Nancy Sexton with her unmissable annual round-up of the stallions who command the highest fees on the planet
As the home of Dubawi and Frankel, Britain again holds the aces when it comes to the world’s most expensive stallions. The pair remain at the head of the world’s elite on a figure of £350,000 – but they are closely followed on this occasion by Wootton Bassett, whose new fee of €300,000 makes him the most expensive sire in Ireland.
Nancy Sexton: The world’s ten most expensive sires for 2024
Lope De Vega creeps into the standings for the first time this year to give Ireland three of the top ten. With Siyouni flying the flag for France, the odds are stacked in Europe’s favour with the consequence that the list isn’t as international as previous years.
However, North America – and specifically Kentucky – stands firm with a trio of $250,000 horses in Gun Runner, Into Mischief and Justify alongside Curlin at a slightly reduced $225,000.
1. DUBAWI
2002 b h Dubai Millennium - Zomaradah (Deploy)
Stands: Dalham Hall Stud, Newmarket, UK
2025 fee: £350,000
(covered 106 mares at a fee of £350,000 in 2024)
#2 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
Dubawi’s fee of £350,000, which once again places him alongside Frankel as the world’s joint most expensive sire, is reflective of a substantial body of work that encompasses 59 G1 winners, 291 stakes winners, a cluster of successful sire sons and growing presence as a broodmare sire.
The elder statesman of Europe at 23, Dubawi has commanded £350,000 since 2023. He has been well managed at his long-term home of Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket and despite his advancing years, still covered a good-sized book of 106 mares in 2024. He is now at the stage of his career where breeders use him as a means of adding a collector’s item to their herds, especially given that he is today primarily the domain of the Maktoum family and their associates; for instance, only 29 of his 2024 book belonged to outside breeders.
Some subscribe to the theory that stallions become less productive as they get older but anyone wishing to shell out £350,000 on October 1, 2025, does so in the knowledge that Dubawi’s recent crops proves he remains at the height of his powers. In turn, his yearlings averaged 780,000gns in Europe, although a number were retained by their breeders as illustrated by the clearance rate of 52 per cent.
He sired 25 stakes winners in Europe during 2024, more than any other sire, and 33 overall worldwide, matched only in Europe by Lope De Vega. Long a major key to the Godolphin operation, Charlie Appleby’s year was once again aided by a number of talented Dubawis led by Notable Speech, a fourth 2,000 Guineas winner for his sire who later won the Sussex Stakes and ran third in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Rebel’s Romance returned to add further to his globe-trotting resume with G1 wins in the Dubai Sheema Classic, Champions & Chater Cup, Preis von Europa and a second edition of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, while Master Of The Seas struck in the G1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland.
Godolphin also houses Ancient Wisdom, the 2023 Futurity Trophy winner who went on to win the G3 Bahrain Trophy at three, and Arabian Crown, who made an impressive winning return in the G3 Classic Trial at Sandown only to have his season cut short by injury. Both should take high order at four while among the three-year-olds, Ancient Truth is around 12-1 for the 2,000 Guineas following a season highlighted by a win in the G3 Superlative Stakes.
Dubawi also supplied the Oaks winner Ezeliya, an Aga Khan homebred who unfortunately wasn’t seen again following her Epsom success. Coolmore’s continued support of the stallion, meanwhile, provided them with the G1-performing 3yos Henry Longfellow and Wingspan in addition to 2yos such as Delacroix, the G3 Autumn Stakes winner who came within a head of becoming Dubawi’s second consecutive winner of the G1 Futurity Stakes at Doncaster, and G1 Fillies’ Mile third Ballet Slippers.
Delacroix was nosed out at Doncaster by Dubawi’s grandson Hotazhell, a member of the second crop of Too Darn Hot. The young Darley stallion has rapidly emerged as a force in both hemispheres, with last year’s Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Fallen Angel leading the charge in Europe and multiple G1-winning colt Broadsiding the star of a powerful collection of early representatives in the southern hemisphere.
