Don’t miss Nancy Sexton’s annual round-up of the stallions who command the highest fees on the planet – with a couple of new entries in the Top Ten for 2023
Having undergone a shake-up ahead of 2022, prompted by the death of Galileo, the list of the world’s most expensive stallions has stabilised for 2023. Much of it looks the same as in 2022, with Dubawi retaining top spot ahead of Frankel to give Europe the edge over the rest of the world.
Interestingly, the majority of the horses listed here have undergone significant fee raises, proving that even if the outside world is in turmoil, bloodstock remains in its own bubble with demand for elite stallions seemingly unaffected.
Dubawi is one of four European-based sires listed alongside Frankel, Sea The Stars and No Nay Never but it is the US which can boast the world’s most expensive new recruit in Flightline, who retires to Lane’s End Farm at a fee of $200,000.
Nancy Sexton: The world’s ten most expensive sires for 2022
Not listed is Three Chimneys Farm’s Gun Runner, whose fee shifts to ‘private’ following an outstanding start to his stud career. The son of Candy Ride covered 248 mares last season at a fee of $125,000 and heads into 2023 well established as one of the world’s elite stallions with no fewer than six G1 winners emerging out of his first crop.
He ends the year as a top five American sire by progeny earnings and the dominant leading American sire of three-year-olds – two significant achievements given that he still has only two crops working for him. Had Gun Runner’s fee not shifted to ‘private’, it is odds on that he would sit high up on this list.
Please note: currency conversions below are for guide purposes only and may fluctuate according to prevailing exchange rates
1. DUBAWI
2002 b Dubai Millennium - Zomaradah (Deploy)
Stands: Dalham Hall Stud, Newmarket, UK
2023 fee: £350,000 (about $423,000)
(covered 165 mares at £250,000 in 2022)
1st on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
The lack of a British and Irish sires’ title would have been an undeserving and glaring omission on the stud record of Dubawi. Galileo was unmatched during the peak of his powers but while he was attracting the headlines for his lengthy championship streak, Dubawi was never far from the conversation as an array of top-notch performers – some of them bred off fees as low as £15,000 – arrived with clockwork regularity.
Thus a first British and Irish championship for this Darley stalwart is hugely deserving and does justice for a career that so far consists of 367 stakes performers, 248 stakes scorers and 53 G1 winners.
For so long a key element to the fortunes of Godolphin, Dubawi’s year once again went hand in hand with Charlie Appleby. Coroebus got the ball rolling by winning the 2,000 Guineas – in the process becoming his sire’s third winner of the race after Makfi and Night Of Thunder – before following up in the G1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, the same meeting at which fellow Godolphin runners Naval Crown and Creative Force ran one-two in the G1 Platinum Jubilee. In between, stablemate Modern Games had landed the G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains and would later win the G1 Woodbine Mile and G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Dubawi had enjoyed a record-breaking Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita in 2021 when supplying three winners in Yibir (Turf), Modern Games (Juvenile Turf) and Space Blues (Mile). He came close to repeating the trick again at Keeneland in November as Modern Games’s victory in the Mile was complemented by that of another Appleby-trained runner Rebel’s Romance in the Turf.
In Italian, previously successful in the G1 First Lady and G1 Diana Stakes for Peter Brant and Chad Brown, ran an excellent second in the Filly & Mare Turf, having attempted to make all. Creative Force also ran third in the Turf Sprint.
Their performances capped a typically international year for Dubawi that had begun at G1 level in March with Lord North dead-heating with Panthalassa in the G1 Dubai Turf at Meydan. In addition to the ill-fated Coroebus and Modern Games, there was also a third European Classic winner in St Leger hero Eldar Eldarov, a colt whose progressive three-year-old career for Roger Varian had demonstrated all the improvement and tenacity generally associated with Dubawi’s progeny.
The G1 exploits of Coroebus, Eldar Eldarov and Naval Crown were key in Dubawi landing his first British and Irish championship with a haul of close to £6.5 million, comfortably ahead of his nearest pursuer Frankel. He also leads the way by number of stakes winners (23) while his winners to runners ratio of 51% is bettered marginally by only Farhh among those horses with 50 runners or more.
