Justify’s stirring, unsurrendering home-stretch tour de force in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes means a landmark moment in the post-mortem career of his sire. The loss of Scat Daddy at the end of 2015 remains unrelentingly painful as his progeny achieve increasingly great things on the track, and this week his quality as a stallion is double-underlined as he arrives in the top four in the global sires’ rankings.
The son of Johannesburg has been in the top ten for a while, but this is something special. Since the TRC Global Rankings were first published in October 2016, a place in that top four has been in the permanent possession of three great stallions - Galileo, Dubawi and Deep Impact - and just three others have impressed the algorithm enough with their results to join them at various points: Tapit, Frankel and Snitzel.
Justify’s second classic - aided and abetted by Sioux Nation’s G3 success at Naas the following day - mean an extra five ranking points for Scat Daddy, which lift him straight past Frankel and Snitzel and into fourth place.
He is the highest-ranked U.S.-based sire since Tapit dropped out of fourth spot at the end of August last year.
Indeed, he is now unquestionably the most successful U.S.-based stallion of the moment. Of course, if you base your stallion lists on prize money (as everybody else does), you’re not always getting a proper perspective. The current U.S. table is a case in point, with Candy Ride still ahead of second-placed Scat Daddy courtesy of Gun Runner’s $7 million Pegasus pay-day. Commendable though he is, Candy Ride is a more realistic 23rd in our standings.
With the Belmont Stakes just two weeks away and the Aidan O’Brien stable - packed with Scat Daddy talent - getting into full swing in Europe, the chances are that Scat Daddy will become not only a top-four fixture, but also that he’ll mount a major challenge to the three giants ahead of him.
The one who may have appeared the most vulnerable of late is current #3 Deep Impact, but that looks all about to change. Not only is he responsible for odds-on Epsom Derby favourite Saxon Warrior, he also has Danon Premium, who is a short price for Sunday’s $4 million Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), and the Pascal Bary-trained Study Of Man, one of the leading fancies for the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) at Chantilly a week on Sunday.
Many believe the unbeaten Danon Premium, who missed the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) with a slight hoof injury, to be potentially the best Japanese middle-distance runner since 2011 Triple Crown hero Orfevre.
And it is Orfevre, who has made an imposing start to his stallion career, who provides possibly the main opposition to the Deep Impact colt in Tokyo in the shape of Epoca d’Oro, the horse who won that Japanese 2000 Guineas.
Orfevre, in fact, is the leading second-season sire in the Northern Hemisphere* in the TRC Global Rankings, currently lying joint 82nd. His big second-season rival at this stage is fellow Shadai Farm resident Lord Kanaloa, who is just one point behind him (at joint #91) after his daughter, Almond Eye, won the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) at Tokyo on Sunday. That’s over a mile and a half, bearing witness to the versatility of her sire, who was renowned as a brilliantly fast sprinter. Almond Eye, out of a Sunday Silence mare, had already won the Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas).
*Australian second-season sire Pierro is world #31, but comparisons are unfair as the Southern Hemisphere season is almost over.
Sea The Stars advances
It was a quiet week by their sky-high standards for world #1 Galileo (Rhododendron took the G1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury) and #2 Dubawi (Coronet won a G2 at York), but Sea The Stars gains six points and moves from #19 to #16, thanks to Stradivarius winning the G2 Yorkshire Cup and the G3 strike by Crystal Ocean at Newbury.
Uncle Mo moves up five places to #43 after a G3 distaff double (Ultra Brat at Pimlico and Miss Mo Mentum at Woodbine). Uncle Mo is a former world #8, achieved in the rankings of April 23, 2017.
Click here for a list of all last week’s biggest TRC Global Rankings points gainers.
Click here for a list of all the week’s Group and Graded winners.