Too Darn Hot is already an important part of the European bloodstock landscape, as is fellow Darley-based Dubawi son Night Of Thunder. The latter has had to make his way off a lower base, his fee having dropped to £15,000 in his third and fourth seasons. Indeed, leading 3yo Economics was part of his €25,000 crop while the top 2yo fillies Desert Flower and Fairy Godmother were bred when he stood for €75,000. With an excellent 2024 that consisted of 18 European stakes winners, he is now standing for a career high of €150,000.
Night Of Thunder’s European stakes tally was matched by Haras de Bonneval’s Zarak, whose year was highlighted by G1 wins for Metropolitan in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Prix Ganay winner Haya Zark. He finished the year as a top 20 European sire by earnings – quite an achievement for a horse who didn’t stand beyond €12,000 until 2022. Zarak now stands for €80,000 while proven G1 sire New Bay helps underpin the Ballylinch Stud roster at €70,000.
With a number of sons still to come through, several of them at Darley, there is a real momentum behind Dubawi’s legacy that is complemented by a record as a broodmare sire that consists of ten G1 winners, among them Derby winner Adayar and Melbourne Cup winner Without A Fight.
1= FRANKEL
2008 b h Galileo - Kind (Danehill)
Stands: Banstead Manor Stud, Newmarket, UK
2025 fee: £350,000
(covered 192 mares at a fee of £275,000 in 2024)
#1 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
The former British and Irish champion sire achieved his fifth consecutive top five placing, on this occasion finishing in fourth behind Dark Angel, Galileo and Dubawi.
It wasn’t Frankel’s most prolific year – but that is also a reflection of the high standards associated with the horse throughout his life. Retired to Juddmonte’s Banstead Manor Stud with a weight of expectation as arguably the greatest racehorse of the recent era – an assertion supported by a Timeform rating of 147 – he has duly received consistent support from some of the world’s leading breeders.
However, he has delivered, with his first eight European crops producing between them close to 140 stakes winners including the winners of the Derby (Adayar), 2,000 Guineas (Chaldean), Oaks (Anapurna and Soul Sister), St Leger (Logician and Hurricane Lane) and Arc (Alpinista). Indeed, he is the fastest stallion to hit 100 Group/Graded stakes winners in history.
There were no Classic winners in 2024, but there is a winter Classic favourite in Lake Victoria, the year’s dominant 2yo filly whose remarkable versatility took in victories in the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes, G1 Fillies’ Mile and G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
The Coolmore-bred and owned filly belongs to Frankel’s final £175,000 crop – the fee rose to £200,000 in 2022 – alongside fellow Ballydoyle inmate Bedtime Story, who provided one of the defining moments of the season when powering clear in the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot. She later followed up in the G3 Silver Flash and G2 Debutante Stakes and although subsequently beaten twice at G1 level, still appeals as a potential top-notcher in the making. Ballydoyle also houses Exactly, who improved throughout the season to sign off her year with an easy victory over colts in the G3 Killavullan Stakes.
Those fillies, all of whom were bred by Coolmore out of G1-performing sprint mares, were among 24 stakes winners for Frankel during the past year. Others include Godolphin’s Measured Time, whose record is starting to gain a globe-trotting flavour via successes in the G1 Jebel Hatta and G1 Manhattan Stakes. Another international performer, Spirit Dancer, won the G2 Neom Turf Cup in Saudi Arabia and G2 Bahrain International Trophy in Bahrain while closer to home in Britain and Ireland, there were Pattern race victories for Diego Velazquez, Outbox, Time Lock and Military Order.
