Click here for the update - the most expensive sires of 2022
Little has changed at the top of the world’s most expensive sires list over the past 12 months, with Galileo and Dubawi ensuring the power remains within Europe.
While there was an expectation that stallion fees would shift downward in response to the pandemic, the group listed below can be termed for the most part as recession-proof; the majority have been booked full at their advertised price before the close of the year.
One such horse is Into Mischief. In an illustration of the changing landscape of the Kentucky market, he reigns as North America’s most expensive sire, but at a fee of $225,000, a differing cry from the days of Tapit at $300,000. Still, such is Into Mischief’s relentless upward momentum that it doesn’t take too much imagination to envisage him breaking through the $300,000 barrier sooner rather than later.
1. GALILEO
98, Sadler’s Wells - Urban Sea (Miswaki)
Stands: Coolmore, Ireland. Fee: private
TRC Global Ranking: 1
The superlatives will never stop flowing for Galileo. There are the 12 championships, 89 G1 winners, 20 G1-producing sons, a record five Epsom Derby winners - Galileo is on top however you dice it and is likely to remain so as long as time allows.
In a year fraught with upheaval, Galileo can be forgiven for not securing his 12th British and Irish sires’ championship with the usual flamboyance. In all, his progeny came close to winning £5.3 million in prize money across Britain and Ireland and almost £6.4 million in Europe, a far cry from the staggering £16.145 million achieved in 2019.
Yet that British and Irish figure was over twice as much as that achieved by his closest pursuer, Dubawi, while a group of 27 European stakes winners far eclipsed any tally recorded by his rivals.
Then were the records that continued to fall.
In June, he became the most successful G1 sire of all time when his daughter Peaceful lifted the Irish 1000 Guineas. Appropriately, the landmark achievement came in the same race that had set the record-breaking run in motion through Nightime back in 2006.
Peaceful’s victory followed swift on the heels of Love’s bloodless win in the Newmarket equivalent and that filly duly went on to confirm her place at the head of the 3-year-old filly division with a pair of brilliant wins in the Epsom and Yorkshire Oaks.
The manner in which Love took apart the Epsom Classic over Ennistymon, also by Galileo, suggested that she would have taken all the beating had she lined up in the Derby later on the card. As it was, Galileo had that covered too, although in the guise of Ballydoyle’s 25/1 shot Serpentine rather than the more fancied stablemates Mogul and Russian Emperor.
Galileo’s record-breaking fifth Derby winner was met with an air of disbelief. Yet, although unfancied, here was a horse whose willing ability to maintain a relentless gallop lended itself to the aggressive tactics that sealed victory; in essence, Serpentine is typical of what we have come to expect from Galileo.
As is the iron mare Magical, who was retired in December following a career that consisted of 28 starts - 21 in G1 company - and 12 wins. Three of those victories - the Irish Champion Stakes, Tattersalls Gold Cup and Pretty Polly Stakes - were recorded in 2020 to make this remarkable performer her sire’s leading performer of 2020.
Circus Maximus also added to Galileo’s G1 tally in 2020 by virtue of his win in the Queen Anne Stakes, while Mogul broke through in the Grand Prix de Paris and Longines Hong Kong Vase. Search For A Song also added a second Irish St Leger, and in America the ex-French filly Magic Attitude won the Belmont Oaks Invitational.
Galileo’s record as a successful sire of sires continues to grow. For Teofilo, it was an outstanding season that consisted of six G1 winners, led by the Melbourne Cup hero Twilight Payment. Australia broke through as the sire of St Leger winner Galileo Chrome while Frankel became the fastest stallion to hit 40 European Pattern winners and now boasts a top Japanese 2yo in Grenadier Guards. New Approach also looks to have a live Classic candidate in the Vertem Futurity winner Mac Swiney - in this year of Galileo records, he adds his name as the first ever G1 winner to be inbred to Galileo (the colt was bred by Jim Bolger, an early cog in the success of Galileo, out of the Teofilo mare Halla Na Saoire).
Not only that, Galileo landed his first European broodmare sires championship, overwhelming Pivotal with a haul of close to £6.9 million and a group of 25 stakes winners. It’s a heavyweight group that includes Arc hero Sottsass, who shares his dam Starlet’s Sister with the brilliant American racemare Sistercharlie.
