Top Sires F2008-F2011

The market has its own way of measuring the best sires–stud fee. But the stud fee is a result of different components, one of which is fashion, so one of the jobs of analysts is to assess and interpret other measurements of sire success. Today we are looking at three different cumulative statistics for four groups of North American and European sires, those with first foals 2008-2011: cumulative progeny earnings; percentage of Black-Type Winners from named foals of racing age; and percentage of Graded/Group SW. One caveat we have to add is that 'named foals of racing age' includes 2-year-olds of 2016, obviously none of which have started, so the percentage figures will be lower, especially for younger sires (for which 2-year-olds are a higher percentage of their total foals) than they will eventually end up.

The two 'sire crops' immediately before the groups we're studying–F2006 and F2007–each include four major sires, against whose percentages we can compare the crops under review. The four F2006 sires, all North American and with their percentages of Black-Type Winners (BTW) and Graded/Group SW (GSW) in parentheses, are: two-time Leading North American Sire Tapit (7.83%/4.78%); Speightstown (9.59%/4.05%); Medaglia D'Oro (7.44%/3.72%); and Candy Ride (5.39%/2.48%). Progeny earnings aren't as relevant when comparing different sire crops, of course, but it is interesting to see that Tapit's cumulative worldwide progeny earnings (click here) are now over $89.4-million, of which about $39-million have come since the beginning of 2014. Speightstown's cumulative worldwide progeny earnings now total $66.4-million; Medaglia D'Oro $66.1-million; and Candy Ride $53.9-million.

The distinction between worldwide progeny earnings and those garnered in North America and Europe only is most relevant with European sires, and especially, in some cases anyway, with Darley sires. Among F2007 sires, Dubawi has garnered $80.7-million in worldwide earnings, though over $44-million of that has been earned outside North America/Europe, mostly of course in Hong Kong and Japan. Shamardal's runners have earned $62.0-million, of which $32-million comes from outside NA/EU. TDN tallies all worldwide black type (but remember, all this is from Northern Hemisphere-sired crops only); by those standards, Dubawi now has 10.17% BTW/foals and a massive 6.69% GSW/foals (by comparison, Galileo has 11.04% BTW and 7.11% GSW, though a much a higher proportion is from North America and Europe); Shamardal has recorded exactly 8.00% BTW and 4.41% GSW/foals. The two leading North American sires are Kitten's Joy ($52.9-million, 7.17%/2.66%) and Ghostzapper ($41.7-million, 8.33%/4.26%).

Some sire crops include complete standouts, while in others there is a wider distribution of the prizes. The strategy of dividing the entire population of sires into groups by the year they went to stud, or had their first foals, enables us to compare a smaller group of sires with, in one regard, similar opportunity. Among the group of NA/EU sires which retired in 2007 and had their
first foals in 2008, two North American sires are complete standouts: War Front (9.23%/4.85%), who has sired the earners of $33.7-million; and Bernardini, with higher earnings (just short of $40-million), no doubt due to War Front having a higher proportion of earnings in Europe, and 4.65% BTW/3.66% GSW. Holy Roman Emperor actually has higher worldwide earnings ($40.5-million), though over $21-million of that has come outside NA/EU, no doubt mostly in Hong Kong. But the really telling statistic is number of Grade I/Group 1 winners: War Front and Bernardini have 10 each from six crops of 3-year-olds and up; Holy Roman Emperor (4) and First Samurai (3) rank next among F2008 sires. In terms of stud fee, War Front of course stands for $200,000 this year, Bernardini for $100,000. (Click here for an alphabetical list of F2008 sires with 200+ foals.)

The F2009 sire crop includes as many as seven sires competing for the top spots. Recall that in 2006 and especially 2007 Darley spent an estimated $200-million in stallion prospects (it was in 2006 that Darley let it be known they would no longer be patronizing Coolmore sires). Of the seven F2009 leaders, four stand in North America, three in Europe; three of the seven are Darley sires from their 2007 intake. Ranked by percentage of GSW, Scat Daddy's massive 2015 raised him to the top of the list, with 3.56% GSW (of 7.31% BTW). Also at 2.50%+ GSW/foals are: Teofilo (6.88%/3.13%); top German sire Soldier Hollow (7.28%/2.91%, from crops averaging under 35 foals); Street Sense (6.95%/2.78%); Dark Angel (5.12%/2.77%); Hard Spun (5.51%/2.75%); and English Channel (5.41%/2.57%). In terms of worldwide progeny earnings, three Darley sires are among the five with earnings over $20-million: Darley Kentucky sires Hard Spun ($34.3-million) and Street Sense ($31.1m), and Darley Kildangan's Teofilo ($21.3-million). Scat Daddy has worldwide progeny earnings (only Northern Hemisphere-sired crops) of $28.8-million; English Channel has $21.5-million in earnings. (Alphabetical list)

Sires with their first foals in 201 had four crops racing in 2015, meaning their oldest foals were five. (We are now displaying fourth and fifth-crop sire lists on the site. Click here for fourth, and here for fifth.) Here in this article, we have displayed them ranked by percentage of BTW/foals as it often takes this long for sires' percentages of GSW to stabilize. In terms of BTW percentage, Into Mischief (6.04%/3.25%) and Curlin (5.91%/2.21%) top the list, though Curlin has nearly double the foals of Into Mischief. In terms of percentage of GSW, New Approach (2.76%), now-South African based Duke of Marmalade (2.62%), and Tamayuz (2.33%) still rank higher than Curlin, but in terms of progeny earnings (and stud fee), Curlin has more than $26.8-million, nearly double Midnight Lute's $14.4-million and Big Brown's $14.0-million in second and third. As a general observation, the F2010 and F2011 sire crops had the lowest number of new sires in recent memory, due to the world economic crash and resultant dive in foal numbers of nearly 40% in North America and much of Europe. (Alphabetical list.)

We have displayed F2011 sires, which had three crops racing and oldest 4-year-olds in 2015, by progeny earnings. Three sires have topped the $10-million mark (through racing of last weekend). Triple Crown winner American Pharoah retired with earnings of $8.65-million, which accounts for over half of his sire Pioneerof The Nile's table-topping $16.6-million in total worldwide progeny earnings. American Pharoah is actually Pioneerof The Nile's only Grade I winner, but his second and third crops were not all that big, and one thing we know for sure: he's sired the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years who topped it off by dominating the GI Breeders' Cup Classic; if he's done it once, he's sure to have more Grade I winners coming from his bigger crops of better mares. European sires Mastercraftsman ($13.0-million) and Sea The Stars ($10.1-million) come next on the money list. Sea The Stars (3.33%) and Mastercraftsman (3.20%) each has three Group 1 winners and lead this group so far by percentage of GSW/foals. (Alphabetical list.)