanlings sold of 21 offered. That reflects a smaller second book (77 mares from 180) but he sets an auspicious template for the kind of progress sought by pinhookers (RNA $385,000 yearling to $1.5 million 2-year-old). EARLY VOTING has also been halved in fee (to $12,500) and book (191 to 77), but processed 16 of 24 weanlings at a perfectly respectable $73,531. Though another confined to a light career, arguably he has an inspiring pedigree for this kind of money as a son of Gun Runner out of a half-sister to Speightstown. MANDALOUN performed very similarly with his weanlings, shifting 19 of 22 at $71,131. His farm allowed him as many as 211 mares for his debut, and 144 returned last spring. That's a pretty strong position for a horse now $15,000 from an opening $25,000, never mind for a GI Kentucky Derby winner from a Juddmonte family meanwhile elevated by an Arc for Bluestocking (GB) (Camelot {GB}). As a splendid exception, WinStar have given early supporters of the clock-melting NASHVILLE reassurance that their investment has not depreciated, keeping him at his opening $15,000. Quite right, too: he has a robust pipeline in place, a bumper debut book of 204 followed by one of 164, and 20 of 27 weanlings traded at $67,525. A couple of the preceding intake, KNICKS GO and SILVER STATE, slip into this bracket after no more than a steady start at the yearling sales. But they will have plenty of troops on the ground next year (their juveniles graduate from opening books of 151 and 171 respectively) so retain every chance of landing running. That's exactly what VOLATILE has done. Certainly a solitary stakes scorer doesn't tell the whole story of his freshman campaign. With 25 winners overall, his half-dozen black-type performers (same as McKinzie) included the GI Champagne Stakes runner-up and GI Hopeful Stakes third. That vindicated a pretty spectacular sales debut for Volatile, 88 of his first crop having sold at an average $125,431. Typically of the commercial market, his second crop took a slide to $53,890, but he received another 163 mares last spring and it feels like he has given himself a big chance. In contrast to all these younger guns seeking renewed momentum, this tier also embraces several more established operators–a couple will be found on the podium–whose blue-collar attributes will soon prove far beyond most of the rookies standing at much higher fees. True, KANTHAROS had a quieter year by his standards but, include his overall body of work (including a couple of Grade I winners), he remains a great credit to a horse that started out covering cheap mares in Florida. In fact, he's a top 20 active sire on lifetime earnings, yet he's down to $12,500 for 2025. While DIALED IN also saw quite tepid trade at the yearling sales, he remains in due demand–another strong three-figure book in 2024–as a horse eligible to match any quality he receives among the quantity. He has three Grade I winners plus one who earned more than the three of them combined in Gunnevera. Kantharos | Sarah Andrew KARAKONTIE has long represented value as a consistent supplier of stakes action. His turf profile may never match the standard commercial agenda in Kentucky but dual Grade I winner She Feels Pretty has this year reminded everyone of the racetrack class he can impart at just $15,000. With those regal genes in mind, he should perhaps hold particular appeal for a breed-to-race program that wouldn't mind retaining a filly. FROSTED has not lived up to early expectations but he had gone too low at $10,000 and his dignity is soothed at $15,000 after three graded stakes winners this year. His new accessibility has been rewarded with over 300 mares over the past two years and that will only help bed down his repackaging for smaller commercial breeders. Those meanwhile entitled to build on a solid start with first sophomores include FLAMEAWAY, who welcomed 172 mares last spring at $15,000. Seven domestic stakes winners to date are supplemented by a bright impact in Chile, evoking his sire Scat Daddy, albeit his latest yearlings found trade pretty tough. Vino Rosso and Maximus Mischief also endured the market erosion routinely suffered by young sires after jumping through the early commercial hoops, now duly down to $12,500 and $15,000 respectively. Both had contributed to Spendthrift's domination of the 2023 freshman race before being left behind by their pricier neighbor Omaha Beach in the second-crop table, albeit MAXIMUS MISCHIEF counts hot-off-the-press Grade I scorer Raging Torrent features among eight stakes winners this year. Again like Flameaway, both