In Europe, a prize-money total of almost £8.7m is not enough to topple Frankel but again he sits at the top in terms of stakes winners thanks to 35 individuals who between them won 45 stakes races.
It is a widely-held opinion that Dubawi’s influence is an extremely good influence on the breed, not just in terms of his level of success but the various attributes he tends to impart; the typical Dubawi is a genuine and sound horse which thrives on racing.
What is more, various sons appear to be following suit. Darley’s Night Of Thunder, now the sire of 18 Group winners whose own fee has risen to €100,000 for 2023, is a case in point, as is Ballylinch Stud’s New Bay, now a €75,000 stallion who pulled off an important Qipco British Champions Day double courtesy of Bayside Boy and Bay Bridge in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and G1 Champion Stakes. Another son, Zarak, has also emerged as a leading young sire in France.
All of which must bode well for the various young sons waiting in the pipeline, notably Darley’s multiple G1 winners Too Darn Hot, whose first yearlings sold for up to 600,000gns, and Ghaiyyath, whose first foals caught the imagination at the winter breeding stock sales, selling for an average of just over 100,000gns.
Amid all this, Dubawi has also emerged as a damsire of note. A top five European broodmare sire of 2022, his daughters have forged a particularly fine record with Frankel, with the cross responsible for nine stakes winners led by the Classic scorers Adayar and Homeless Songs.
Naturally, Dubawi remains extremely hot property commercially, with Sheikh Mohammed’s desire to collect his progeny key in fuelling a blockbuster Tattersalls October Book 1 Sale, at which he was represented by eight million-guinea yearlings and returned an average of 849,524gns.
It is an impressive body of work and makes that significant fee rise to £350,000 somewhat understandable. It’s a bold statement from his connections but at 21 years old, Dubawi is, after all, entering the twilight of his stud career and thus it could be that an element of protection is coming through as well.
2. FRANKEL
2008 b Galileo - Kind (Danehill)
Stands: Banstead Manor Stud, Newmarket, UK
2023 fee: £275,000 ($332,000)
(covered 188 mares at £200,000 in 2022)
2nd on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Frankel, who in 2021 became the first British-based sire since Mill Reef in 1987 to be crowned champion, came close to repeating the feat in 2022, ultimately finding only Dubawi too good.
As it was, he sired the winners of approximately £5.3m in Britain and Ireland, not far off last year’s haul of £5.35m, and remarkably almost twice that figure in Europe, where he did reign as champion.
In what was an outstanding year, G1 winners arrived in Europe, the US and Australia. There were eight of them in the northern hemisphere and collectively they did their bit to showcase the range of Frankel, consisting of a top 2yo in G1 Dewhurst winner Chaldean and a champion 3yo filly in Inspiral to go with the Classic winners Homeless Songs (Irish 1,000 Guineas), Westover (Irish Derby) and Nashwa (Prix de Diane) alongside American filly McKulick and French colt Onesto.
However, the best of them all was Kirsten Rausing’s wonderful homebred Alpinista, who capped an eight-race win streak with a victory in the Arc. Beautifully handled by connections, the grey mare retired with six G1 wins to her credit, among them the 2022 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and Yorkshire Oaks in addition to the Arc.
Frankel is also forging a mighty reputation in Australia, where from a collection of under 75 runners, he is the sire of 13 stakes winners including Converge, winner of the G1 Randwick Guineas last March.
He also continues to make his presence felt in the US, as illustrated by the G1 Belmont Oaks Invitational winner McKulick and G2 winner Skims, while remaining popular in Japan, where G1 winners Mozu Ascot, Grenadier Guards and Soul Stirring have represented him to good effect.
Yes, Frankel has been granted exceptional opportunity, as befits a horse who ranks as one of the great runners of recent times. But he has answered those questions asked of him with a truly international roll call that currently consists of 106 stakes winners, 26 of them at the highest level.