He also once again carried all before him in the sale ring, notably at the Tattersalls October Sale, where an average of 732,750gns was buoyed by the presence of three million-guinea yearlings topped by the 3.4 million guineas sister to Mogul and Japan.
In 2021, Galileo will enter his 14th season as a ‘private’ stallion, with off the record reports suggesting that his fee hovers around the €600,000 mark. However, he has long primarily been the domain of Coolmore and its associates, with those bred outside the partnerships often the result of foal share agreements.
Galileo turned 23 this year but still managed to cover 120 mares in 2020. Time is not on his side but, even so, it doesn’t take too much imagination to envisage him overhauling Sadler’s Wells’ record of 14 sire championships in due course.
2. DUBAWI
02, Dubai Millennium - Zomaradah (Deploy)
Stands: Dalham Hall Stud, UK. Fee: £250,000
TRC Global Ranking: 2
Darley’s Dubawi ended 2020 as runner-up on the champion British and Irish sires’ list for the fifth time in the past seven years.
Long regarded as Britain’s leading sire, Dubawi’s admirable consistency can be judged on the fact that he enters his fifth season at a fee of £250,000.
He is Britain’s most successful sire in Pattern history, and as he turns into his 19th year, continues to operate on a 16 percent stakes winners-to-runners ratio.
The 2020 season yielded further rewards, with a group of 24 stakes winners, highlighted by the world’s top horse on IFHA ratings, Ghaiyyath. A relentless galloper in possession of a high cruising speed, Ghaiyyath set a new track record in victory in the Coronation Cup en route to similarly memorable wins in the Eclipse Stakes and Juddmonte International.
However, Ghaiyyath wasn’t the only representative to shine a G1 light on Dubawi in 2021. There was Space Blues, whose unbeaten season for Charlie Appleby culminated with a victory in the Prix Maurice de Gheest, The Revenant, winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and Lord North, winner of the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Dubawi is very capable of siring high-class 2yos - look no further than the past season, when Indigo Girl, One Ruler and Master Of The Seas were among those to lay down classic claims for 2021 - but, at the same time, the likes of Ghaiyyath, Space Blues, The Revenant and Lord North encapsulate what we have come to associate with the stallion - tough and mentally strong stock who progress through their racing.
Dubawi is now also starting to gain real momentum as a sire of sires. Early sire sons Makfi, Poet’s Voice and Al Kazeem have each sired G1 winners - and indeed, Makfi now has a successful sire son to his credit in Make Believe. Night Of Thunder, the 2014 2,000 Guineas winner, has since captured the imagination and now stands for €75,000. Another young son, Prix du Jockey-Club winner New Bay, has also made a fine start as the sire of two stakes winners out of his first crop.
With the likes of Too Darn Hot, Postponed, Time Test, Zarak and Ghaiyyath, who retires to Darley for 2021, waiting in the wings, there is every opportunity for Dubawi’s legacy to deepen as time goes on.
3. FRANKEL
08, Galileo - Kind (Danehill)
Stands: Banstead Manor Stud, Newmarket, UK. Fee: £175,000
TRC Global Ranking: 14
About to commence his fourth season at £175,000, Frankel entered the record books in September when becoming the fastest stallion in European Pattern history to hit 40 Group winners, a landmark that came courtesy of Kalahara in the G3 Prix d’Arenberg over 5f.
That quick filly was one of 11 European stakes winners during 2020 for Frankel. Others included the Ribblesdale Stakes heroine and Oaks third Frankly Darling and Prix Kergolay winner Call The Wind, who remains a mainstay among the French staying ranks for Freddy Head.
However, it was further afield where Frankel really made in his presence felt.
Already a big name in Japan, he has furthered his following out there as the sire of top 2yo Grenadier Guards, who broke the track record when landing the G1 Asahi Hai Futurity at Hanshin in December. Another representative, the G1-winning miler Mozu Ascot, added the G1 February Stakes on dirt to his record and retires to Arrow Stud for 2021.
In Australia, Mirage Dancer captured the G1 Metropolitan Handicap while Miss Fabulass and Hungry Heart (also a G2 winner) were each G1-placed. In Canada, the ex-Irish Elizabeth Way progressed into a G2 winner.
Frankel has received the support of many of the world’s best breeders since his retirement to stud, but in turn he has long maintained high percentages; right now, he operates at a figure of 14 percent when it comes to stakes winners to runners and boasts 60 stakes winners overall, among them 12 G1 winners.