maintained auspicious mare traffic last spring: 190 for Vino Rosso, 169 for Maximus Mischief. While VINO ROSSO still needs to find a graded stakes winner, he has actually had four Grade I performers and always seemed likely to consolidate with maturing stock. VALUE PODIUM Bronze: CAIRO PRINCE Pioneerof The Nile–Holy Bubette (Holy Bull) Airdrie $15,000 Much like the guy on the top of this podium, this horse goes quietly about his work at a level that you already know will prove way beyond the majority of new stallions charging multiples of his fee. Cairo Prince turned out another dozen stakes winners this year. Overall he gets those at essentially the same lifetime clip as Nyquist, Practical Joke, Maclean's Music and Violence, to name four random examples. Sure enough, his latest yearlings once again averaged over $50,000, including home runs of $385,000 and $350,000. Pretty good going for a horse at this stage of his career, and that commercial functionality is what elevates him to the podium above a couple of others whose status as “proven” is additionally underwritten by the occasional Grade I winner. Value means different things to different people, but the fact is that this horse is doing a more reliable job at looking after breeders who need to put bread on the table. Remember, too, that his page has gone up in the world: Cairo Prince's Grade I-placed half-sister, already dam of Outwork, is now further distinguished as second dam of Fierceness. Silver: THOUSAND WORDS Pioneerof The Nile—Pomeroys Pistol (Pomeroy) Spendthrift $12,500 Okay, so he had the Spendthrift machine behind him, with 110 named foals in his debut crop. But they were conceived at just $7,500; he has meanwhile been standing at $5,000; and both yearling crops wobbled along at an average of around $28,000. Yet what does the market know? Here's Vodka With a Twist, a $2,500 yearling, winning the Debutante Stakes on her way to consecutive runner-up finishes at Grade I level. Here's The Queens M G, who cost a giddy $3,500, romping by nine in the GIII Adirondack Stakes. Thousand Words | Autry Graham Time to go back and remind ourselves where all this is coming from. Physique? A seven-figure Book 1 yearling. Pedigree? Well, the damsire might have raised an eyebrow or two, but the mare proved well named as his highest achiever (triple graded stakes winner/dual Grade I runner-up). And she has also produced the dam of GI Starlet Stakes winner Faiza (Girvin). And performance? Well, that's where his profile had ebbed away: though an unbeaten Grade II winner at two, Thousand Words had gradually drifted down the crop. Though a book of just 61 in 2023 will flatten his curve, he has seized his fleeting opportunity and will surely now be getting a widespread second hearing. Gold: MIDSHIPMAN Unbridled's Song—Fleet Lady (Avenue of Flags) Darley $15,000 What a stalwart this horse has been for breeders on a budget! He has admittedly had a couple of modest years by his remarkable standards, a typical outcome after his fee, just $7,500 in 2021, reached $20,000 in 2023. In theory that might indicate a slight upgrade in his next crop of yearlings, but the most observable outcome was a smaller book. His numbers have rallied at $15,000, and that's incontestably value against lifetime ratios that remain way ahead of what could be expected after so many years at four figures. Much higher fees tend to be paid, for instance, to match Midshipman's 16 percent black-type performers to named foals. But what clinches his place on the podium is the way he reconciles the mysterious consensus that a horse bred to run is somehow not the same as a horse bred to sell: Midshipman's latest yearlings, conceived at $10,000, hit an average of $56,388. Here's a horse that has looked after a lot of ordinary folk over the years. So many years, in fact, that it's worth reminding ourselves how it all makes sense: this was a champion juvenile with a stallion's pedigree, which is supposed to be the grail. All he needs now is to crack that Grade I winner: no stallion deserves one more. The post Kentucky Value Sires For 2025–Part 4: Into The Teens appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