Along the way, he became the fastest stallion to hit 50 Group winners and in July notched up another milestone when Emotion became his 100th stakes winner in the Listed Chalice Stakes at Newmarket. In recording 100 stakes winners over the span of 2,402 days, he became the joint-fastest stallion to achieve the feat alongside Danehill.
Commercially, he also hit the headlines, notably as sire of the top four lots at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale led by the 2,800,000gns colt out of So Mi Dar, bought by Godolphin.
The 2021 champion sires’ title won’t be the last one that Frankel wins. Chaldean is priced at around 6-1 for next year’s 2,000 Guineas while Inspiral, Westover, Nashwa and Homeless Songs are all due to stay in training.
With that in mind, it would take a brave person to back against him landing another championship in 2023 and it’s not hard to see how Juddmonte arrived at the decision to increase his fee for 2023.
In addition to his ever-improving stud record, there is his emerging legacy to consider. His first son to stud, Cracksman, was one of the success stories among the European first-crop stallions as sire of two stakes-winning fillies, Aloa and Dance In The Grass.
In addition, Frankel is also making his mark as a broodmare sire (as perhaps to be expected from a horse who has covered high-class mares throughout his career). He had only 27 runners in that department in Britain and Ireland during 2022 but with stakes winners Noble Truth (by Kingman), Juncture (by Dark Angel) and Eydon (by Olden Times) among them, they went on to win over £600,000.
3. INTO MISCHIEF
2005 b Harlan’s Holiday - Leslie’s Lady (Tricky Creek)
Stands: Spendthrift Farm, Kentucky, USA
2023 fee: $250,000
(covered 202 mares at a fee of $250,000 in 2022)
3rd on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Into Mischief ends 2022 as North America’s champion sire for the fourth consecutive year with a prize-money total of approximately $27.75m, thereby smashing his own previous record of $24,411,267 set in 2021.
As in 2021, Into Mischief leads the way again in terms of individual winners (and runners, for that matter), black-type winners and Graded stakes winners. For the record, he is closing in on 240 winners for the year, over 70 more than his nearest rival Munnings, is out on his own in terms of black-type winners on 26, dominates by black-type runners on 62 (Uncle Mo next best on 40) and leads by Graded stakes winners on 15. The only list not in his grasp is that of G1 winners, in which he sits behind Curlin (6), American Pharoah (4) and Gun Runner (4).
That’s not to say Into Mischief had a lukewarm year at the top level, however. Flamboyant front-runner Life Is Good, one of no fewer than 19 stakes winners from his 2018 crop, captured three G1 events, the Pegasus World Cup, Woodward and Whitney Stakes.
Gina Romantica was the highlight of his three-year-old crop by virtue of her win in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on the turf while among the two-year-olds Wonder Wheel closed her season with victories in the G1 Spinaway Stakes and G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
With Wonder Wheel’s Breeders’ Cup success in the bag, Into Mischief nailed his fifth champion North American two-year-old sires’ title, and with a total of over $4.6m – $2m ahead of the second horse Bolt D’Oro. Into Mischief’s ability to throw good two-year-olds is in keeping with the Storm Cat sire line and indeed, it wasn’t all about Wonder Wheel in 2022 since other juvenile daughters Hoosier Philly and Naughty Gal won the G2 Golden Rod and G3 Adirondack Stakes respectively.
Into Mischief is very much a dirt sire and the domain of American breeders. But as Gina Romantica showed again last year, he is capable of throwing effective grass horses; indeed, he also ended 2022 as a top five sire by turf earnings.
Similarly, one of the highlights of the year for his sire son Goldencents arrived on turf with the victory of his daughter Going To Vegas in the G1 Rodeo Drive Stakes. Goldencents, who stands alongside his sire at Spendthrift Farm, boasts 19 stakes winners and remains one of the reliable soldiers of the Kentucky middle market.
The younger Practical Joke, who stands for Coolmore at Ashford Stud, also sits behind only Gun Runner among Kentucky’s second-crop sires following a year highlighted by the G1 Frizette Stakes winner Chocolate Gelato.
