The top ten active Australian sires ranked by their percentage of stakes winners has a familiar look to it. But in a few years’ time, it’s bound to change profoundly as some of the older guard take their leave from the stage.
Our list features stallions that covered mares in 2019, but already Not A Single Doubt has gone, while Fastnet Rock, Exceed And Excel, Lonhro and More Than Ready (USA) are in the glorious twilight of their excellent careers. Now would be a good time to make use of them before they’re gone for good. And their age should not deter anyone – just look at the season Exceed And Excel is having. Perhaps his best ever.
| Snitzel | Redoute's Choice | 11 | 971 | 97 | 10.0 |
| Exceed And Excel | Danehill | 13 | 1,023 | 94 | 9.2 |
| Fastnet Rock | Danehill | 12 | 1,320 | 117 | 8.9 |
| I Am Invincible | Invincible Spirit | 7 | 620 | 50 | 8.1 |
| Not A Single Doubt | Redoute's Choice | 12 | 893 | 69 | 7.7 |
| Lonhro | Octagonal | 13 | 1,033 | 77 | 7.5 |
| Pierro | Lonhro | 4 | 290 | 21 | 7.2 |
| More Than Ready | Southern Halo | 16 | 1,228 | 88 | 7.2 |
| Dundeel | High Chaparral | 3 | 126 | 9 | 7.1 |
| Zoustar | Northern Meteor | 3 | 188 | 13 | 6.9 |
Snitzel was born in 2002, but his rise to super stardom (Australia's Champion Sire of 2017, 2018 and 2019) is relatively recent after hiding in the shadow of his outstanding sire Redoute’s Choice for many years.
But it is he that owns the most impressive stats among all Australian sires. He’s the only current active sire that can boast a stakes winner-to-runner percentage of 10% or more.
Snitzel boasts a stakes winner-to-runner percentage of 10% or more
What makes this effort all the more commendable is the fact that early in his career he was not blessed with the quality of mare he’s now got access to. Now that he’s the first choice of many breeders, we can reasonably expect him to move beyond the 10% benchmark.
Breeders' first choice
And here’s why. Like many Australian sires, reputations have to be earned and Snitzel has been gradually winning breeders over for a number of years.
His percentage of stakes winners to runners has risen every year he’s had runners and we also know that he’s even more effective with elite mares (i.e. those in the top 15% of the population). He’s currently siring 13% stakes winners from elite mares, so he’s been given every chance to match or indeed to surpass his sire’s excellent career score of 12% stakes winners to runners.
"Snitzel's percentage of stakes winners to runners has risen every year he’s had runners." - John Boyce
Exceed And Excel is having a bumper season and currently has three of the top ten 3-year-olds in the land according to Timeform.
They are Exceedance (125), Bivouac (124) and Standout (119), and that does not even include his Group 1-winning juvenile of last year Microphone, who proved his wellbeing with a recent Group 2 victory. And this all on top of his worldwide reputation as the world’s leading source of juvenile talent since his first crop arrived on the scene 13 years ago.
Gallery: Exceed And Excel is having a bumper season with a series of talented performers.
His fellow Danehill (USA) son Fastnet Rock is the most prolific of the group siring 117 stakes winners so far, while the two great dark brown horses, Lonhro (7.5% stakes winners) and More Than Ready (7.2%), are still among the most effective sires in Australia.
The next generation
But the focus is inevitably shifting to the younger generation, with I Am Invincible leading the way. His 50 stakes winners have come at a faster rate than Snitzel’s first 50. In fact, only Danehill, Redoute’s Choice and Fastnet Rock had a higher number after their first six seasons.
It’s an impressive performance given that I Am Invincible really did start at the bottom, covering only 62 elite mares in his first four seasons. In his fifth year he got another 62 and has averaged 112 in the five seasons since then.
"It’s an impressive performance given that I Am Invincible really did start at the bottom, covering only 62 elite mares in his first four seasons." - I Am Invincible
His poorer early mares produced stakes winners at a rate of just 4.4%, yet the Yarraman Park sire is currently just about doubling that score with 8.1% stakes winners. Given the quality of his recent books that mark should rise exponentially.
A high pass mark is also true of Pierro, who benefitted from strong patronage – 126 elite mares in his first book – from the outset of his career. That said Pierro’s current score (7.2% stakes winners) is still quite good given that many of the mares that produced such high expectations would have already seen their best days as producers.
Pierro | Standing at Coolmore Stud
That Pierro is an effective sire is supported by the fact that he gets 13.5% stakes winners from his elite mares compared to the 11.4% by other sires.
"Only Danehill (7) and Redoute’s Choice (5) have ever sired more Group 1 winners in their first three seasons than Dundeel." - John Boyce
Two other young guns on the rise are third season sires Dundeel (NZ) and Zoustar. Dundeel’s tally of nine stakes winners may lag behind Zoustar’s 13, but his four Group 1 winners is an impressive number for such a young sire. To put it in perspective, only Danehill (7) and Redoute’s Choice (5) have ever sired more in their first three seasons. And Dundeel’s third season is not yet over.