Nor was Frankel ever far away from the headlines when it came to the sale ring. The 4,400,000gns sale of his daughter out of Aljazzi to Amo Racing at the Tattersalls October Sale topped all yearling returns in Europe and the US. Her sale came just minutes before another prized representative, the sister to Alpinista, made 2,500,000gns, also to Amo. Those results helped propel Frankel’s Book 1 average to 938,235gns for 17 sold while a pair of million euro lots at the Goffs Orby Sale, headed by the €2 million sale-topping colt out of Loch Lein, contributed to a similarly weighty average of €730,000 at that particular sale.
It was a similar story at the foal sales during which a sister to Chaldean realised 2,500,000gns to Amo Racing, matching the record previously set back in 1997.
Frankel’s first £200,000 group of 2yos race next year and with more expensively bred crops in the pipeline beyond that, he is in the perfect place to remain the flagship stallion of Britain, especially as Dubawi’s stud career winds down.
As befits his profile, Frankel has a growing number of sons at stud under both codes, one of the earliest being Cracksman, the sire of Ace Impact. Cracksman now has to back that up but a first-crop champion such as Ace Impact is something that can never be taken away from him. G1-winning miler Without Parole has also made a bright start with his first 2yos while G1 winners Chaldean, Mostahdaf, Onesto and Triple Time were all well supported during their first seasons in 2024. Japan, which has long appreciated the merits of Frankel, is also home to the young sires Adayar, Grenadier Guards, Mozu Ascot (a top five first-crop sire) and Westover.
Frankel is also starting to make inroads as a broodmare sire, perhaps not a surprising development given the high-profile nature of his early books. At the time of writing, his daughters had accounted for 11 stakes winners including Sparkling Plenty, who became the first G1 winner in that department when capturing the Prix de Diane in June.
3. WOOTTON BASSETT
2008 b h Iffraaj - Balladonia (Primo Dominie)
Stands: Coolmore, Ireland
2025 fee: €300,000
(covered 223 mares at fee of €200,000 in 2024)
#12 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
The 2024 season was crunch time for Wootton Bassett following his high-profile sale to Coolmore in a multi-million euro deal during the summer of 2021.
The son of Iffraaj, himself winner of the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, had worked his way up the ladder at Haras d’Etreham despite operating with a limited pool of representatives bred off cheap fees; champion Almanzor belonged to a first crop of 23 bred off €6,000 while Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf heroine Audarya was a product of his final €4,000 crop. Thus from an early stage it was apparent that here was a stallion not only capable of upgrading his mares but one who can also be relied upon to impart a dose of precocity and soundness.
Coolmore installed Wootton Bassett at €100,000 for the 2021 season and duly threw their weight behind him as the source of an array of G1 winners and/or producers within that first Irish book.
With that in mind, the pressure was on for the resulting 2022 crop to perform. In the meantime, those final Etreham crops, the last of which was priced at €40,000, did their bit to keep the momentum rolling primarily as the source of three G1 winners in 2023 ranging from King Of Steel to G1-winning 2yos Bucanero Fuerte and Unquestionable, successful in the Phoenix Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
But as anticipated, better was to come. Wootton Bassett ends the year as a record-breaker and boasts 20 European stakes winners overall – but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
There was a period during the latter part of the season when Wootton Bassett seemingly featured front and centre every weekend. The Ballydoyle colts Camille Pissarro, Henri Matisse and Twain all struck at G1 level, taking the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and Criterium International. Twain’s G1 breakthrough came on the same Saint-Cloud card that another son, the Joseph O’Brien-trained Tennessee Stud, won the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud. Ballydoyle also houses the G3 winners Whirl and Ides Of March.
Marc Chan also has an exciting homebred on his hands in G2 winner Green Impact. Over in France, Maranoa Charlie looked a potential world-beater when the unchallenged eight-length winner of the G3 Prix Thomas Bryon.
One of three G3-winning 2yos for his sire in France during 2024, he was subsequently well beaten behind Twain in the Criterium International but still appeals as potentially top-flight performer for his trainer Christopher Head, who also sent out the older representative Top Gear to win the G2 Challenge Stakes at Newmarket.
