Don’t miss Nancy Sexton’s magisterial annual round-up of the stallions who command the highest fees on the planet – with more than one new entry in the Top Ten for 2024
Europe still holds the edge when it comes to the world’s most expensive stallions, just as it did for so long when Galileo operated at his private fee.
This year, the title of most expensive sire is held jointly by Dubawi and Frankel, who joins the Darley stalwart at the top of the pile on £350,000 following an exceptional year which featured 11 G1 winners.
Nancy Sexton: The world’s ten most expensive sires for 2023
The North American elite is headlined by four established names in Curlin, Gun Runner, Into Mischief and Quality Road – although it is very likely that Justify would take high order had he not been shifted to ‘private’ in the aftermath of his Breeders’ Cup success.
Overall, it’s an international list that consists of stallions in Europe, the US and Australia. Japan does not feature this year but it does welcome the most expensive new stallion of 2024 in Equinox, whose fee of ¥20 million is the highest price to be set against a first-year Japanese stallion.
Please note: currency conversions below are for guide purposes only and may fluctuate according to prevailing exchange rates
1. DUBAWI
2002 b h Dubai Millennium - Zomaradah (Deploy)
Stands: Dalham Hall Stud, Newmarket, UK
2024 fee: £350,000 (about $447,000)
(covered 137 mares at a fee of £350,000 in 2023)
2nd on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Dubawi’s year was as much about the results on the track as it was his evolving legacy. On the one hand, there were eight individual G1 winners that between them operated over the entire spectrum. On the other, various sons further consolidated their place as leading young sires, among them Too Darn Hot who made such a fine impression with his first crop of runners.
Dubawi has been such an important horse to British breeding for well over a decade. One of only two British-based champion sires since 1987 alongside Frankel, he reigns as Britain’s most successful stallion as the sire of 268 stakes winners, among them 57 G1 winners.
The typical Dubawi is a genuine and sound horse which thrives on racing, in other words one that is well liked by trainers. And those attributes invariably shine through in the progeny of some of his better sons.
Darley’s Night Of Thunder remains the most expensive of these at €100,000, with his year headlined by 15 stakes winners including the G1-performing fillies Highfield Princess and Vespertilio. New Bay’s crop of 2yos contained the G1 performers Alcantor, Devil’s Point and Shuwari while Zarak continued to fire out some impressive statistics – 11% stakes winners-to-runners is just one of them – in a year underpinned by the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden success of Zagrey. Both New Bay and Zarak commenced their stud careers at vastly inferior fees to the €75,000 and €60,000 set for 2024, so their best days should be ahead of them.
Then there is Too Darn Hot. With the alluring package of top-level performance and pedigree, anticipation has surrounded this champion son since his retirement to Dalham Hall Stud in 2020.
Too Darn Hot covered an excellent book of mares at £50,000 that season and indications are that such backing hasn’t been misplaced. Indeed, he played a role in one of the defining moments of Dubawi’s year when his daughter Fallen Angel landed the G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes in September. In second and third were Night Of Thunder’s daughters Vespertilio and Ornellaia.
By the end of the year, Too Darn Hot had supplied seven black-type 2yos, four of whom were Group winners. Little wonder then that the market has latched on to Dubawi’s next major son in the pipeline, champion Ghaiyyath. Also under the Darley banner, his first yearlings sold for up to 1,050,000gns.
There are also Dubawi’s daughters to consider. An emerging nick with Frankel, already responsible for Classic winners Adayar and Homeless Songs, bore further fruit in 2023 through Mostahdaf. The Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup hero Without A Fight, by Teofilo, is another example of the Galileo-Dubawi cross.
Discussion of Dubawi’s legacy is important because in 2024 the horse turns 22. He covered over 130 mares in 2023, over 60 of which belonged to either Godolphin, Rabbah Bloodstock or Sheikh Mohammed Obaid al Maktoum.
