A mark of excellence for the reverse-shuttle icon

8 min read
After 15 consecutive years making the journey north, Exceed And Excel, the standout among the reverse-shuttlers, now wears the dual-hemisphere sire crown. Aged 18, the son of Danehill remains at the height of his powers, still regularly coming up with good horses in both Australia and Europe, with his sons and daughters extending his legacy

It’s likely that Danehill (USA) (Danzig {USA}) will always be regarded as the king of the dual-hemisphere stallions.

Not only was he the first shuttler to establish himself as a top-class stallion in both hemispheres, but his record of nine General Sires’ Premierships in Australia and four in Great Britain and Ireland equates to a level of dual-hemisphere domination which is unlikely ever to be repeated.

Subsequent to Danehill, the splendid More Than Ready (USA) (Southern Halo {USA}) earned himself the right to be considered the dual-hemisphere king with a worldwide tally (so far) of 43 G1 victories comprising 18 wins above the equator and 25 below it.

After 18 consecutive years, More Than Ready is no longer shuttling and it is fair to say that Exceed And Excel, the standout among the reverse-shuttlers, now wears the dual-hemisphere crown.

Exceed And Excel

Aged 18, Exceed And Excel remains at the height of his powers, still regularly coming up with good horses in both Australia and Europe. McLaren, impressive winner on debut of Saturday’s G3 Canonbury S. at Rosehill, is looking as if he could be his next star.

Obviously there is a lot of water to flow under the bridge between now and Golden Slipper Day, but McLaren, who carries the China Horse Club silks and is raced by a partnership which also includes Newgate Farm and Winstar Farm, clearly should have a solid chance of following in the footsteps of Overreach (Exceed And Excel). She landed the G1 Golden Slipper S. in 2013 in the season which her sire ended as the nation’s Champion Sire.

A star sprinter

In retrospect, Exceed And Excel was born at just the right time. Trained at Rosehill by Tim Martin and racing in the colours of STC director Nick Moraitis, he was one of the best 2-year-olds in Sydney in the 2002/’03 season, winning on debut at Canterbury and finishing second in the G3 Black Opal S. down in Canberra before taking the G2 Todman S. at Rosehill en route to a midfield finish in the Golden Slippper.

As a 3-year-old he did even better, taking five Group races including the G1 Dubai Racing Club Cup against older rivals at Caulfield in September 2003 and the G1 Newmarket H. at Flemington in March 2004.

Exceed And Excel after winning the Dubai Racing Club Cup

Had he compiled such a record a few years earlier, his subsequent path would probably have been very different. But times were changing, and changing fast.

The reverse-shuttle route had previously been tried intermittently without generating much interest. However, in June 2003, Choisir (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) shocked the racing world by coming from Newcastle (NSW) to register his ground-breaking Royal Ascot sprinting double, giving the northern hemisphere a stunning wake-up call as to the merit of Australian sprinting form.

Furthermore, he proved popular when standing for €15,000 on the Coolmore roster at Castle Hyde Stud in Ireland in the spring of 2004. At this time when Darley was starting to launch a serious challenge to Coolmore’s position as Europe’s dominant stallion farm.

Following on from Coolmore’s recruitment of Choisir, the addition of a legitimate reverse-shuttler to the Darley roster seemed an obvious tactic. Exceed And Excel fitted the bill perfectly, not least because his sire Danehill was the reigning Champion Sire both of Australia and of Great Britain and Ireland at the time.

The reverse-shuttler

Exceed And Excel thus began his so-far-uninterrupted regime of shuttling between Darley’s Kelvinside Stud in New South Wales and the operation’s bases in the British Isles.

He is currently holding court at Kildangan Stud in Ireland at a fee of €50,000 in his fifteenth consecutive European season, with his itinerary now having comprised eight seasons at Dalham Hall and seven at Kildangan, the management at Darley having taken the sensible decision to switch him around between the two bases and thus making him easily available to breeders on both sides of the Irish Sea.

As has been the case with More Than Ready, the sheer volume of Exceed And Excel’s success has been remarkable. McLaren’s victory on Saturday made him the 154th stakes winner for his sire. If the Gerry Harvey-bred Magic Millions graduate can indeed progress to Group 1 glory, he would become the twelfth individual top-level scorer for his sire.

As has been the case with More Than Ready, the sheer volume of Exceed And Excel’s success has been remarkable.

