Bloodstock expert Nancy Sexton ranks the stallions who have left the most indelible mark in the last 100 years. Today: the top five
1. NORTHERN DANCER (1961-1990)
Nearctic – Natalma (Native Dancer)
Stood: Windfields Farm, Canada; Windfields Farm, Maryland, USA
Northern Dancer was a game changer as far as the industry was concerned, and not just in North America but Europe as well.
It is racing folklore how the horse’s diminutive stature and late foaling date (May 27) deterred buyers at the annual yearling auction staged by his breeder, E. P. Taylor’s Windfields Farm. Thus Northern Dancer remained in Taylor’s ownership, and luckily so as it turned out.
Trained by Horatio Luro, Northern Dancer was a Canadian champion at two and returned to win the Kentucky Derby (in a record two minutes flat), Preakness Stakes and Queen’s Plate during a championship season at three. Never out of the first three in 18 starts, he was tough and versatile to go with his immense talent – and it was those attributes that stood him in such good stead at stud.
When Northern Dancer retired in 1965, the idea of sourcing stock out of America to race in Europe was just taking hold. Northern Dancer, aided by the Triple Crown achievements of his second-crop son Nijinsky, accelerated the process.
Nijinsky’s trainer Vincent O’Brien, backed by Robert Sangster and John Magnier, were quick to target Northern Dancer’s stock and with tremendous results, coming out of Kentucky with another Derby winner in The Minstrel as well as the Classic winners El Gran Senor and Lomond.
Demand for his stock was the driving force behind the inflation of the bloodstock market during the 1970s and 1980s – led by a colt who sold for $10.2m in 1983, 49 of his yearlings sold for $1m or more – and by 1985, it was rumoured that breeders were paying up to $950,000 to secure his services at the age of 25.
What was remarkable about Northern Dancer’s success is that it was achieved during an era of small books; as an example, his 1980 crop of 31 foals contained four G1 winners, among them Lomond and Shareef Dancer, while out of a similarly small group born in 1981, El Gran Senor, Northern Trick, Secreto and Sadler’s Wells each tasted Classic success.
As anticipated, Northern Dancer left behind an array of successful sire sons led by Sadler’s Wells, who rewrote the record books during his time at Coolmore. Others such as Nijinsky, Be My Guest, Nureyev, Danzig, Storm Bird, Lyphard, El Gran Senor, Fairy King, Northern Taste, Vice Regent and Dixieland Band also became influential stallions in their own right, in many cases successful enough to forge their own legacy.
As such, Northern Dancer is today an ubiquitous presence within pedigrees, and indeed quite often appears duplicated several times over.
2. NEARCO (1935-1957)
Pharos – Nogara (Havresac II)
Stood: Beech House Stud, Newmarket, Britain
No mention of Nearco would be complete without a nod to the influence wielded by his grandsire Phalaris, whose male line came to be responsible for Native Dancer (via his son Sickle), Buckpasser (via Pharamond) and Brigadier Gerard and Shergar (via Fairway).
However, it endures at its strongest through Nearco, by Pharos. A product of Federico Tesio’s Premio Dormello, also the source of Ribot in later years, Nearco swept through his 14-start career unbeaten for his breeder capped by a victory in the Grand Prix de Paris, his last outing and the only one outside his native Italy.
Tesio subsequently sold Nearco for £60,000 to bookmaker Martin Benson, who installed him at Beech House Stud in Newmarket. The sire of close to 90 stakes winners in total, including Derby winners Dante and Nimbus, his was an influence that would change the course of the breed.
His son Nasrullah forged his own sire line as did Royal Charger, the backbone to the Hail To Reason line responsible for Sunday Silence and Roberto. However, it is as the sire of Nearctic, sire of Northern Dancer (see above), that the Nearco sire-line has come to be most dominant. Either way, it is a safe bet that the vast majority of Thoroughbreds running today contain Nearco somewhere in their background.
As an aside, the Tesio stud book at Dormello contained the following note on Nearco: “Beautifully balanced, of perfect size and great quality. Won all his 14 races as soon as he was asked. Not a true stayer … he won these longer races by his superb class and brilliant speed.”