There was heavy support from Coolmore too, an approach which has rewarded the operation in recent years with the likes of Henry Longfellow, the second foal out of champion Minding who looks Classic material judged on his win in the G1 National Stakes, and high-class stayer Emily Dickinson.
Henry Longfellow was one of two G1-winning 2yos for his sire in 2023 alongside Godolphin’s G1 Vertem Futurity winner Ancient Wisdom. Dubawi has for so long been a key element to the fortunes of Godolphin and with the top milers Modern Games and Master Of The Seas also bagging three G1 races between them, including the Lockinge Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Mile, much of his year again went hand in hand with Charlie Appleby.
Outside of Godolphin, the Roger Varian-trained pair Al Husn and Elder Eldarov demonstrated how well a Dubawi can progress from three to four with G1 victories in the Nassau Stakes and Irish St Leger respectively. There was also a third G1 Dubai Turf for veteran campaigner Lord North while in the US, five-year-old In Italian added the G1 Jenny Wiley Stakes and G1 Just A Game Stakes to her resume.
1= FRANKEL
2008 b h Frankel - Kind (Danehill)
Stands: Banstead Manor Stud, Newmarket, UK
2024 fee: £350,000 (about $447,000)
(covered 196 mares at a fee of £275,000 in 2023)
1st on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Frankel dominated the champion sires’ standings for 2023, his European earnings of approximately £10.8m overwhelming the £6.2m supplied by his closest pursuer Siyouni. He was also similarly dominant in locking down a second championship in Britain and Ireland as the earners of £7.14m propelled him clear of Dubawi (on approximately £4.3m).
In both cases, Frankel also led the way by stakes winners – 31 in Europe and 23 in Britain and Ireland – while upholding a strong winners-to-runners rate in Europe of 50%.
However, it is the sheer quality of performers that really set Frankel apart in 2023. Within the Classic generation, Dewhurst winner Chaldean returned to take a rain-sodden 2,000 Guineas and Soul Sister won the Oaks. In France, Jannah Rose won the G1 Prix Saint-Alary and Kelina took the G1 Prix de la Foret.
The older generation really came to the fore at Royal Ascot, where Mostahdaf captured the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, Courage Mon Ami broke through in the Ascot Gold Cup and Triple Time and Inspiral finished first and second in the Queen Anne. Gifted with a blistering turn of foot, Inspiral went on to sweep the Prix Jacques le Marois, Sun Chariot Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
Mostahdaf, meanwhile, followed up in the Juddmonte International at York, where he lowered the colours of another elite Frankel in Nashwa, previously the wide-margin winner of the G1 Falmouth Stakes.
The 2022 Irish Derby winner Westover also developed into an admirable 4yo campaigner, with a win in the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and seconds in the King George and Arc among his performances.
As for the 2yos, they are headed by the G1 Fillies Mile winner Ylang Ylang, currently around a 10-1 shot to provide Frankel with his third Oaks winner.
With all that in mind, it’s clear to see how Frankel’s fee today rests at £350,000, up from £275,000 last year. Such a rise is unlikely to deter the world’s leading breeders, especially in light of the fact that he continues to return statistics such as 12% Group winners-to- runners and 17% black-type winners-to-runners.
He is the fastest stallion to ever hit 50 Group winners and joined Danehill as the joint-fastest to sire 100 stakes winners when Emotion struck in the Listed Chalice Stakes in July 2022. Today, his record consists of 135 stakes winners.
That popularity naturally translates to the sale ring, where his yearling average of 574,697gns was buoyed by the top two yearlings sold at Tattersalls (a colt out of Bizzarria sold for 2,000,000gns to MV Magnier and White Birch Farm while a filly out of Millisle sold for 1,600,000gns to Shadwell) as well as the Goffs Orby sale-topper (a filly out of Multilingual sold for €1,850,000 to MV Magnier).