It may be the season to be jolly, but it's also a time of reflection, and there are many ways one can look back on a first-season sires' championship in Britain and Ireland that was ultimately dominated from start to finish by Whitsbury Manor Stud's Sergei Prokofiev. The cool thing to say about this year's championship was that none of the new stallions seemed to be standing out from the crowd like Blue Point (Ire) and Havana Grey (GB) had done in previous years. That may well be true, but Sergei Prokofiev is deserving of a bit more credit for how his debut batch of runners performed this year as 23 individual winners and a total of 29 wins in Britain and Ireland left him well clear on numbers of his nearest pursuer, Mohaather (GB), who performed creditably with 19 winners and 24 wins respectively. However, what some people seem to have missed with Sergei Prokofiev is that, not only did he win the first-season sires' championship, but his tally of two-year-old winners and wins compared favourably with some of the best stallions in the business. In fact, Sergei Prokofiev ended the season in the top 10 most successful sire of two-year-old winners in Britain and Ireland, with his 23 individual winners comparing favourably with the likes of Starspangledbanner (Aus), No Nay Never and even Kingman (GB). It must be said that there is a huge disparity of quality winners there, but still, it doesn't take from the fact Sergei Prokofiev has surpassed expectations to be mentioned in the same breath of such vaunted stallions on that one metric alone. Sergei Prokofiev's sole Group winner came in the G3 Marble Hill Stakes at the Curragh when the Adrian Murray-trained Arizona Blaze (GB) – who had become his first winner on the opening day of the Irish turf season – carried the colours of Amo Racing to a hard-fought victory over subsequent Group 1 scorer Camille Pissarro (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). Arizona Blaze very nearly clinched a Group 1 triumph of his own when flying home for second behind Magnum Force (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar. He remains a classy colt with a view towards next year. It will be interesting to see how his first crop of runners progress next year on the whole because, if there is a question mark hovering over Sergei Prokofiev, it is going to be how his horses train on. A high-class juvenile himself when trained by Aidan O'Brien, the son of Scat Daddy managed to win at Listed level as a three-year-old but never really fulfilled his potential beyond his juvenile campaign. But it must be noted that Sergei Prokofiev is throwing fine, big horses who look as though they will progress and the fact that buyers like Amo Racing, Ralph Beckett and Anthony Stroud supported him at the yearling sales this year can only be viewed as a positive going forward. Sands Of Mali (Fr), who on top of having 16 winners and 23 wins, enjoyed Royal Ascot success with the Kevin Ryan-trained Windsor Castle Stakes hero Ain't Nobody (Ire). The Ballyhane Stud stallion finished second overall by prize-money, trailing Sergei Prokofiev by just €70,000 and finishing some €100,000 clear of Darley's Pinatubo (Ire) in third. Winner of the G2 Gimcrack Stakes himself at two, Sands Of Mali developed into a top-class sprinter, winning the G1 British Champions Sprint Stakes as a three-year-old. Along with Ain't Nobody, he was responsible for the 105-rated Time For Sandals (Ire), who was beaten just a neck into second in the G2 Lowther Stakes at York for Harry Eustace. Like Sergei Prokofiev, Sands Of Mali confirmed himself well capable of getting highly-rated soldiers on the ground who achieved good ratings–nine were rated 80 or above. The emphasis is definitely on speed with his progeny as the majority of those wins were achieved between five and six furlongs. There's no doubt that Sands Of Mali has done enough in his debut season to suggest that he has a place at stud in Britain and Ireland for years to come. However, the fact that he had just 50 registered yearlings and only 24 foals on the ground will make things difficult in the short-term at least for him to kick on from what was an excellent debut year. Mohaather | Shadwell Mohaather Makes Strong Start It didn't seem to be happening for Mohaather up to the midpoint of the season but the way his progeny roared home in the second half of the season saw him surge up the table and, at one point, it looked as though he may even knock Sergei Prokofiev off his perch. In the end, Mohaather trailed the first-season sire champion by just four individual winners and five wins overall. His strong debut season was headed by the success of G3 Molecomb Stakes winner Big Mojo (Ire) and a strong case can be made for the progeny of Mohaather doing even better beyond their juvenile years given he developed into a high-class miler later in life and recorded his career-high G1 Sussex Stakes success as a four-year-old. Kameko A Class Act Although Kameko couldn't rival the tally of winners amassed by Sergei