3. SADLER’S WELLS (1981-2008)
Northern Dancer – Fairy Bridge (Bold Reason)
Stood: Coolmore, Ireland
It was at the height of appreciation for the progeny of Northern Dancer that Sadler’s Wells graced the track. Like plenty of his sire’s best sons, he was trained in Ballydoyle by Vincent O’Brien and although rated inferior to his celebrated 
paternal half-sibling El Gran Senor, landed a Classic success of his own in the 1984 Irish 2,000 Guineas before running second in the Prix du Jockey Club. The winner that day was Darshaan, another subsequently highly successful stallion, while in third was the similarly influential Rainbow Quest; rarely has the outcome to one race had such an impact on the breed.
At an introductory fee of Ir£125,000, Sadler’s Wells never lacked for opportunity, especially as his retirement coincided with the dawn of the big book era. But it was apparent when his first crop contained the 1988 Dewhurst Stakes dead-heaters Prince Of Dance and Scenic that here was a potentially exceptional stallion, a view consolidated when Old Vic and In The Wings emerged as other older first-crop representatives and champion Salsabil headed his second.
In time, Sadler’s Wells would earn 14 British and Irish champion sires’ titles, thereby breaking the record set by Highflyer back in 1798. Along the way, there were 73 G1 scorers, including the Derby winners Galileo and High Chaparral, and 328 stakes winners.
Galileo went on to assume his sire’s championship mantle in seamless fashion at Coolmore, which also reaped the benefits of standing Montjeu, the sire of 31 G1 winners including Camelot, and High Chaparral, a resounding success in both hemispheres. Another son, the Kentucky-based El Prado, was the 2002 champion sire of North America, where he left behind leading sires Kitten’s Joy and Medaglia d’Oro.
Also a multiple champion broodmare sire, Sadler’s Wells can be credited as a force behind the rejuvenation of the breeding industry in Europe.
4. NATIVE DANCER (1950-1967)
Polynesian – Unbreakable (Geisha)
Stood: Sagamore Farm, Maryland, USA
Nicknamed ‘The Gray Ghost’, Native Dancer was one of the first horses to capture the imagination of the outside public through television as winner of all bar one of his 22 starts for owner-breeder Alfred G. Vanderbilt. That sole loss came in the 1953 Kentucky Derby, when a closing second to Dark Star, but that did little to take the gloss off a championship career that consisted of successes in the Preakness, Belmont, Travers and Hopeful Stakes among many other major wins.
Native Dancer spent his stud career at his owner’s Sagamore Farm in Maryland, where despite never leading the champion sires’ list, he became a stallion of immense influence.
The line is at its most potent today through Raise A Native, a brilliant but fragile two-year-old who became hugely influential himself as the sire of Mr. Prospector (a champion sire who threw the successful sires Fappiano, Forty Niner, Gone West, Gulch, Kingmambo, Machiavellian, Miswaki, Seeking The Gold, Smart Strike and Woodman), Alydar (a leading sire), Exclusive Native (sire of Affirmed) and Majestic Prince.
Native Dancer also left behind Dan Cupid (sire of Sea Bird) and Atan (sire of Sharpen Up) as well as Natalma, the dam of Northern Dancer.
5. GALILEO (1998-2021)
Sadler’s Wells – Urban Sea (Miswaki)
Stood: Coolmore, Ireland
Galileo is the benchmark by which recent excellence is measured.
It is remarkable to think that just one stakes winner, Innocent Air, emerged out of his first crop of two-year-old runners in 2005. But the tide was to turn to such a magnificent degree that today he possesses 12 British and Irish sires’ championships (one of them secured in 2017 with an incredible total close to £12m), and perhaps with the prospect of more to come.
When Tuesday landed the Oaks, she became his 18th individual winner of a British Classic; the list also includes a record five Derby winners (New Approach, Ruler Of The World, Australia, Anthony Van Dyck and Serpentine). Magical Lagoon became his 96th G1 winner altogether in the Irish Oaks.
As a racehorse, Galileo was the champion three-year-old colt of 2001 for the Coolmore partners, his fluency of movement and physical and mental stability showcased to great effect through victories in the Derby and King George. And it is those attributes, in particular that physical and mental toughness, for which his progeny are lauded time and time again.
Galileo died last summer having cast an almighty presence over the breed, whether in terms of production or his evolving legacy as a sire of sires and broodmare sire.
He has over 20 G1-producing sons at stud led by Khalid Abdullah’s unbeaten champion Frankel, regarded by many as the best racehorse of the recent era who claimed his first British and Irish sires’ championship last year. He also boasts 40 G1 winners as a damsire, among them Ghaiyyath, Saxon Warrior, Snowfall, Sottsass and the Classic-winning siblings Magna Grecia and St Mark’s Basilica.
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