One of the key aspects to Frankel is the global nature of his reach. He has been provided with the opportunity to do just that thanks to a depth of international support rarely afforded to others but in return, there have been G1 winners in America (McKulick), Australia (Converge, Hungry Heart and Mirage Dancer) and Japan (Grenadier Guards, Mozu Ascot and Soul Stirring).
Yet another chapter was written in the Frankel story during 2023 when his first son to stud, dual Champion Stakes winner Cracksman, sired the unbeaten Arc and Prix du Jockey Club hero Ace Impact.
Obviously that bodes well for the sons to follow and indeed there are no fewer than five G1-winning sons retiring to stud in Europe for 2023 – Chaldean (Banstead Manor Stud), Hurricane Lane (Coolmore’s National Hunt division), Mostahdaf (Shadwell), Onesto (Haras d’Etreham) and Triple Time (Dalham Hall Stud).
In a measure of how highly Frankel is regarded in Japan, that country also welcomes Adayar, Grenadier Guards and Westover.
In the meantime, G1 St James’s Palace Stakes winner Without Parole is next to come under scrutiny as his first runners hit the track in 2024.
3. CURLIN
2004 ch h Curlin - Sheriff’s Deputy (Deputy Minister)
Stands: Hill ’n’ Dale Farm, Kentucky, USA
2024 fee: $250,000
(covered 122 mares at a fee of $225,000 in 2023)
3rd on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Only Into Mischief surpassed Curlin in various key metrics this year, cementing the Hill ’n’ Dale stallion as one of North America’s elite.
Curlin’s place as the second leading sire of 2023 sees him finish as a top five stallion for the fifth consecutive year. On this occasion, it was achieved through the winners of $18.435m from a pool of 237 runners, nearly half that of his main rival Into Mischief. Along the way, there were 14 stakes winners including five at the top level.
As in 2022, matters came to a head at the Breeders’ Cup. Curlin pulled off the remarkable sweep of siring the Dirt Mile, Distaff and Sprint winners - namely Cody’s Wish, Malathaat and Elite Power - at the 2022 Keeneland-hosted meeting and repeated that achievement again last year at Santa Anita where in a show of the durability that is often associated with his stock, Cody’s Wish and Elite Power returned to successfully defend their titles and Idiomatic won the Distaff.
For the giant filly Idiomatic, the Distaff was the ninth race and eighth win of a demanding campaign rarely seen in today’s era. Cody’s Wish was winning for the fourth time in his five-start campaign, having previously bagged the G1 Churchill Down Stakes and G1 Metropolitan Handicap, while for Elite Power, his Sprint victory capped a year also highlighted by a win in the G1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap.
The G1-winning quintet was rounded out by Bright Future, winner of the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Clairiere, who won the G1 Ogden Phipps Stakes before taking second behind Curlin’s champion daughter Nest in the G2 Shuvee Stakes.
That quintet provides a snapshot of what we have come to expect of Curlin; soundness and durability to go with a generous measure of dirt class, quite often around two turns.
Further enhancing his reputation is that fact Curlin turns 20 as an established sire of sires. Palace Malice provided an early pointer in that direction when supplying the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Structor in his first crop. Although he has yet to really back up that early good impression, his fifth crop is the source of top Japanese 2yo Jantar Mantar whose win in the G1 Hanshin Asahi Hai Futurity at Kyoto coincided with the horse’s arrival to Japan, where he will stand for Darley.
The current leader among Curlin’s sons, however, is very much Good Magic, already the sire of 17 stakes winners out of his first two crops. His first crop, of course, included the Kentucky Derby hero Mage, the second grandson of Curlin to win the race in as many years after Rich Strike, a son of Keen Ice.
Curlin also exerts an influence over the leading North American first-crop sires list through Vino Rosso, whose nine black-type horses include the G1-placed Wine Me Up, Dancing Groom and Next Level, and the New York-based Solomini, who has come to wider attention in recent weeks as the sire of G2 Los Alamitos Futurity winner Wynstock. In all, that bodes very well for the prospects of his younger sons, which include this year’s retirees Cody’s Wish and Elite Power, both of whom promise to be extremely popular with breeders at Darley and Juddmonte.