13th on the TRC Global Sire Rankings
4. INTO MISCHIEF
05, Harlan’s Holiday - Leslie’s Lady (Tricky Creek)
Stands: Spendthrift Farm, Kentucky, USA. Fee: $225,000/£162,000
TRC Global Ranking: 10 (#1 Dirt Sire)
The remarkable and rapid rise of Into Mischief continues unabated.
Having once stood for $7,500, the son of Harlan’s Holiday heads into his 13th season at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky at a career high of $225,000 to make him the most expensive stallion in North America. Despite that rise, Into Mischief has long been book full for the 2021 season; and given he covered 248 mares in 2020, it is likely that his current book is heavy in terms of both quality and quantity.
Into Mischief ends 2020 as North America’s champion sire for the second year running - and with a staggering, record-breaking total of $22.188 million, over $10 million clear of the second, Tapit.
Into Mischief fired in more runners than any of his rivals (413) but also more winners (189) and black-type winners (29) in addition to season-defining representatives of the stature of Authentic, the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, and Gamine, the brilliantly quick winner of the Test Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. There was also a G1-winning 2yo in Dayoutoftheoffice.
Into Mischief boasts eight G1 winners, half of whom were bred when he stood for $20,000 or less. He was still available for only $45,000 when Authentic and Gamine were conceived. 2018 was the year when he broke through into six-figure territory, and so, with those more expensively produced crops in the pipeline, could the best be yet to come?
Naturally, such success as well as a propensity to throw quick-maturing stock has made him a darling of the commercial market; he was represented by five million-dollar yearlings in 2020, which contributed to a yearling average of $409,217.
He can also be termed as an emerging sire of sires given that his first son to stud, Goldencents, was the year’s leading third-crop sire, all of which bodes well for the dozen or so younger sons waiting in line, among them Spendthrift’s new inmate, Authentic, and Coolmore’s Practical Joke, whose first foals are 2yos of 2021.
In the meantime, Into Mischief has already picked up where he left off in 2020 with a brace of stakes-winning Classic candidates in Life Is Good, an early favourite for the Kentucky Derby, and Mutasaabeq.
5. KINGMAN
11, Invincible Spirit - Zenda (Zamindar)
Stands: Banstead Manor Stud, Newmarket, UK. Fee: £150,000
TRC Global Ranking: 11
One of the hottest names in European bloodstock circles, Kingman’s fee holds steady at £150,000 for a second season as breeders clamour for his services following an explosive start to his stud career.
Kingman was a brilliant miler gifted with a high cruising speed and an exceptional turn of foot. And it is those weapons that we are now coming to associate with some of his better runners.
There were three G1 winners in 2020. Palace Pier rose to the top among the milers as the comprehensive winner of the St James’s Palace Stakes and Prix Jacques les Marois, while the older Persian King won the Prix d’Ispahan and Prix du Moulin before running a brave third in the Arc on his only try over 1m4f.
Overall, 2020 featured 14 European stakes winners, while a prize money haul of £2.7 million pushed him into sixth on the European sires’ list - his highest placing to date.
Kingman is also developing a fine reputation in the U.S. (as you might expect from a stallion whose progeny possess the ability to quicken and act on a sound surface), notably as the sire of G1 Hollywood Derby hero Domestic Spending and G2-placed 2yo Public Sector.
Buyers can’t get enough of Kingman, as illustrated by his Tattersalls October Book 1 average of 547,462gns, a figure that places him behind only Galileo and Dubawi.
With an early fee of £75,000 alongside the support of Juddmonte Farms, there is no doubt that Kingman has benefitted from the early opportunities afforded to only very few young stallions. But, in turn, he has built on those chances and, now with sizable crops out of some of Europe’s most accomplished mares waiting in the pipeline, he continues to appeal as potential championship sire material.
6. TAPIT
01, Pulpit - Tap Your Heels (Unbridled)
Stands: Gainesway Farm, Kentucky, USA. Fee: $185,000 (£133,000)
TRC Global Ranking: 35 (#5 Dirt Sire)
It was only three seasons ago that Tapit commanded a fee of $300,000. Yet such is the changing landscape of the American scene that a new fee of $185,000, itself a cut from last year’s $200,000, still makes him the nation’s second most expensive stallion.
Such a drop is not to say that Tapit doesn’t remain the weighty influence of past years.