Other G1-winning sons Audible and Authentic are also in the pipeline as well as new additions such as Life Is Good and Mandaloun, so there is real momentum behind Into Mischief’s sire line.
4. CURLIN
2004 ch Smart Strike - Sheriff’s Deputy (Deputy Minister)
Stands: Hill ’n’ Dale Farm, Kentucky, USA
2023 fee: $225,000
(covered 135 mares at a fee of $175,000 in 2022)
7th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Curlin’s fee has been raised for 2023 following a year underpinned by real quality. Well established as one of Kentucky’s elite, he sired six G1 winners in 2022, more than any other North American stallion.
His season came to a head at the Breeders’ Cup in November where on a single afternoon he was represented by the Dirt Mile winner Cody’s Wish, Sprint hero Elite Power and Malathaat, who narrowly came out on top in the Distaff over Blue Stripe and fellow Curlin filly Clairiere in a race for the ages. In fourth was another Curlin daughter in the shape of Nest, a three-time G1 winner in 2022 whose high-flying sweep had included a 12¼-length win in the Coaching Club American Oaks.
The Breeders’ Cup helped hoist his earnings for the year close to $20m and placed an exclamation point on a season that also included G1 wins for Obligatory (Derby City Distaff) and Clairiere (Ogden Phipps) amid ten Graded stakes winners overall.
Now the sire of 20 G1 winners, one of Curlin’s strengths lies in his ability to throw Classic-type horses with regularity. They are tough and sound horses who can be effective at two but generally come into their own when older, quite often around two turns.
Curlin has already had a number of sons retire to stud, some more successfully than others. Hill ’n’ Dale Farm, which has been Curlin’s home since his switch from Lane’s End Farm in 2016, looks to have hit the right note with champion 2yo Good Magic, who is currently in a three-way battle for leading first-crop sire honours with Bolt D’Oro and Justify.
Regardless of how the championship falls, a first crop that consists of six stakes scorers, among them G1 Champagne Stakes winner Blazing Sevens alongside the G2 winners Dubyuhnell and Vegas Magic, is an extremely strong start by any measure.
Curlin also featured as the paternal grandsire of Kentucky Derby hero Rich Strike, a member of the first crop belonging to Keen Ice, while the first crop sired by Lane’s End Farm’s Connect was highlighted by G1 winner Rattle N Roll.
5= FLIGHTLINE
2018 b Tapit - Feathered (Indian Charlie)
Stands: Lane’s End Farm, Kentucky, USA
2023 fee: $200,000
(retires to stud for 2023)
Flightline is due to start his stud career at $200,000, the same level set for Triple Crown winner American Pharoah at Ashford Stud in 2016, champion Ghostzapper at Adena Springs in 2006 and champion two-year-old Devil’s Bag at Claiborne Farm in 1985. It’s a hefty outlay for a new stallion but then Flightline is the most exciting prospect to retire for some time.
The world’s highest-rated horse ran just six times but such was his brilliance under the care of John Sadler that he swiftly drew comparisons to various American iconic champions of the past.
A $1m Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling, knocked down to West Point Thoroughbreds, his debut was delayed to April of his three-year-old season due to a superficial hindquarter injury (suffered when he hit a stall latch).
But his talent was never in doubt, with a wide-margin debut win followed an equally eye-opening win in a Del Mar allowance optional claimer some months later. Flightline kept G1 company thereafter, winning the Malibu (by 11½ lengths), Metropolitan Handicap (by six lengths), Pacific Classic (by almost 20 lengths) and Breeders’ Cup Classic, in which he put away the G1 winners Life Is Good, Rich Strike, Olympiad and Happy Saver with ease by over eight.
Flightline is one of those rare horses who has lived up to expectations every step of the way. He was bred to be good as a son of champion sire Tapit and the G1-placed Feathered, whose sire Indian Charlie continues to exert a positive influence on the breed. While horses never cease to surprise, he has plenty of the cards stacked in his favour to succeed in his second role.