3= GUN RUNNER
13 ch h Candy Ride - Quiet Giant (Giant’s Causeway)
Stands: Three Chimneys Farm, Kentucky, USA
2024 fee: $250,000
(covered 166 mares at a private fee in 2023)
9th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Having ticked along at fees ranging from $50,000 to $125,000 for several seasons, Gun Runner’s fee was shifted to ‘private’ by Three Chimneys last season as the farm reacted to the horse’s meteoric rise.
The actual figure was rumoured to be in the $300,000 region but that didn’t deter breeders, with a book of 166 representing the support of some of the world’s leading operations; Coolmore, for their part, sent around 20 mares to Gun Runner including champion Gamine, a $7m purchase, Churchill’s G1-winning sister Clemmie, G1-winning globe-trotter Magic Wand and top sprinter Campanelle.
It will be interesting to follow the paths of the resulting foals. For now, Gun Runner is very much an American product. His collection of 26 stakes winners are dirt-orientated as to be expected from a Kentucky-based stallion whose own accomplished record was headlined by six G1 wins, among them the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Pegasus World Cup.
It is the sheer depth of his black-type winners that places him on such a high standing. A first crop of 126 foals has so far yielded 17 stakes winners led by Cyberknife, Early Voting, Echo Zulu, Gunite, Society and Taiba, all top 3yos of their generation who won G1 races.
The Steve Asmussen-trained pair Echo Zulu and Gunite won admirers for their durability, with Echo Zulu’s nine victories taking in four at G1 level and Gunite’s three-season career covering nine wins in 21 starts. And in Preakness Stakes hero Early Voting, there was an important first-crop Classic winner.
For whatever reason, his second crop has failed to match the achievements of his first, with G2 winner Vahva the highlight of just four stakes winners to date. Yet in his third, it’s business as usual thanks to the presence of five stakes winners headed by the G1 Breeders’ Futurity winner Locked and G2-winning fillies Chatalas, Intricate and Life Talk.
Gun Runner ends 2023 with the earners of approximately $17.264m on his record for the year, enough to push him into third on the North American leading sires’ list. His tally of 16 stakes winners also only falls behind Into Mischief (26) and Quality Road (18). It’s a fair feat given that Gun Runner has only 326 foals of racing age on the ground; compare that to 1,496 for Into Mischief or 1,322 for the fourth-placed Uncle Mo.
Now the next chapter is being written. Kentucky is already home to no fewer than four sons, namely Cyberknife, Gunite, Pappacap and Taiba, while Early Voting covered a first-year book of 191 at Ashford Stud prior to being taken out of service.
3= INTO MISCHIEF
2005 b h Harlan - Leslie’s Lady (Tricky Creek)
Stands: Spendthrift Farm, Kentucky, USA
2024 fee: $250,000
(covered 173 mares at a fee of $250,000 in 2022)
4th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
Records are there to be broken in Into Mischief’s world. It’s been well-documented how the G1 Hollywood Futurity winner made his name off early crops that dropped as low as 31 foals (2011).
Today, with nearly 140 stakes winners, 18 of them at G1 level, he is deservedly one of North America’s most sought-after stallions at his fee of $250,000, a career-high figure held since 2022.
Into Mischief will be North America’s champion sire for the fifth consecutive year in 2023. Each title has been recorded with an eye-watering total no lower than $18.881m.
In 2023, the figure checks in at approximately $25.3m, a total powered by the presence of 208 winners, 52 black-type horses, 26 black-type winners, 14 Graded stakes winners and six G1 winners – no other stallion can touch him in any of those metrics.
His prize-money total places him approximately $6.8m ahead of Curlin in second. To hit $25m is another hugely impressive feat but remarkably, it fails to match last year’s achievement of $28.122m, which set a new record.