Wootton Bassett ended the year as Europe’s leading 2yo sire with prize-money of over £2.65 million. There were 13 2yo stakes winners overall, four at G1 level and ten in Pattern company. The latter figure represented a new record, smashing the previous high of seven held jointly by former Coolmore heavyweights Galileo and Danehill.
There’s no doubt that Wootton Bassett is an influence for precocity but they tend to be sound, genuine horses, all of which naturally stands them in good stead as older horses. King Of Steel, who won the Champion Stakes at the backend of his 3yo campaign in 2023, was one who progressed markedly from two to three as Almanzor did before him. The 2024 season also included a very capable older performer in Al Riffa, winner of the G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin.
As such, Wootton Bassett heads into his fifth season at Coolmore at a high of €300,000, double what he commanded in 2023. He has a growing band of sons at stud, including Tally-Ho Stud’s new pair King Of Steel and Bucanero Fuerte.
In the meantime, there is another powerfully-bred 2yo crop to come, among them a youngster out of Park Bloom who set a new European record for a yearling colt at auction when sold at Tattersalls by his breeder Lodge Park Stud for 4,300,000gns to Amo Racing.
4. SEA THE STARS
2006 b h Cape Cross - Urban Sea (Miswaki)
Stands: Gilltown Stud, Ireland
2025 fee: €250,000
(covered 172 mares at a fee of €200,000 in 2024)
#7 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
Sea The Stars’s fee takes another step forward for 2025, rising from €200,000 to €250,000 to make him the world’s fourth most expensive stallion.
Gilltown Stud’s venerable sire boasts a roll call of 22 G1 winners and 135 stakes winners overall highlighted by various household names such as Baaeed, Stradivarius and Crystal Ocean alongside the European Classic winners Harzand, Taghrooda, Sea The Moon, Sea Of Class, Miss Yoda and Star Catcher.
It is a substantial body of work and one that gained further ground in 2024 when he was Europe’s leading 3yo sire. He was aided in that department through the deeds of Sosie, whose progressive 3yo campaign for Andre Fabre took in a win in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris and placing in the Prix du Jockey Club.
There were also European G2 wins for Aventure, Hanalia and Sweet William to help push Sea The Stars into third on the leading European sires’ list by earnings. Legend Of Time, Ottoman Fleet and Silver Lady also struck in G2 company in the US and Dubai for Godolphin; it was interesting to note that particular operation making a concerted effort to target his stock at the yearling sales, where it accounted for his two highest-priced yearlings in a 1,600,000gns filly out of Oriental Magic and 875,000gns colt out of Bighearted. It also paid €1 million for a colt foal out of Ambivalent at the Goffs November Sale.
Sea The Stars is an open book as far as breeders are concerned. He can be relied upon to impart class but an element of patience is also required, which makes the juvenile season of his 12th crop son The Lion In Winter, the unbeaten G3 Acomb Stakes winner and early Derby favourite, all the more impressive. Most come into their own as 3yos and beyond, particularly when sent over middle-distances, for which Sosie was another example last year.
As such, his sons have become favourites with the National Hunt community. At last count, there were ten stationed in dual-purpose roles in Britain and Ireland including seven-time G1 winner Stradivarius, who has also been well supported by the Flat sphere at the National Stud in Newmarket, Crystal Ocean, Harzand, Mojo Star and Fifty Stars.
Thankfully, his legacy has its chance to prosper on the Flat as well thanks to Shadwell’s champion Baaeed, whose first crop of foals sold for up to 400,000gns in 2024. Deutsches Derby winner Sea The Moon had another good year at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, notably as sire of the G1 German colts Fantastic Moon and Assistent; the former should be popular in his own first season at Gestut Ebbesloh in Germany this season.
As for Sea The Stars’s year as a broodmare sire, he was very much to the fore on Arc day when his daughters supplied the Prix Marcel Boussac and Prix de l’Abbaye heroines Vertical Blue and Makarova.
