Across the Market: Stallions with First Yearlings in 2018

Of the stallions with their first yearlings this season, and therefore with first-crop weanlings to sell at this year’s breeding stock sales, Vancouver (Medaglia d’Oro {USA}) was an unsurprising leader by average.

The 2015 G1 Golden Slipper winner is the co-highest priced of his sire crop–alongside Coolmore barnmate Pride of Dubai (Street Cry {Ire})–at $55,000, and he was the breakout sire of this group at the autumn sales. His 22 to sell averaged $115,865, and while he had a breakout filly at Magic Millions (daughter of Better Alternative bought by China Horse Club for $625,000), he had seven others sell for six figures, including three others over $150,000. He will make plenty of noise at the yearling sales next year.

The G1 Blue Diamond S. and G1 Sires’ Produce S. winner Pride of Dubai checked in a relatively distant second by average (18 sold, $78,841), with a high price of $210,000. In addition to his race record Pride of Dubai has loads going for him on pedigree; he is a high-class son of the great sire of sires Street Cry, and out of a half-sister to the dam of Invincible Spirit, all the rage courtesy of I Am Invincible.

If you were the average breeder using Vancouver or Pride of Dubai in 2016 and selling your foals at this year’s sales, you were making more money than those who used other sires. And rightly so. But the fact that keeps this game going round is that that realm is reserved for a select few, and the others are bound by necessity to find what value lies below the top of the table. There are plenty of opportunities with this group.

Darley’s G1 Golden Rose S. winner EXOSPHERE did well to average $61,595 (21 sold) off a $27,500 stud fee. Despite not being a Group 1 winner at two, Exosphere was in fact rated slightly above Pride of Dubai–and beneath only Vancouver–on 118+ by Timeform at two off a win in the G2 Skyline S., while at three he was the clear leader of his class on 127, three points clear of Japonisme. What’s more, he is down to $22,000 for 2018.

Also representing Darley in this sire crop is the G1 Doncaster Mile winner Kermadec (NZ), who looks to become the heir apparent to his sire Teofilo, who no longer shuttles.

Average over the stud fee

Average is one side of the equation, but when things get really interesting is when one looks at average as a multiple of the stud fee. Of course it’s also necessary to consider additional costs of rearing and sales preparation, but this gives us a clearer idea of which sires at the lower of the end nomination scale were most profitable to breeders. Note, the figures listed below are all Australian dollars, but fees listed for New Zealand-based stallions are in New Zealand dollars. So, the figures for New Zealand sires are actually slightly better than how they appear here.

The clear standout from that perspective is Coolmore’s Irish shuttler NO NAY NEVER (Scat Daddy). The Royal Ascot and French Group 1-winning 2-year-old had all 10 of his first foals offered this year sold at an average ($39,400) that was 3.6x his $11,000 stud fee and a median ($20,000) that was 1.8 times his fee.

The owners of the 108 mares that No Nay Never covered at that same $11,000 fee at Coolmore last year are likely jumping for joy, but that opportunity has vanished; he is up to $19,250 this year. While his value proposition has already shortened, given what the Scat Daddy line continues to do and seeing as how he has one final crop of juveniles coming through, that $19,250 is still likely to hold value.

Perhaps a surprise package high up on this list is RICH ENUFF, however Woodside Park Stud made a champion of his sire Written Tycoon and there's no reason they cannot do it again. Rich Enuff won three consecutive stakes races (including the G2 Danehill and G3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude) at three before finishing a quarter-length second to Shooting To Win in the G1 Caulfield Guineas.

He had 14 weanlings offered this year and 13 sold for an average of $34,923 (2.8x his $12,500 stud fee) and a median of $18,500 (1.5x his stuff fee), and he broke the six-figure threshold with a colt selling for $100,000 to Justin Casse at Magic Millions.

Getting ahead

Vinery’s G2 Silver Slipper winner HEADWATER (Exceed and Excel) had 24 sell for an average 2.5x his $16,500 fee ($41,250). Headwater also sits third among this group by top price, with James Bester having bought a colt for $170,000 on the Gold Coast.

Headwater’s Vinery barnmate Press Statement should draw plenty of attention too, being a Group 1-winning juvenile by the late Hinchinbrook who went on to be a Guineas winner at three, and his first crop sold for up to $110,000. Aquis’s three-time group winner by Snitzel, Spill The Beans, is down to $9,900 this year, but he fared well at the sales with his first crop off $11,000: 12 sold returned an average 2.4x his stud fee ($26,042).

Newgate’s super fast son of I Am Invincible, Super One, was the busiest of this sire crop at the sales, with 32 offered and 25 sold, and his averaged 1.9x his $11,000 stud fee, with a high of $100,000. With just one sold at the sales it is difficult to gain any further insight into Newgate’s Horse of the Year Criterion (NZ), but what hasn’t changed is that he is a consistently classy, four-time Group 1 winner by Sebring.

Value group

South Australia’s Cornerstone Stud has a promising pair in Valentia and Free Eagle, whose first foals averaged, respectively, 2.7x and 2x their fees. Valentia was a $1.35-million son of Fastnet Rock who raced for the Coolmore partners and won the G2 Skyline S. at two, while Free Eagle won the G1 Prince of Wales’s S. at Royal Ascot and is a son of High Chaparral, who is already making his mark as a sire of sires Down Under.

Arrowfield Stud has Scissor Kick, a son of its flagship sire (and sire of sires) Redoute’s Choice in this group. He stands for $16,500, and let’s not forget Not A Single Doubt from the same stud, who started out at $13,750 and is now up to $99,000. Scissor Kick was G1 placed at three, and he reverse shuttles to Haras d’Etreham in France. Arrowfield’s other shuttler in this group is the G1 Yasuda Kinen winner Real Impact (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who bested Horse of the Year Criterion in Australia’s G1 George Ryder S. in 2015.

Widden’s Outreach (Exceed and Excel) left much to the imagination on the racetrack, finishing second to Vancouver in the G3 Canonbury S. on his lone start, but the fact that he is a well-bred full-brother to Golden Slipper winner Overreach makes him worth a look at $7,700.

Mapperley Stud is home to two young stallions in Complacent (Authorized {IRE}), the G1 Spring Champion S., winner, and Contributer (IRE) (High Chaparral {IRE}), who won at the highest level in the G1 Chipping Norton S., and in the G1 Ranvet S. Another 2016 retiree with form at the elite level is Windsor Park Stud’s Mongolian Khan (Holy Roman Emperor {IRE}) following his winning deeds in the G1 New Zealand Derby and the Australian Derby. He trained on at four to add the G1 Caulfield Cup to his record.

WATCH: Contributer winning the Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes

And the Judges Say... [swipe left]