The chief actors in this outstanding year were the G1 winners Atone, Doppelganger, Pretty Mischievous, Gina Romantica, Played Hard and Timberlake.
Thanks to her victories in the Kentucky Oaks, Acorn and marred Test Stakes, Godolphin’s Pretty Mischievous was the star of the show. The older pair Doppelganger and Played Hard won the Carter Handicap and La Troienne respectively, while 2yo Timberlake struck in the Champagne Stakes.
Atone and Gina Romantica, meanwhile, further underlined his prowess as a turf sire by taking the Pegasus World Cup Turf and First Lady Stakes. Into Mischief is first and foremost a dirt influence but his progeny can be very effective on the grass, as borne out by his third place on the leading turf sires’ list.
As with any leading sire, there are a number of sons now working their way through the ranks. Spendthrift Farm’s Goldencents is the sire of 26 stakes winners and remains one of the reliable soldiers of the Kentucky middle market.
The younger Practical Joke earned a significant fee rise to $65,000 following a year in which he became a top ten North American sire, with his earnings of $12.1m fuelled by five Graded stakes winners led by the Santa Anita Derby scorer Practical Move. Practical Joke has also become an important sire in Chile, where he is the sire of seven G1 winners.
Among the first-crop sires, Maximus Mischief has made a rapid start for Spendthrift Farm as the sire of 30 2yo winners while waiting in the wings is his studmate, Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic hero Authentic.
With others such as Life Is Good, Mandaloun and Highly Motivated also standing in Kentucky, there is now a real momentum behind his sire line.
6. SEA THE STARS
2006 b h Cape Cross - Urban Sea (Miswaki)
Stands: Gilltown Stud, Ireland
2024 fee: €200,000 ($222,000)
(covered 180 mares at a fee of €180,000 in 2023)
6th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
With Baaeed and Stradivarius having both been retired to stud, it could be argued that Sea The Stars entered 2023 with a major gap to fill in his armoury.
His supporters needn’t have worried, however. As fate would have it, it was Baaeed’s brother Hukum who did his bit to help Sea The Stars carve out another excellent season on the track, with his memorable win over Westover in the King George preceded by a victory in the G3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes over Desert Crown off a long layoff.
Emily Upjohn was also brilliant in the Coronation Cup as was Sea Silk Road when the three-length winner of the Prix de Royallieu. In Australia, Just Fine won the Metropolitan Handicap.
That tally of five G1 winners made Sea The Stars the leading Irish-based sire by that metric in 2023. Overall, there were 15 stakes winners in Europe.
There are approximately 20 sons of Sea The Stars at stud in Europe. They include Lanwades Stud’s highly successful Sea The Moon, who not only sired the 2023 German Derby winner Fantastic Moon but also the first three home – Muskoka, Kassada and Sea The Lady – in the G1 German Oaks (Ard Patrick was the last stallion to pull off the feat in 1910). And of course, there is champion Baaeed to look forward to; he covered 162 mares in his first book at Shadwell.
The majority of Sea The Stars’ sons, however, are geared towards the jumps market, where the likes of Crystal Ocean and Affinisea have been extremely popular. That development isn’t surprising when you consider that the typical Sea The Stars is a tough, sound horse capable of staying well and progressing with time.
His ability as a broodmare sire is also well established. G1 winners Al Husn, Big Rock, Elder Eldarov and Unquestionable helped fuel that notion further in 2023, their victories enhancing a record that currently rests at 34 stakes winners.
In the ring, his daughters were understandably popular, with G1 winner Teona topping the Tattersalls December Mares Sale on a 4,500,000gns bid to Juddmonte Farms and Sea The Moon’s Listed-winning sister Sea The Sky selling for €1,250,000 to Godolphin at the Arqana December Sale.
6= SIYOUNI
2007 b h Pivotal - Sichilla (Danehill)
Stands: Haras du Bonneval, France
2024 fee: €200,000 ($222,000)
(covered 135 mares at a fee of €150,000 in 2023)
10th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
In siring Paddington and Tahiyra, Siyouni supplied two of the season’s leading lights.
