Oppenheim: Tapit Becomes Galileo

When we did our APEX review of Leading North American and European Sires of 2014 ABC Runners, Coolmore's superstar sire Galileo was out on his own, having sired a total of 60 ABC Runners in the seven countries we cover in 2014. A group of six other sires had ABC Runner numbers in the 40's: Giant's Causeway 47, Invincible Spirit 46, Tapit 45, Medaglia d'Oro and Speightstown 44 each, Kitten's Joy 43. Last year, however, Gainesway's two-time Leading North American Sire, Tapit, gave Galileo a real scare. Galileo was the sire of 61 individual ABC Runners (top 8% earners, a/k/a 'break-even or better' racehorses) in 2015, but Tapit was only a nose adrift, with 60 ABC Runners in 2015 – exactly one-third more than in 2014. Moreover, Galileo is the sire of 28 individual A Runners; Tapit has 26. One is grass and Europe, the other is dirt and North America. As dominant as Galileo has been in the sheer number of high-quality racehorses he has sired, Tapit, on his side of the Atlantic, is for the first time producing high-quality runners in such numbers that he really can be mentioned in the same breath (and breadth) as Galileo. That qualifies as another huge step forward for America's Number One Sire, Tapit.

Just to recap, A Runners are the top 2% of earners in one of seven countries, divided into five jurisdictions (US and Canada; Britain & Ireland; France; Germany; and Japan) and summarized in three Regions (North America, Europe, Japan) each year. ABC Runners are the top 8% of earners, and if you refer to page 14 of our January 14 column (click here) you can see the various earnings thresholds in each of the five jurisdictions for each of the last seven years. In North America in 2015, for example, A Runners earned $134,280 or more; B Runners (next 2%) earned $93,610 – $134,279; C Runners (next 4%) earned $63,420 – $93,609; so any ABC Runner in North America earned at least $63,420, for which reason we nickname them 'break-even-or-better' runners, meaning, if they are in your racing stable, they should at least not be losing you money.

After Galileo and Tapit, five other NA/EU stallions had 40 or more ABC Runners last year, three of which are Darley sires: Darley Jonabell's Medaglia d'Oro (47); Darley Kildangan's Shamardal (43); and Darley Dalham Hall's Dubawi (41). Lane's End's Candy Ride and Coolmore Ashford's Giant's Causeway are tied with 40 each, followed by Coolmore Ashford's Scat Daddy, who of course died just as his stud fee was about to nearly triple; and Ramsey Farm's Kitten's Joy, with 38 ABC Runners each in 2015. It just can't be a complete coincidence that, of the nine NA/EU sires which sired 38 or more ABC Runners last year, three are from the 2006 sire crop (Tapit, Medaglia d'Oro, Candy Ride), and three from the 2007 sire crop (Dubawi, Shamardal, Kitten's Joy).

Of the 58 NA-EU sires which sired 20 or more ABC Runners in 2015 (click here for an alphabetical list), 23 of them sired 10 or more individual A Runners last year. Galileo (28) and Tapit (26) were out in front here, as mentioned, and when we start talking about ascending the class ladder and acquiring legitimate (Listed or Graded/Group) black type, these are the sort of horses you want. Medaglia d'Oro (20) is third, followed by Shamardal, Dubawi, and Scat Daddy, with 17 each. Kitten's Joy had 14 individual A Runners last year, followed by Darley Jonabell's Street Sense; The Irish National Stud's Invincible Spirit; and Ireland's Morristown Stud's Dark Angel (right now maybe the most upwardly mobile sire on the planet, maybe him and Hill 'n' Dale's Curlin), with 12 A Runners in 2015 each. Curlin was in the next group, with 11, by the way, and had 31 ABC Runners, far outdistancing all other F2010 sires.

Let's look for a minute at the emerging sire crops. Among NA/EU sires with first Northern Hemisphere foals 2011 and first 4-year-olds in 2015, Gilltown's Sea The Stars is the leader with 24 ABC Runners last year, ahead of Tiz Wonderful, who was sold to stand in Korea; and I've thrown WinStar's Congrats in here for comparison, because after four crops in Florida, his first Kentucky crop was foaled in 2011. His Kentucky crops included 20 ABC Runners last year, so I thought that would be interesting for comparative purposes. Coolmore's Mastercraftsman had 19, their Fastnet Rock and WinStar's Pioneerof The Nile, sire of American Pharoah, had 17 each, followed by France's leading young sire, Haras de la Cauviniere's Le Havre, with 14. Fastnet Rock was the leading F2011 NA-EU sire, with 10, followed by Sea The Stars, Tiz Wonderful, and Mastercraftsman, with eight each.

Four sires broke away from the pack among F2012 NA-EU sires with their first 3-year-olds last year. Eskendereya, who was sold to Japan; Ballylinch's Lope De Vega; and Lane's End's Quality Road had 17 ABC Runners each, followed closely by Coolmore Ashford's Munnings, with 16. The Aga Khan's Haras de Bonneval's Siyouni (13) came next, followed by Coolmore Ashford's Lookin At Lucky (12). Lookin At Lucky was the leading NA-EU F2012 sire by 2015 A Runners, with six, followed by Eskendereya, Munnings, and Darley Jonabell's Midshipman, with five each.

Coolmore Ashford's Uncle Mo sired five A Runners and nine ABC Runners in his first crop last year to not surprisingly dominate NA-EU Freshman Sires of 2015 (these horses will not have APEX ratings until this summer). Lane's End's Twirling Candy ran second, as he did on the progeny earnings table, with seven, but no A Runners (nor Black-Type Winners) just yet; and Coolmore's Canford Cliffs had six ABC Runners. Coolmore's Zoffany, Europe's Leading Freshman Sire, had five, of which four were A Runners, placing him a strong second to Uncle Mo's five in that category. Ballylinch's Dream Ahead also had five first-crop ABC Runners in 2015.