Prokofiev and co, he certainly came up trumps in the quality stakes and ended the year as the only freshman sire to come up with a winner at the highest level with Qatar Racing's New Century taking the Grade I Summer Stakes at Woodbine for trainer Andrew Balding. That achievement didn't go unnoticed, either, with Godolphin going to 1 million gns to secure the brother of New Century during Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale at Tattersalls. That proved to be the sale-topping result of what proved to be memorable trade. Talk about two major feathers in the cap for the young stallion. In terms of the figures, 12 individual winners and 17 wins from 46 runners all told in Britain and Ireland makes for hugely respectable reading for a sire whose progeny should progress with time and racing. Along with New Century, Kameko has a genuine Derby contender in the shape of the G2 Royal Lodge Stakes winner and the 114-rated Wimbledon Hawkeye (GB), while Rajeko (Ire) also secured a triple-figure rating of 100 for the stallion this season. Good Vibes On Ghaiyyath Big things were expected from Darley's Pinatubo, Earthlight (Ire) and Ghaiyyath (Ire) and, strangely, while the latter didn't get as many winners on the board, he shaped the best of the trio in many people's eyes. Predictably, Ghaiyyath's juveniles came to the fore late in the season, with Mandanaba (Fr) delivering a breakthrough TDN Rising Star success at Chantilly in November. Six individual winners and wins from just 30 runners in Britain and Ireland was spearheaded by the 111-rated and G3 Autumn Stakes runner-up Stanhope Gardens (Ire). Ghaiyyath's second-crop yearlings have sold for up to 500,000gns and, perhaps most interestingly, a number of leading pinhookers stretched to secure foals by the stallion this year. The bookmakers chalked up Pinatubo as the ante-post favourite to scoop first-season sire honours at odds of 6-4 and few would have disagreed with such an appraisal. A tally of 18 individual winners and 23 wins in Britain and Ireland leaves him just one shy of Mohaather on both metrics from 16 fewer runners. There's no denying that more may well have been expected this year from Pinatubo, who was such a brilliant juvenile himself, with his two Group 1 wins featuring among an unbeaten two-year-old campaign that spanned six races. Nonetheless, he still finished third in the table on prize-money and also in the European table (behind Sergei Prokofiev and Hello Youmzain) with his 22 individual winners and 30 overall wins just five and four short of the figures posted by the first-season sire champion in each category respectively. It may be the case that his runners are taking more time than many expected. Meanwhile, another son of Shamardal, Earthlight, enjoyed 14 individual winners and 15 wins in Britain and Ireland with the 103-rated Mr Lightside (Ire), who finished third behind Big Mojo in the Molecomb, the highest-rated of that bunch. The best from Earthlight was undoubtedly on show in France, where his daughter Daylight (Fr) scored in Group 3 company before finishing third behind Whistlejacket (Ire) in the Prix Morny followed by a fine second to Lake Victoria (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) in the G1 Cheveley Park. Electrolyte: a high-profile horse for Hello Youmzain this year | Scoop Dyga Hello Youmzain Here To Stay Speaking of France, it is hard not to be taken by the achievements of Haras d'Etreham resident Hello Youmzain (Fr). A quick scan of the leading first-crop sires' table in that country will see that his tally of 13 individual winners saw him hold off Wooded (Ire) by a single winner but the €200,245 difference in prize-money between the pair highlights where those wins were achieved. Hello Youmzain managed to account for eight winners and nine wins in Britain and Ireland but, far more impressive than that was the fact he enjoyed two Group winners–Electrolyte (Ire) and Misunderstood (Fr)–in his debut season. His prowess has already been felt in the southern hemisphere, where Remala produced an impressive first winner in New Zealand for a sire who appears to be the real deal. Best Of The Rest Honourable mention must go to Without Parole (GB), who came up with two black-type horses–Fiery Lucy (GB) and Sea To Sky (Ire)–in his first crop while King Of Change (GB) did similarly well from a small crop to produce a Listed winner in Lady With The Lamp (Ire). The post Sergei Prokofiev Tops First-Crop Sires – But Others Make A Mark appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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