The former three-time champion stallion will end the year as North America’s second leading sire behind Into Mischief following a year in which he was represented by 14 stakes winners, including the G1 scorers Essential Quality - the likely North American champion 2yo colt by virtue of his victories in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Breeders’ Futurity - and Valiance.
They contributed to an overall body of work that currently consists of 27 G1 winners and 31 million-dollar yearlings; the latest arrived at this year’s Book 1 of the Keeneland September, where a colt out of Tara’s Tango sold for a sale-topping $2 million.
Those willing to dig deep for Tapit colts at auction no doubt have an eye on his burgeoning record as a sire of sires.
It wasn’t always so promising, with various early (and cheaply-bred) sons failing to make the cut. But in recent seasons, the tide has changed. Look no further than the North American second-crop sires list, in which Tiz The Law’s sire Constitution and Tapiture sit first and third - indeed, Tapiture is the leader by number of winners. And while Graded stakes winners for fellow sons Tapizar and Flashback have been thin on the ground, they have at least sired the champions Monomoy Girl and British Idiom.
As for his daughters, they supplied 14 stakes winners in 2020, led by the North American G1 winners Halladay and Harvey’s Lil Goil, both of whom sport the grey coat of their damsire.
Top sire, emerging sire of sires and a desirable broodmare sire - there is little more to add to Tapit’s legacy bar the presence of a Kentucky Derby winner. And, in Godolphin’s Essential Quality, there may very well be the answer.
7. SEA THE STARS
06, Cape Cross - Urban Sea (Miswaki)
Stands: Gilltown Stud, Ireland. Fee: €150,000/£131,000
TRC Global Ranking: 6
This reliable source of elite talent remains at €150,000 for the 2021 season, having been raised to that level from €135,000 in 2020.
Sea The Stars has sat among the top ten British and Irish sires since 2016, most notably in 2019, when he claimed second behind his illustrious half-brother Galileo.
Despite the achievements of Stradivarius, who joined the pantheon of great stayers with a third Ascot Gold Cup victory, the 2020 season was not so productive on home shores for Sea The Stars, with a prize money haul of £1.323 million. But he is, after all, a stallion of immense international stature and, aside from Stradivarius, a major highlight arrived in Germany, the scene of Miss Yoda’s Classic victory in the Preis der Diana, and also Australia, where Fifty Stars won the G1 Australian Cup.
Renowned for producing tough, genuine stock, Sea The Stars continues to make inroads as a broodmare sire (as might be expected from a well-bred horse who has covered large books of well-connected mares throughout his stud life), and he also has a successful sire son to his credit in Sea The Moon, currently one of the most popular stallions based in Newmarket, whose own season was highlighted by the G1 exploits of Alpine Star.
8 (joint) CURLIN
04, Smart Strike - Sherriff’s Deputy (Deputy Minister)
Stands: Hill ’n’ Dale Farm, Kentucky, USA. Fee: $175,000/£126,000
TRC Global Ranking: 23 (#2 Dirt Sire)
A member of the six-figure club since 2016, Curlin ends 2020 in fourth on the leading North American sires’ list.
Such a high position is a familiar slot for one of the country’s most consistent and popular sires and pays tribute to a year that featured eight Graded stakes winners, led by the G1 Woodward Handicap hero Global Campaign and G1 Coaching Club American Oaks winner Paris Lights. The latter is from Curlin’s first six-figure crop while the unbeaten G2-winning 2yo Malathaat is a highlight of the first group bred off $150,000.
The typical Curlin at maturity is a two-turn dirt runner, and as such his progeny are a rare sight in Europe. An iconic American champion himself, he is very much the American breeder’s horse, one whose quality as a sire has seen him throw Classic winners Exaggerator (Preakness Stakes) and Palace Malice (Belmont Stakes), a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner in Vino Rosso, a G1-winning miler in Connect and a champion 2yo in Good Magic among his 12 G1 winners.
As such, he has a growing band of sons poised to enhance his influence. Younger sons such as Vino Rosso, Good Magic, Connect, Keen Ice and Global Campaign are at varying stages of their careers, but their supporters can take heart from the fact that an early representative, Three Chimneys Farm’s Palace Malice, threw a Breeders’ Cup winner, Structor, in his first crop.
