Exceed And Excel lauded after joining illustrious company

At 22 years of age, Darley’s star sire Exceed And Excel continues to add to his already phenomenal CV.

The double-century was reached when the Godolphin-owned 4-year-old Natural Colour (GB) won the Listed Luther Burbank H. in Santa Rosa, California.

Exceed And Excel joins an extraordinary quintet, some of the all-time great stallions in Danehill (USA), Galileo (Ire), Sadler’s Wells (USA), Dubawi (Ire) and More Than Ready (USA).

One man that knows Exceed And Excel very well is Alastair Pulford - Darley Australia’s Head of Stallions – who has been with the great son of Danehill ever since he commenced stud duties in 2004.

“He’s been a wonderful stallion for us and a wonderful stallion for Australia, and the rest of the world, to be honest,” Pulford told TDN AusNZ.

“He’s been a terrific horse to deal with all of his career, he’s the ultimate professional. He looks fantastic… he turned 22 a few days ago, but he looks magnificent. He’s in terrific condition and certainly not showing his age.

“The horse is amazing, he really is. To be the first Australian-bred horse stallion to reach 200 stakes winners is quite something, it’s really special.”

Pulford believes one of Exceed And Excel’s greatest achievements is being the only stallion to sire winners of the Golden Slipper S., Coolmore Stud S., Newmarket H., ATC Sires’ Produce S., Blue Diamond S., Darley Sprint Classic, Caulfield Guineas, Golden Rose, Thousand Guineas, Flight S. and William Reid S.

“What is particularly noteworthy is that his progeny have won most of the big Group 1 races in Australia… the feature 2-year-old races, stallion-making races, top mares’ races, open sprints, etc.,” Pulford told TDN AusNZ.

“They’re the races that everyone wants to win, they’re proper Group 1s and that’s why everyone loves him.

“It’s not just a mass of numbers, it’s the quality of his Group 1s that signifies how good he is.”

Exceed And Excel has sired 16 individual Group 1 winners (many of them have multiple elite-level victories) and 99 Group winners. Remarkably, Exceed And Excel has sired 1683 individual winners (prior to Monday’s races) across the globe - surpassing his legendary father - for total prizemoney topping $241 million.

Table: Exceed And Excel's Group 1 winners

A global impact

Like the marvellous quintet he has now joined, Exceed And Excel has had great success as a shuttle stallion. He commenced shuttling to Europe in 2005 and his final trip to one of Darley’s European bases was 2019. During that time, the dual-hemisphere super sire has become arguably Australia’s greatest shuttler.

His progeny have won Group 1s in Australia, Hong Kong, France, England, Ireland, the USA and South Africa.

Exceed And Excel has made a great impression on Hong Kong racing, being their Champion Sire on three occasions. He sired some of the jurisdiction’s outstanding sprinters, including triple Group 1 winner Mr Stunning, who amassed HK$60,843,100 (AU$11 million) prizemoney during his career.

“His influence has been worldwide, so it was somewhat fitting to bring up the 200 with a runner in California. He’s made a massive difference here (Australia) and in England, where he stood for a number of seasons,” Pulford said.

“He’s only one win away from 100 Group winners and you’d be confident that will happen anytime soon, really.”

Exceed And Excel currently has the highest winners-to-runners strike rate (58.76 per cent) of any of the top 20 stallions standing at stud in Australia, and worldwide, that figure jumps to an astounding 71.13 per cent.

A brilliant broodmare sire

Exceed And Excel also continues to make his mark as a broodmare sire. In 2020/21, he finished seventh on the Leading Australia Broodmare Sires' table with $12,061,270 in earnings and five stakes winners combining for eight stakes wins. He again finished seventh in the season just completed, this time with prizemoney of $14,557,305 and 16 stakes winners totalling 17 stakes wins.

Elite Street (Street Boss {USA}) has won six black-type races, including the G1 Winterbottom S., while Paris Dior (Pierro) was triumphant in this year’s G2 Percy Sykes S.

Exceed And Excel is also the broodmare sire of the ill-fated Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who won the 2019 G1 Epsom Derby, as well as the European Champion 3-Year-Old Sprinter of 2019, two-time Group 1 hero Ten Sovereigns (Ire).

“He’s produced an English Derby winner, apart from anything else, so he’s an elite broodmare sire already. He’s 22 years old, so he’s not young, but that’s reasonably young in his broodmare sire career and he’s made a big impact already,” Pulford remarked.

Plenty to look forward to

Exceed And Excel will again headline Darley’s stallion roster at Kelvinside in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales this season. He stands at a service fee of $132,000 (inc GST).

Pulford said he’s not sure how many mares Exceed And Excel will cover.

“He will probably tell us that (how many mares he covers). We certainly won’t overwork him; he will cover a limited book. We’ll just see how he goes, but it won’t be big numbers,” he said.

Exceed And Excel had another very strong sales season. His highest-priced yearling sold for $1.2 million at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. The colt, out of Devious Rumour (Street Boss {USA}), was offered by Fernrigg Farm and was purchased by James Harron Bloodstock.

His top-priced filly realised $625,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale. From the First Defence (USA) mare Nothin But A Dream (USA), she was part of the Edinburgh Park Stud draft and was knocked down to Tasman Bloodstock.

Exceed And Excel as a sireline will also be well-represented at stud this season. Both Bivouac and Microphone will stand at Darley Kelvinside (Bivouac for $66,000 inc GST, Microphone for $33,000 inc GST, and a further 16 sons in total including Exceedance and Headwater at Vinery Stud.