5. GUN RUNNER
2013 ch h Candy Ride - Quiet Giant (Giant’s Causeway)
Stands: Three Chimneys Farm, Kentucky, USA
2025 fee: $250,000
(covered 200 mares at $250,000 in 2024)
#6 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
It is short odds that Three Chimneys Farm have a champion sire of the future on their hands in Gun Runner. As it is, he ends 2024 in second behind the perennial US leader Into Mischief, with whom he jointly shares the mantle of most expensive North American sire alongside Justify.
Given that Gun Runner is eight years younger than Into Mischief, the fact he has been able to achieve such a lofty status is testament to a rise that has been little short of meteoric.
His end-of-year total of $22.15 million was aided by 12 Graded stakes winners, four of them at G1 level, among a clutch of 132 winners overall. It’s a fair feat considering Gun Runner’s first crop have only just turned six. As such, he is operating with 432 foals of racing age on the ground; by comparison, Into Mischief has 1,651.
It is the sheer depth of quality that makes Gun Runner so impressive. Of the 126 foals in his first crop, 18 are stakes winners, led by Cyberknife, Early Voting, Echo Zulu, Gunite, Society and Taiba, each of them a G1 winner who featured among leading 3yos of their generation.
G1 winner Vahva is the highlight of a slightly quieter second crop but it his third, which have just turned four, that has really helped to consolidate his place as one of America’s elite stallions.
Leading the way among its ten stakes winners is Sierra Leone, the Kentucky Derby runner-up who put it all together when it mattered to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The 2023 G1 Keeneland Breeders’ Futurity winner Locked also recently returned from absence to land the G2 Cigar Mile.
They contributed to a year when Gun Runner’s progeny also took two of the four G1 races on the Kentucky Derby undercard (Vahva in the Derby City Distaff and Gun Pilot in the Churchill Downs Stakes) and ran first and third in the G1 Ballerina Handicap at Saratoga (Society and Vahva). Each were bred while Gun Runner stood for $70,000; his fee didn’t hit six figures until set at $125,000 in 2022.
Gun Runner’s stud record possesses a smattering of good 2yos, Locked and this year’s G3 Bob Hope Stakes winner Bullard being current examples. But there’s a refreshing element of durability to some of his older progeny, among them Gunite, whose three-season career took in nine wins in 21 starts including a pair of G1s in the Hopeful and the Forego, and Society, winner of eight of 15 starts.
Appropriately, the pair were trained by Steve Asmussen, who sent out Gun Runner to win six G1 races including the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Pegasus World Cup. He also trained the stallion’s ill-fated first-crop champion Echo Zulu.
If there’s one void to be filled on his stud record, it is the presence of a top-flight turf performer. That won’t matter in the dirt-driven Kentucky market but it could end up hindering his worldwide appeal. It could be that he just hasn’t received the opportunity to do so yet, something which will change shortly in light of the recently support sent his way by Coolmore (G1 winners Clemmie, Magic Wand and Campanelle each have foals on the ground by the stallion) and Watership Down Stud among others.
Meanwhile, the next chapter is being written. Kentucky is home to six sons, including Cyberknife, Early Voting, Gunite, Pappacap and Taiba, who covered over 900 mares between them in 2024. Three Chimneys also welcomes Gun Pilot to its roster at a fee of $17,500.
5= INTO MISCHIEF
2005 b h Harlan’s Holiday - Leslie’s Lady (Tricky Creek)
Stands: Spendthrift Farm, Kentucky, USA
2025 fee: $250,000
(covered 193 mares at a fee of $250,000 in 2024)
#5 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
Another year, another record for Into Mischief. The flagship Spendthrift stallion, who made his name off cheap, early crops that once dropped as low as 31 foals, won his sixth consecutive American sires’ championship in 2024, this time off a jaw-dropping total of approximately $34.5 million.