The regard in which he is held across the industry was well on show during the Keeneland November Sale just days after his Breeders’ Cup romp when a 2.5% fractional interest came under the hammer.
Whispers during the summer had placed his value north of $50m and while the Breeders’ Cup performance propelled that figure further, it is debatable how many expected to see the interest sell for $4.6m (to an undisclosed buyer acting through Fred Seitz), thereby placing the horse’s value at $184m.
Of course, owning a piece of Flightline is laden with prestige, in a similar vein to owning a piece of great art. Even so, the racehorse and bloodstock market comes with a heightened element of risk – as with any young stallion prospect, Flightline is not immune to that.
Working in his favour is the obvious fact that he will be granted opportunity with some of the world’s most accomplished mares. That much was plain to see at the Keeneland November Sale, where fresh off the buzz generated by the fractional interest sale, breeders were busy stocking up on mares to send to the horse.
For instance, his breeder, Jane Lyon of Summer Wind Farm, signed at $1.7m for the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint runner-up Edgeway, at $1.45m for stakes winner Park Avenue and at $1m for G3 winner Proud Emma. Co-owner West Point Thoroughbreds was also busy sourcing stock, notably by paying $2m for the well-related Quality Road mare Salty As Can Be in partnership with Determined Stud.
As far as his debut book goes, that list will only be the tip of the iceberg for a horse who has undoubtedly caught the imagination of some of the world’s leading breeders.
5= QUALITY ROAD
2006 b Elusive Quality - Kobla (Strawberry Road)
Stands: Lane’s End Farm, Kentucky, USA
2023 fee: $200,000
(covered 156 mares at a fee of $150,000 in 2022)
32nd on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
While Lane’s End welcomes Flightline, the proven part of its roster remains led by Quality Road, whose fee rises from $150,000 to $200,000. The son of Elusive Quality turns 17 with a stud record led by 65 stakes winners, 14 of them at G1 level.
2022 was highlighted by Saudi-trained Emblem Road, whose home win in the G1 Saudi Cup added around $9m to his sire’s overall prize-money total of approximately $20.6 million. Closer to home, he was also represented by the G1 New York Stakes winner Bleecker Street and G2 winners Astronaut and Friar’s Road among 13 stakes winners.
For all that Quality Road is primarily a dirt sire, the likes of Bleecker Street and Astronaut once again proved that he is perfectly capable of throwing effective grass horses as well. And there is plenty of reason to think that he is on the cusp of really making his presence felt in Europe given that the handful of two-year-olds housed at Ballydoyle include G3 Killavullan Stakes winner Cairo, Leopardstown maiden winner Mohawk Chief and Dundalk maiden winner Carracci.
It was after Carracci’s win that jockey Seamie Heffernan remarked: “I’d say he has a bit of class and I'm a big fan of the Quality Roads. It is good that they are winning as two-year-olds.”
Quality Road’s year in the ring was highlighted by the Keeneland September Sale-topper, a colt out of True Feelings who sold for $2.5m to Talla Racing/Woodford Racing/West Point Thoroughbreds, L.E.B.
He is also making some inroads as a sire of sires, notably through City Of Light, whose first crop contains three stakes-winning juveniles led by the G1-placed Lights Of Broadway.
7. SEA THE STARS
2006 b Cape Cross - Urban Sea (Miswaki)
Stands: Gilltown Stud, Ireland
2023 fee: €180,000 ($193,000)
(covered 161 mares at a fee of €150,000 in 2022)
8th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Responsible for a true champion in Baaeed, Sea The Stars has understandably received a fee rise for 2023. Baaeed’s G1 sweep of the Lockinge, Queen Anne, Sussex Stakes and Juddmonte International contributed to a year that ended with just over £5.1m in British and Irish earnings, enough to place him in third behind Dubawi and Frankel.
However, it wasn’t a year that revolved around just one horse. Baaeed’s brother Hukum took the G1 Coronation Cup and probably would have added further to his record had injury not intervened.
