Blood Brother

[Wandering Eyes]

Fairyland (Ire) (Kodiac {GB})’s victory in the G1 Cheveley Park S. and Jash (Ire) (Kodiac {GB})’s second in the G1 Middle Park S. could quite easily be a watershed moment for their sire Kodiac, the younger three-parts brother of top-class sire Invincible Spirit (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}). These two excellent juveniles–plus six other group performers, including G2 Mill Reef S. winner Kessaar (Ire) and G3 Prix Eclipse hero Sporting Chance (GB)–are from his first crop produced from significantly better mares, his fee having risen from €10,000 in 2014 to €25,000 in 2015. And there are three sizeable further crops in the pipeline, all produced at a fee of €45,000.

Everyone knows that Kodiac is a good sire, but one that would perhaps only ever reach a certain level because of his comparatively limited mare quality. After all, his eight previous crops have only produced two Group 1 winners, including a previous Cheveley Park heroine in Tiggy Wiggy (Ire). The question now is: will we have a completely differed view of Kodiac in a few years’ time?

The son of Danehill has always been commercial with many of his sales yearlings providing an excellent return on a low covering fee. His stallion reputation has been built the hard way. For a start, it was very brave to retire a Group 3-placed 112-rated horse, even if his older brother had made a good start with his first 2-year-olds. Moreover, it has taken Kodiac nine years to attract good numbers of high-class mares. But now that he has, he’ll have to stand a higher degree of scrutiny. So far, Kodiac has sired 5.6% stakes winners to runners, compared to his brother’s 8.7%. Significantly, Kodiac’s rate of success is well in advance of what his mares achieved with other sires. It’s also noteworthy that when he gets a good mare, his percentage of stakes winners goes up to just shy of 10%. So it’s not unreasonable to expect a number closer to his brother’s 12.2% stakes winners from good mares from his future crops. In fact, when Invincible Spirit’s fee rose from €10,000 to €35,000 in year five, the resultant juveniles only included two group performers–Cheveley Park winner Hooray (GB) and Group 2 scorer Zebedee (GB)–so Kodiac has already gone well beyond that with his first crop produced at a significant fee.

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