The figure, which is over $12 million ahead of his closest pursuer Gun Runner, marks yet another new record for Into Mischief and does so having smashed his previous mark of $28.122 million set in 2023. For the record, each title has been recorded with a total no lower than $18.881 million.
A tally of 36 black-type winners not only also led worldwide standings but was also a new personal best. 17 of them scored in Graded stakes company including five G1 winners to bolster a record that consists of 22 in its entirety. No other stallion could touch him when it came to 2024 metrics, and that includes his 250 winners and 60 black-type horses.
There was an early indication that 2024 could be another record year when Laurel River wired the field to land the Dubai World Cup for Juddmonte. Meanwhile, closer to home Newgate won the Santa Anita Handicap, Leslie’s Rose took the Ashland and Gina Romantica captured the First Lady; the latter is a further demonstration of Into Mischief’s sneaky prowess as a turf sire, which was reflected in a year-end grass prize-money total of $5.965 million.
He also reigns as the year’s champion 2yo sire thanks to a group of six stakes winners headlined by the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile hero Citizen Bull, who also won the G1 American Pharoah. The Bob Baffert-trained colt is currently well favoured in some quarters to become Into Mischief’s third winner of the Kentucky Derby after Authentic and Mandaloun.
Kentucky is now naturally host to a number of Into Mischief’s sons, 12 to be precise. Coolmore’s Practical Joke remains the most important as the sire of 43 stakes winners. Now priced at $75,000, he threw two G1 winners in 2024 in Domestic Product, the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes winner who has joined his sire at Ashford Stud, and Ways And Means, successful in the Test Stakes.
Practical Joke wound up in ninth on the leading sires’ list, three spots ahead of Into Mischief’s ever-reliable son Goldencents, who joined rarefied company as the sire of Kentucky Derby hero Mystik Dan and as such appeals as good value at $10,000 at Spendthrift Farm.
Goldencents helped offer an insight into the extent of Into Mischief’s legacy during the Santa Anita card on December 26 as the sire of G2 Laffit Pincay Jr Stakes winner J B Strikes Back. Not long after, another Spendthrift-based son of Into Mischief, young $15,000 stallion Maximus Mischief, supplied the G1 Malibu Stakes winner Raging Torrent.
Spendthrift also stands Authentic, for whom a late flurry of first-crop 2yo scorers helped push him beyond the 20-winner mark for the season. Better as a 3yo himself, he will be better judged this time next year.
5= JUSTIFY
2015 ch h Scat Daddy - Stage Magic (Ghostzapper)
Stands: Ashford Stud, Kentucky, USA
2025 fee: $250,000
(covered 263 mares at a private fee in 2024)
#20 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
Justify was switched from his originally advertised fee of $200,000 to ‘Private’ ahead of last season as the momentum gathered off the back of an outstanding autumn. In Europe, he had two champion 2yos working for him in City Of Troy and Opera Singer.
In the US, there were the Breeders’ Cup-winning fillies Just F Y I, also crowned the champion of her division following her success in the Juvenile Fillies, and Hard To Justify, who struck in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. And in Australia, there was a fierce word for the emerging juvenile Storm Boy; he duly went on to win his first four starts, including the G2 Skyline Stakes prior to a high-profile sale to the Coolmore partners.
First-crop representatives Arabian Lion and Aspen Grove had also landed G1s during the course of 2023, all of which served to make Justify global hot property as the 2024 covering season commenced.
Here was a horse seemingly in the midst of developing into an elite force on both turf and dirt and one who could bridge the gap between both hemispheres – in other words not too dissimilar to his own sire Scat Daddy, who was on the cusp of gaining such recognition at the time of his early death in 2015.