Paddington progressed from a seasonal debut win in the Madrid Handicap to victories in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, St James’s Palace Stakes, Eclipse Stakes and Sussex Stakes, thereby demonstrating a constitution that elicited comparisons with Giant’s Causeway.
Equally effective over a mile and 1m2f and on differing grounds, he provided further ample justification for Coolmore’s sizeable backing of Siyouni. The farm also stands Sottsass and St Mark’s Basilica, and Paddington joins them for 2024 at a fee of €55,000.
The Aga Khan’s homebred Tahiyra had offered a glimpse of brilliance at two when the impressive winner of the G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes. She returned with a gutsy second to Mawj in the 1,000 Guineas, in which the pair battled well clear of the chasing pack, before rattling off three G1 victories in the Irish 1,000 Guineas, Coronation Stakes and Matron Stakes to be crowned Cartier champion 3yo filly.
The Andre Fabre-trained Mqse De Sevigne also struck in the G1 Prix Rothschild and Prix Jean Romanet for Baron Edouard de Rothschild while Shin Emperor – a brother to Sottsass who topped the 2022 Arqana August Sale at €2.1m to trainer Yoshito Yahagi – looked a youngster out of the top drawer when successful in the G3 Kyoto Nisai Stakes and a close second in the G1 Hopeful Stakes.
Siyouni has been a real success story of the French breeding scene, rising from an early fee of €7,000 to become the nation’s top sire. He first hit the top four on the leading French sires’ list in 2015 and has retained a lofty position ever since, rising to be champion in 2020 and 2021.
He finished third to Ace Impact’s sire Cracksman in 2023 but thanks to the British and Irish exploits of Paddington and Tahiyra, wound up in second behind Frankel on the European list with the earners of £6.24m to his credit.
Paddington and Tahiyra were the products of Siyouni’s first €100,000 crop conceived in 2019. That has steadily risen in the years since, and he will stand for a career-high of €200,000 in 2024. In what promises to be an important year for the line, his G1 Arc-winning son Sottsass will also be represented by his first runners.
6= WOOTTON BASSETT
2008 b h Iffraaj - Balladonia (Primo Dominie)
Stands: Coolmore, Ireland
2024 fee: €200,000 ($222,000)
(covered 218 mares at fee of €150,000 in 2023)
33rd on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
It’s an important year for Wootton Bassett in 2024 as his first Coolmore-sired crop hits the track.
As has been well documented, Wootton Bassett changed hands to Coolmore during the summer of 2020 in a multi-million euro deal. The son of Iffraaj, himself winner of the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, had caught the attention with a series of high-profile results despite operating with a limited pool of representatives bred during his early years at Haras d’Etreham; champion Almanzor belonged to a first crop of 23 bred off a €6,000 fee while G1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf heroine Audarya was a product of his final €4,000 crop.
There is a lot resting on the idea of Wootton Bassett taking another step forward as his better-bred crops come through the pipeline. Coolmore installed him at €100,000 for the 2021 season, a figure which rose to €150,000 in 2022 and 2023.
Along the way, he has covered numerous top mares. For instance, his 2022 crop includes the progeny of G1 winners such as Alexandra, Clemmie, Deirdre, Found, Immortal Verse, Peeping Fawn and Was.
His stock have also caught the imagination of the sale ring with yearlings selling for up to 1,250,000gns in 2023; perhaps unsurprisingly three of the top four were knocked down to partnerships headed by MV Magnier.
So there is understandably great anticipation surrounding the 2022 crop. However, if the past year, when Wootton Bassett was represented by ten European stakes winners, is any indication, then it is likely to mark another successful chapter in this rags-to-riches story. Crucially, especially as far as Coolmore is concerned, 2023 featured three new G1 winners ranging from the top 3yo King Of Steel to 2yos Bucanero Fuerte and Unquestionable, successful in the G1 Phoenix Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf respectively. Another highly regarded 2yo, River Tiber, won the G2 Coventry Stakes.