8 (joint) UNCLE MO
08, Indian Charlie - Playa Maya (Arch)
Stands: Ashford Stud, Kentucky, USA. Fee: $175,000 (£126,000)
TRC Global Ranking: 7 (#3 Dirt Sire)
Uncle Mo sired 14 Graded stakes winners in 2020, more than any other sire in North America. He burst onto the scene with a first crop led by champion Nyquist and fellow G1 winners Outwork and Gomo. And, while there was no G1 winner in 2020, there were nine G2 winners, including a Breeders’ Cup winner in Golden Pal, successful in the Turf Sprint. There was also a first European stakes winner in Lipizzaner.
Even so, 2020 was a game changer for Uncle Mo. Why? Because, within the space of a couple of months, he has developed into a sensation as a sire of sires.
Three of his first sons to stud ended 2020 within the top four North American first-crop sires.
Leading the way is Darley’s Nyquist, who went as far as to sire two G1 winners - Vequist and Gretzky The Great - before September, a feat not achieved by a freshman sire since Danzig. Vequist went on to land the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
While Nyquist was one of the more anticipated first-crop sires of 2020, less expected was the emergence of Laoban, who stood his early years in New York at a fee of $5,000. Yet that first crop of 72 already includes two of the year’s best 2yos in G1 winner Simply Ravishing and G2 scorer Keepmeinmind. Such success prompted a transfer to WinStar Farm, where he has reportedly been oversubscribed at a new fee of $25,000.
Rounding out the trio is another WinStar inmate, Outwork, the sire of two stakes winners, including the G1-placed Outadore.
In fact, by December 31, sons of Uncle Mo had fired in seven stakes winners between them.
As for Uncle Mo himself, he is one of the younger horses on this list and has a series of six-figure crops waiting in the wings. His influence on the breed will only continue to grow.
10. SIYOUNI
07, Pivotal - Sichilla (Danehill)
Stands: Haras de Bonneval, France. Fee: €140,000 (£125,000)
TRC Global Ranking: 55
Siyouni ended 2020 as the second leading sire in Europe, his total buoyed by the achievements of the Arc-winning colt Sottsass.
Sottsass, a high-profile example of Siyouni clicking with Galileo, alongside St Mark’s Basilica, is one of six G1 winners and 43 stakes winners overall for France’s champion sire, some of whom - such as top miler Ervedya and the multiple G1 heroine Laurens - were bred when he stood for just €7,000. His latest standout, Dewhurst Stakes winner St Mark’s Basilica, was bred in the year his fee was raised to €45,000.
It is strange to think that it wasn’t that long ago that France’s most expensive sire was Elusive City at €15,000. Today, Siyouni leads a resurgence within the French stallion ranks at €140,000. Powerful breeders have bought into the horse during recent seasons, he has a series of expensive crops in the pipeline and now he has a growing band of sons at stud, notably Sottsass, whose debut fee at Coolmore has been set at €30,000, and the Classic-placed miler Le Brivido. His influence will only grow.
11 (joint) LOPE DE VEGA
07, Shamardal - Lady Vettori (Vettori)
Stands: Ballylinch Stud, Ireland. Fee: €125,000 (£109,000)
TRC Global Ranking: 7
11 (joint) NO NAY NEVER
11, Scat Daddy - Cat’s Eye Witness (Elusive Quality)
Stands: Coolmore, Ireland. Fee: €125,000 (£109,000)
TRC Global Ranking: 65
Priced jointly at €125,000 for the 2021 season are the Irish-based pair Lope De Vega and No Nay Never.
For Ballylinch Stud’s Lope De Vega, the fee marks a rise from €100,000 and places an exclamation point on a career that has to date yielded G1 winners in Europe, North America and Australia, in some cases off an early fee of €12,500.
The 2020 crop of 2yos were bred in the year his fee rose to €50,000 and they didn’t disappoint as the source of unbeaten Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf heroine Aunt Pearl, yet another to showcase the stallion to an American audience after Newspaperofrecord, Phoenix Stakes winner Lucky Vega and G2 scorer Cadillac.
In all, 2020 featured 14 European stakes winners, while in Australia there was another G1 win for the top sprinter Gytrash. Meanwhile, son Belardo had a successful debut season of his own as the sire of four first-crop stakes winners to set Lope De Vega’s legacy as a sire of sires in motion.