The exact figure(s) that Justify stood for last season are known by only those in the inner circle but if the chatter is to be believed, then it made the stallion the most expensive to stand in North America in 2024. At this level, it is very much a rich man’s game, where prestige can outweigh financial perspective, and breeders were undeterred by the fee hike, his sizeable book of 263 mares representing a who’s who of international breeders. According to recent marketing by Coolmore, it included nine champions, 52 G1 winners and 23 G1 producers, among them Found, Gamine, Immortal Verse, Love, Magical, Malathaat, Minding, Newspaperofrecord, Rhododendron, Tuesday and Winter.
Coolmore have supported this American Triple Crown winner as if he’s the second coming throughout his stud career and as that list shows, they did so again to strong effect in 2024.
Of course, they have been extremely well rewarded via the likes of City Of Troy, Opera Singer and the G2 winner Statuette, who looked exciting for Ballydoyle during her brief career – but it also works both ways given each are out of either G1 winners or producers.
City Of Troy was again the leading light of Justify’s year on the track in 2024, although not before a major blip occurred when the colt threw in a surprisingly underwhelming run in the 2,000 Guineas. He was brilliant after that, however, with top-level wins in the Derby, Eclipse Stakes and Juddmonte International confirming his place as Europe’s champion 3yo colt before his no-show on dirt at the Breeders’ Cup.
Opera Singer also took the G1 Nassau Stakes while Ramatuelle gained a deserved G1 victory in the Prix de la Foret following placings in the 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes.
Justify ends 2024 in fifth on the leading North American sires’ list by northern hemisphere earnings with a total of just over $15 million. A total of 41 black-type horses falls second to only Into Mischief.
However, quite whether Justify is at the stage where his progeny can be labelled as ‘Galileos with more class’, as described following City Of Troy’s Derby victory by Aidan O’Brien, remains open to debate – especially as his 2022 American crop, bred off $125,000, is currently falling behind as the source of just the one stakes winner, Totally Justified. Having said that, Ruling Court, the €2.3 million Arqana May sale-topper, remains a colt of potential for Godolphin.
What is certain is that Justify will continue to be backed to the hilt by his owners, who have successfully cultivated him as an outlet for their many high-performing Galileo mares, as well as another array of leading international breeders.
Justify now has a number of sons at stud including of course City Of Troy, the most expensive new European stallion of 2025 at €75,000. There are also five stationed in the US and Canada, among them G1 winner Arabian Lion at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky.
8. CURLIN
2004 ch h Smart Strike - Sheriff’s Deputy (Deputy Minister)
Stands: Hill ’n’ Dale Farm, Kentucky, USA
2025 fee: $225,000
(covered 102 mares at a fee of $250,000 in 2024)
#4 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
The ever-reliable Curlin signed off 2024 with yet another potential Classic prospect in Journalism, the impressive winner of the G2 Los Alamitos Futurity over another by the sire in Getaway Car.
However, it was the older horses who did most of the heavy lifting for Curlin in 2024. As ever, they were a high-profile group, in this case consisting of Juddmonte’s champion mare Idiomatic, who returned to win the G1 La Troienne and G1 Spinster Stakes, Godolphin’s homebred Highland Falls, winner of the Jockey Club Cup, and Alpha Delta Stables’ homebred Raging Sea, winner of the Personal Ensign. Each provided a snapshot into the assets that a typical Curlin can possess, notably two-turn dirt class and a soundness and constitution that allows them to thrive as older horses.
Overall, there were 14 stakes winners in 2024, 12 of them Graded, that helped contribute to a prize-money total of around $13.5 million.
In turn, he continues to command great respect in the sale ring, which played out in the presence of six million-dollar yearlings in 2024. They included the $5 million Keeneland September sale-topper, a colt out of Cavorting knocked down to Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm.
Meanwhile, various sire sons continue to enhance his legacy, notably fellow Hill ’n’ Dale stallion Good Magic, whose year was highlighted by the G1 deeds of Dornoch (Preakness Stakes), Muth (Arkansas Derby) and Mixto (Pacific Classic). Dornoch and Muth are new to the Kentucky stallion ranks for 2025, joining Dornoch’s brother Mage, the 2023 Kentucky Derby winner whose first foals arrive this year.