That same afternoon at Epsom, Emily Upjohn ran an agonisingly close second in the G1 Oaks and later signed off her year with a resounding success in the G1 British Champions Fillies/Mares Stakes at Ascot.
The typical Sea The Stars progresses well with time – look no further than Sea La Rosa, a Listed winner at three who won the G1 Prix de Royallieu at four in 2022 – all of which bodes extremely well for the prospects of Emily Upjohn’s four-year-old campaign.
Three-year-old Deauville Legend also took the G2 Great Voltigeur Stakes prior to running an admirable fourth in the Melbourne Cup while among the two-year-olds, Flying Honours appeals as a potential Derby colt for Godolphin following wins in the Listed Stonehenge Stakes and G3 Zetland Stakes.
Aided by the presence of 19 European stakes winners in 2022, Sea The Stars’s record currently consists of 102 black-type scorers headed by 19 at the top level. They’re generally tough, sound horses, Stradivarius being a case in point. With those attributes in mind, it’s probably no surprise that his sons are being very well received in the jumps market.
However, his line is also deservedly well represented on the Flat notably by Baaeed, who is standing his first season for Shadwell at Nunnery Stud for £80,000, Stradivarius, who is new to the National Stud, and Zelzal, last season’s busiest sire in France.
Sea The Stars is also developing into an important broodmare sire, as illustrated further this year by the G1 achievements of Onesto (by Frankel and therefore inbred to Urban Sea) and Eldar Eldarov.
8. NO NAY NEVER
2012 b Scat Daddy - Cat’s Eye Witness (Elusive Quality)
Stands: Coolmore, Ireland
2023 fee: €175,000 ($187,000)
(covered 178 mares at a fee of €125,000 in 2022)
21st on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
With his first €100,000 crop hitting the track, 2022 was crunch time for No Nay Never. But with six stakes-winning two-year-olds to his credit, he certainly delivered – and to the extent that his fee has jumped to €175,000 for 2023.
The Hennessy branch of the Storm Cat line is renowned for throwing sharp two-year-olds and in the case of No Nay Never, each of his stakes-winning juvenile sextet were out by mid-summer.
Several were crucial to the fortunes of Ballydoyle’s two-year-olds, notably champion Blackbeard, whose April debut success was followed by a series of stakes wins capped by the G1 Prix Morny and G1 Middle Park Stakes. Stablemate Little Big Bear turned in arguably the juvenile performance of the season, however, when thrashing Persian Force and Shartash by a widening seven lengths in the G1 Phoenix Stakes.
Then there was Meditate, whose season for Aidan O’Brien stretched from an April debut win at the Curragh to victory in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, as well as Aesop’s Fables, winner of the G2 Futurity Stakes.
Away from Ballydoyle, Rockcliffe Stud’s homebred Trillium won the G2 Flying Childers and the Richard Fahey-trained Midnight Mile won the G3 Oh So Sharp Stakes.
Amid all the juvenile success, which secured No Nay Never’s place as Europe’s leading two-year-old sire of 2022, it is easy to forget that his year also featured Alcohol Free, whose four-year-old season was highlighted by a win in the G1 July Cup.
A G1 winner at two, three and four, she subsequently sold for a sale-topping 5.4 million guineas at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale to continue her career in Australia for a partnership that includes Yulong Investments.
No Nay Never is very much an influence for precocity and in that respect, it will certainly help his reputation should those key two-year-olds from 2022 progress in the manner of Alcohol Free.
As it is, injury has already prompted the retirement of Blackbeard to stud. But there remains Little Big Bear, one of the favourites for the 2,000 Guineas, to look forward to. Similarly, Meditate and Midnight Mile assume prominent positions within the 1,000 Guineas market.
Looking beyond those three-year-olds, next year marks the debut of his first €175,000 crop, a group which includes Blackbeard’s younger sister, a €2.6 million yearling. With his sons Ten Sovereigns and Land Force also represented by their first runners, 2023 has the potential to be the most important in his career to date.