That 2021 crop was bred in Wootton Bassett’s final year at Etreham when he stood for €40,000, so it will be fascinating to see what he can achieve as those six-figure crops take to the track.
9. I AM INVINCIBLE
2004 b h Invincible Spirit - Cannarelle (Canny Lad)
Stands: Yarraman Park Stud, New South Wales, Australia
Current fee: A$302,500 (about $207,000, inclusive of GST)
(covered 178 mares at a fee of A$247,500 in 2022)
17th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
I Am Invincible is long established as one of Australia’s premier sires and after another exceptional season on the track in 2022/23, in which he landed a second Australian sires’ championship, his fee was increased to A$302,500 (inclusive of GST) for the past southern hemisphere covering season.
It is a career-high figure for a horse who began stud life at Yarraman Park Stud at a fee of A$11,000. The son of Invincible Spirit was a G3-winning sprinter himself but had shown top-level form when running Takeover Target to a length when second in the G1 Goodwood Handicap.
It is that kind of class that has shone through consistently in I Am Invincible’s progeny to the extent that today his record consists of 101 stakes winners, 14 of them at G1 level.
The list includes early standouts such as champion Brazen Beau and the back-to-back G1 Winterbottom Stakes winners Viddora and Voodoo Lad.
Champions Home Affairs and In Secret, both winners of the G1 VRC Coolmore Stud Stakes among others, followed in subsequent years alongside another rapid champion in Loving Gaby, whose race record was crowned by wins in the G1 MVRC Manikato Stakes and G1 William Reid Stakes.
All the while, he has assumed a prominent standing on the leading Australian sires’ list, filling second behind Snitzel and then Written Tycoon in consecutive seasons from 2017-18 until 2021-22, when a much deserved first title came his way thanks to the earners of A$19.8m.
He repeated the feat in 2022/23, but with a greater figure of A$23.445m, and is on course to register the hat trick for 2023/24; his progeny, headlined by the brilliant mare Imperatriz, whose recent G1 spree has taken in the Moir, Manikato and Champions Sprints, have already won over A$19m for the season.
Remarkably, no fewer than 17 of his yearlings made at least A$1m in 2023, led by a colt out of Anaheed purchased by Tom Magnier for $2.7m at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. He also has a number of sons rising through the ranks at stud, among them the proven G1 sires Brazen Beau and Hellbent.
10. QUALITY ROAD
2006 b h Elusive Quality - Koala (Strawberry Road)
Stands: Lane’s End Farm, Kentucky, USA
2024 fee: $200,000
(covered 109 mares at fee of $200,000 in 2023)
24th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
A second consecutive season at a career-high of $200,000 for Lane’s End Farm’s flagship stallion Quality Road.
His progeny cracked $15m in earnings during 2023 to ensure his place as a top five North American sire for the second year running. Last year’s sizeable total of $20.8m was greatly inflated by Emblem Road’s Saudi Cup win, which added just over $10m to the coffers.
There was no such distortion this time around, with his clutch of 18 stakes winners highlighted by the Preakness Stakes hero National Treasure. The colt was part of Quality Road’s first six-figure crop, when his fee more than doubled to $150,000 in 2019, and wasn’t the only example of the stallion justifying such a rise as illustrated by the presence of a further nine 3yo stakes winners. In a measure of Quality Road’s versatility, they included the G2 winners Integration and Aspray, both excellent on turf.
His 2yo crop has also maintained that momentum, with G2 Pilgrim Stakes winner Agate Road leading the way among a quartet of stakes winners.
Breeders’ Cup weekend, meanwhile, offered an insight into Quality Road’s potential legacy. Although winless himself, his son City Of Light was represented by the easy BC Juvenile winner Fierceness while daughter Instant Reflex supplied the BC Juvenile Fillies’ Turf heroine Hard To Justify.