Coolmore’s No Nay Never, meanwhile, drops to €125,000 from last year’s high of €175,000 (the horse was originally priced at €150,000 but in an illustration of his popularity at the time, was raised to €175,000).
A brilliantly fast horse and the first son of Scat Daddy to retire to Europe, No Nay Never’s profile is a commercial one and, when his first crop contained the likes of Ten Sovereigns and Land Force, he suddenly became one of the hottest names in bloodstock circles. For Coolmore, there was also the mouth-watering prospect of him becoming an effective outlet for some of their high-performing Galileo mares.
To date, No Nay Never is the sire of 23 stakes winners in Europe, each bred when he stood for €17,500 - €20,000. There were only two 2yo stakes winners in 2020, but they did include the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Alcohol Free, a live Classic candidate for 2021. Three-year-old Wichita also took the G2 Park Stakes.
We will gain a good insight into what No Nay Never is really capable of when his first six-figure crop hit the track in 2022. There is certainly great belief in the stallion; look no further than his 2020 book of mares, which contained G1-winning mares such as Hermosa, Bracelet, Iridessa and Was, alongside the dams of Anthony Van Dyck, Fancy Blue, Saxon Warrior, Pretty Gorgeous, Latrobe and Zoustar. He also now boasts a cluster of sons at stud, among them Ten Sovereigns, Arizona and Land Force.
On the cusp …
Kentucky is home to a trio of stallions priced at $150,000 (£108,000), each of whom have cultivated a following on both sides of the Atlantic.
Darley’s veteran Medaglia d’Oro (TRC Global Ranking 41) has sired American racemares of the stature of Rachel Alexandra and Songbird, G1 winners in Europe and the likes of Vancouver and Astern from his shuttle trips to Australia. Now add a Hong Kong sensation to the list in the Australian-bred Golden Sixty. Stanley Chan’s gelding was named Hong Kong’s most popular horse of the year at the Hong Kong Champion Awards in July following his rare clean sweep of Hong Kong’s Four-Year-Old Classic Series – the Hong Kong Classic Mile, Hong Kong Classic Cup and the Hong Kong Derby - and has continued in a similar vein since then, most notably when capturing the Hong Kong Mile.
In all, Medaglia d’Oro is the sire of 21 G1 winners, remains highly commercial and is well represented as a sire of sires across America, making him one of the real heavyweights of our time.
Similarly, War Front (TRC Global Ranking 38, Dirt Sire Ranking 21) continues to maintain an iconic presence on the Claiborne Farm roster. Well known in Europe for the achievements of various Ballydoyle residents, the son of Danzig enjoyed a productive year in the U.S. in 2020 as the sire of G1 winners Civil Union (Flower Bowl Handicap), Halladay (Fourstardave Handicap) and War Of Will (won the Maker’s Mark Mile on turf, having landed the 2019 Preakness Stakes on dirt).
Closer to home, there is also a live European Classic candidate in Battleground.
War Front drops to $150,000 for 2021 from a previous high of $250,000, a level he assumed for four seasons. He has been joined on the Claiborne roster for 2021 by his Classic-winning son War Of Will, one of nine sons based in Kentucky; others include The Factor, Summer Front, Jack Milton and Hit It A Bomb, all of whom sired Graded stakes winners in 2020.
Finally, Quality Road (TRC Global Ranking 81, Dirt Sire Ranking 7) drops to $150,000 for 2021 at Lane’s End Farm following a single season at $200,000. The drop shouldn’t detract from Quality Road’s own upward trajectory. The son of Elusive Quality is responsible for 12 G1 winners, the majority of whom were bred when he stood for $35,000 and under. His first $70,000 crop, which sold for up to $1.5 million as yearlings, hit the track next season, as do the first 2yos by his first son to stud, Klimt.
Special mention must also go to the Shadai Stallion Station’s Lord Kanaloa (TRC Global Ranking 3), whose fee of 15,000,000yen (£104,000), down from 20,000,000yen in 2020, places him not far behind the $150,000 club.
Best known as the sire of TRC world #1 Almond Eye, Lord Kanaloa ends 2020 as Japan’s second leading sire behind the perennial champion Deep Impact and ahead of another Shadai heavyweight, Heart’s Cry, whose fee is listed as private. There was also a late season highlight courtesy of Danon Smash, who emulated his sire in early December by taking the Hong Kong Sprint.
Currency values are calculated on exchange rates as of January 2.