9= TAPIT
2001 gr Pulpit - Tap Your Heels (Unbridled)
Stands: Gainesway Farm, Kentucky, USA
2023 fee: $185,000
(covered 98 mares at a fee of $185,000 in 2022)
9th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Flightline’s sire commands $185,000 for the third consecutive year. Once priced at $300,000 as his American sires’ championships accumulated, Tapit now sits in the twilight of his stud career with a record of 157 stakes winners behind him, among them 30 G1 winners and eight champions.
The unbeaten Flightline, the world’s highest-rated horse of 2022, is Tapit’s masterpiece but take him out of 2022 and it would have still been a highly successful year thanks to the additional G1 wins of Proxy in the Clark and Pauline’s Pearl in the La Troienne. In all, there were 32 black-type horses and ten black-type winners during 2022, which in turn helped him reach seventh place on the North American sires’ list – his 13th top eight spot since 2010.
From an early fee of $12,500 to his former high of $300,000, Tapit has remained a constant presence within America’s top echelon of sires for well over a decade. As such, he has a number of sons at stud led by Constitution, now regarded as one of Kentucky’s brightest names, alongside the popular but unproven Essential Quality and Tacitus in addition to Flightline.
His daughters also did his legacy proud in 2022 by producing 26 stakes winners between them led by the G1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Cody’s Wish and G1 Cotillion Stakes heroine Society. With earnings of $22.7m won over the year in that department, Tapit reigns as North America’s leading active broodmare sire of 2022.
9= EXTREME CHOICE
2013 ch Not A Single Doubt - Extremely (Hussonet)
Stands: Newgate Farm, Australia
2023 fee: A$275,000 ($185,000)
(covered 76 mares at a private fee in 2021)
377th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Australia’s most expensive sire is unfortunately restricted by well-documented fertility issues, an aspect that was influential in his new fee for the recently passed 2022 southern hemisphere season.
“We worked out that at that fee, for the number of bookings available, there would be an oversupply of mares apply,” said Newgate’s Henry Field when revealing the raise. “Given that he’s got only limited bookings available, he’ll be well and truly covered up. There’s been plenty of interest, he’s been priced very well and there’s no question that if you breed to him and you get a live foal you’re sitting pretty.”
That’s because despite a lack of representation, G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winner Extreme Choice has made an outstanding start at stud. Out of a first crop of 46 foals bred off A$38,500, there have been seven stakes winners topped by champion two-year-old Stay Inside while a second crop of 26 contains dual G1 winner She’s Extreme. He was the champion first-crop sire of his generation and the leading second season sire by number of stakes winners.
Newgate already stand two sons of Extreme Choice in Stay Inside and G2-winning two-year-old Tiger Of Malay while the farm plans to offer the horse himself to northern hemisphere time next year, allowing for the intriguing possibility of seeing a number of his stock in Europe and the US.
On the cusp…
Haras du Bonneval’s Siyouni is France’s most expensive sire at €150,000 (about $102,000) and deservedly so given his two French sires’ titles. Although Frankel beat him to the 2022 French championship, Siyouni finished in second to end the year as the leading French-based sire for the seventh time in eight years.
A haul of 11 stakes winners was topped by Aga Khan’s highly impressive G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes heroine Tahiyra while he is also gaining momentum in Australia, where despite select representation he has hit G1 heights courtesy of the Northerly Stakes winner Amelia’s Jewel.
We will know more on his potential legacy as a sire of sires next year when the first crops by his sons City Light and Le Brivido hit the track but it is noteworthy how well he is faring as a broodmare sire, especially for a horse whose early crops were bred off an advertised fee of just €7,000. To date, his daughters have produced five stakes winners including the G2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein scorer Erevann, out of his top-class first-crop daughter Ervedya, and G1-placed Times Square.
In Japan, the status of most expensive sire remains with Epiphaneia, who sits at the top of the Shadai Stallion Station roster at Y18,000,000 ($137,000). The 2014 Japan Cup hero sired Japanese champion Daring Tact in his first crop, Japanese Horse of the Year Efforia in his second and Japanese champion two-year-old filly Circle Of Life in his third.
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