… plus JUSTIFY
2015 ch h Scat Daddy - Stage Magic (Ghostzapper)
Stands: Ashford Stud, Kentucky, USA
2024 fee: private
(covered 222 mares at a fee of $100,000 in 2023)
19th on the TRC Global Sires Rankings
When Coolmore released its Ashford Stud fees in mid-October, Justify was the headline act, his fee having been doubled to $200,000. Coolmore’s confidence in the horse has never been in doubt – he is, after all, an American Triple Crown winner and has been supported as such throughout his stud career.
In turn, that backing has yielded several terrific results for Coolmore, most notably in the European champion two-year-old City Of Troy and G1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Opera Singer. Both are from his second crop, which for one reason or another has outperformed his first, for all that initial group of runners included the North American G1 winners Arabian Lion and Aspen Grove.
Then Breeders’ Cup weekend at Santa Anita rolled round. For Justify, it was another breakthrough moment as daughters Just F Y I and Hard To Justify swept the Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies Turf.
In one fell swoop, they brought his record to six G1 winners from two crops, underlined his versatility in throwing elite runners on turf and dirt and emphasised his ability to produce two-year-olds – an important aspect to a horse who never ran at two. By the following week, Justify was listed as ‘private’ with the chatter suggesting that breeders were signing at around the $300,000 mark.
Figures don’t always matter in these instances. It becomes very much a rich man’s game at this level where prestige often weighs in as a driving factor. International breeders are flocking to Justify in the knowledge that the potential is there for him to develop into one of those rare horses capable of becoming an equally important sire in both the US and Europe.
His sire Scat Daddy was on the verge of assuming that rare status prior to his early death in 2015 and in the case of Justify, the likes of City Of Troy and Just F Y I indicate that the template is already there. What is for certain is that Coolmore will continue to utilise him as if he is a potential champion sire of the future.
Justify ends 2023 in 19th on the leading North American sires’ list by earnings and in joint fourth alongside Munnings in terms of stakes winners with 15. His earnings total of $9.45m also hands him the second-crop sires’ title, but only narrowly ahead of Good Magic, himself an emerging important sire of the future for Hill ’n’ Dale Farm.
Overall, Justify is responsible for 25 stakes winners split between the US, Europe and Australia.
However, it is very much about the future. City Of Troy has been talked of in some quarters as a Triple Crown horse and Opera Singer will likely be a force to be reckoned with. Also don’t forget Ramatuelle, a tough filly for Christopher Head who ran Vandeek close in the G1 Prix Morny. That’s before the American runners headlined by the Breeders’ Cup winners are taken into account.
And for anyone wishing to tap into Justify at a more affordable level, there is also now the option of G1 winner Arabian Lion, his first son to stud who stands at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky.
In Japan …
Equinox, the world’s best horse of 2023, retires to the Shadai Stallion Station at a fee of ¥20m (£106,000), the highest price ever afforded to a first-year Japanese stallion.
From October 2022 to November 2023, Equinox remained unbeaten in six starts in G1 company, many of those wins achieved with a ruthless efficiency that left stars such as Westover, Mostahdaf, Liberty Island, Stars On Earth and Do Deuce trailing in his wake. He was absolutely brilliant in the Japan Cup, winning geared down by four lengths. But for many, the career-defining moment likely came in the Dubai Sheema Classic, where he easily dispatched a field of seven G1 winners.
Equinox’s achievements naturally did plenty to showcase the ability of his sire Kitasan Black, another Japanese champion and seven-time G1 winner. Equinox is from the 83-strong first crop of Kitasan Black while Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas) winner Sol Oriens is from his second. As such, the son of Black Tide will stand at the Shadai Stallion Station for ¥20m in 2024, up from ¥10m (£55,000).
• View the latest TRC Global Rankings for Sires – overall / dirt sires / turf sires
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