The eleven who have already hit the bullseye include eight Aus-breds and three from the British Isles: Excelebration (Ire), Margot Did (Ire) and Outstrip (GB). These eleven horses have landed at total of 22 Group/Grade 1 triumphs between them, split between Australia (13), Hong Kong (3), England (2), France (2), the USA (1) and the UAE (1).

While the geographical scope of Exceed And Excel’s success has been extensive, the distance-range of these races has been limited: he has established himself as a specialist sire of short-distance gallopers, with none of his progeny’s top-level triumphs coming beyond a mile.

Excelebration

Second generation legacy

Unsurprisingly, Exceed And Excel, in common with so many other sons of Danehill, has already produced several very effective stallions.

Leading the charge at present is the 2011 G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Helmet, courtesy of the admirable 2018 G1 Dubai World Cup hero Thunder Snow (Ire); while Bungle Inthejungle (GB) was one of the most successful first-season sires in the British Isles in 2018.

There are several young unproven Exceed And Excel stallions at stud around the world of whom James Garfield (Ire) is perhaps the most exciting in light of his defeat of subsequent G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile S. hero Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}) in last year’s G3 Greenham S. at Newbury. James Garfield is currently standing his first season at Rathbarry Stud in Ireland at a fee of €7,000.

Helmet

It is possible that long-term Exceed And Excel will be regarded as being at least as influential through his daughters as his sons. He has sired some terrific fillies over the years, most notably the four-time Group 1 heroine Guelph as well as the aforementioned Golden Slipper victrix Overreach, and his daughters have already produced the winners of 38 Group races (a total which includes six Group 1s, won by five individual horses).

It is possible that long-term Exceed And Excel will be regarded as being at least as influential through his daughters as his sons.

Two races in particular have highlighted the fact that Exceed And Excel should be regarded as an influential sire beyond the first generation.

Firstly, the G1 Queen Of The Turf S. at Randwick last April produced a quinella for daughters of Exceed And Excel mares with Alizee (Sepoy) winning from Prompt Response (Beneteau). (The latter, incidentally, went on to land the G1 Tattersalls Tiara at Doomben two months later). Six months later came the G1 Middle Park S. at Newmarket, England’s most prestigious six-furlong juvenile race. This was won by the Aidan O’Brien-trained Ten Sovereigns (Ire) (No Nay Never {USA}) who is a son of the Exceed And Excel mare Seeking Solace (GB); while third place was taken by the Bungle Inthejungle colt Rumble Inthejungle (Ire).

Ten Sovereigns was not the only top juvenile in Aidan O’Brien’s stable last season produced by an Exceed And Excel mare. The champion trainer also won the G2 Futurity S. at the Curragh with Anthony Van Dyke (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) whose dam Believe’N’Succeed (Exceed And Excel) won the G2 Blue Diamond Prelude S. at Caulfield in 2008 before starting her breeding career in Australia by producing the Group 1-winning sprinter Bounding (Lonhro) and subsequently heading to Coolmore in Ireland after being bought by Tom Magnier for $1,100,000 at the Magic Millions Patinack Dispersal Sale at the Gold Coast in September 2014.

Believe’n’succeed certainly isn’t the only high-class Exceed And Excel filly to have gone on to become a very good broodmare. The outstanding Guelph has produced Encryption (Lonhro), winner last season of the G3 Black Opal S. in Canberra and this term of the G2 Danehill S. at Flemington. Margot Did (Ire), successful in the G1 Nunthorpe S. over five furlongs at weight-for-age at York in 2011, is responsible for last year’s G2 Prix de Sandringham winner Mission Impassible (Ire).

Alizee, from Exceed and Excel mare Essaouira

Furthermore, Essaouira (Exceed And Excel), who has produced the Group 1 winners Astern (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}) and Alizee and the Group 3 winner Mogador (Lonhro), as well as exciting 2-year-old Tassort (Brazen Beau), was not a stakes winner but was a very fast filly even so, scoring so well on debut at Moonee Valley in February 2009 that she went off the odds-on favourite in a listed race at Caulfield three weeks later.

It will be very interesting to see how McLaren fares in the big 2-year-old races in the coming weeks. Whether he does or does not rise to the very top, though, one thing is certain: Exceed And Excel is likely to consolidate further the very significant position which he already holds in the breeding scene on both sides of the equator.