Among Curlin’s other sons, Vino Rosso and Connect are proven but affordable options at Spendthrift and Lane’s End Farms. Plenty of weight has also been thrown behind the younger champions Cody’s Wish and Elite Power at their respective bases of Darley and Juddmonte, where they covered debut books of 165 and 203 mares at sizeable fees in 2024. Claiborne Farm has also added Bright Future to its roster.
9. SIYOUNI
2007 b h Pivotal - Sichilla (Danehill)
Stands: Haras du Bonneval, France
2025 fee: €200,000
Covered 130 mares at a fee of €200,000 in 2024
#21 on the TRC Global Rankings
The Aga Khan Studs’ stalwart sire reigns as the leading French-based sire by French earnings for the eighth consecutive time. He falls just outside the top ten in Europe but that statement fails to do justice to a year that featured G1 wins for Baron Edouard de Rothschild’s admirable mare Mqse De Sevigne in the Prix Ganay, Prix Rothschild and Prix Jean Romanet, plus international G1 placings for top Japanese colt Shin Emperor.
Within the 2yo division, the Aga Khan’s homebred Zarigana looked a talent out of the ordinary when running away with her first two starts including the G3 Prix d’Aumale. Later nosed out of victory in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac on bad ground, she appeals as a likely Classic prospect for Francis-Henri Graffard next season. Another 2yo representative, Mount Kilimanjaro, was second in the G1 Criterium de International.
Overall, there were 12 stakes winners in Europe while another strong year in the ring was highlighted by a 3,700,000gns filly out of Shambolic sold by Newsells Park Stud to Godolphin at the Tattersalls October Sale.
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 thanks to a series of top-flight performers such as Sottsass, Paddington, Tahiyra, Laurens and St Mark’s Basilica. The majority were bred before Siyouni hit €100,000; he is due to stand his second season in 2025 at a career-high of €200,000.
It promises to be a defining year as far as Siyouni’s reputation as a sire of sires is concerned. That is primarily due to the first runners for St Mark’s Basilica, now one of two sons of Siyouni based at Coolmore alongside Paddington following the sale of Sottsass to Japan. The latter has made a solid start at stud as the sire of 12 first-crop winners in Europe but so far lacks a stand-out performer.
10. LOPE DE VEGA
2007 ch h Shamardal - Lady Vettori (Vettori)
Stands: Ballylinch Stud, Ireland
2025 fee: €175,000
(covered 175 mares at a fee of €125,000 in 2024)
#11 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
No active stallion could surpass Lope De Vega’s 2024 tally of six G1 winners while his 33 northern hemisphere black-type winners was matched only by Dubawi among the European-based stallions. The Ballylinch Stud stalwart is also Europe’s second-leading sire by prize-money behind Camelot and a top five European sire when it comes to 2yos. Hence the revision in fee to €175,000, up from €125,000.
There were two French Classic winners in Look De Vega, who emulated his sire by winning the Prix du Jockey Club, and the Aga Khan’s homebred Rouhiya, successful in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches. They were produced in the season that Lope De Vega’s fee broke six figures for the first time at €100,000. That subsequently rose to €125,000, for which champion 2yo Shadow Of Light, Godolphin’s Dewhurst and Middle Park Stakes winner, is the first major advert.
One of the great assets to Lope De Vega is his ability to exert a presence on a global scale. Stateside representatives such as Newspaperofrecord and Aunt Pearl helped ensure an early following in the US, where he was again advertised to good effect during the past year by G1 winners Program Trading and Carl Spackler.
Similar comments apply to Australia. Lope De Vega shuttled for a brief period to Patinack Farm, where he left behind four G1 winners. Another joined the list in October when the ex-Irish performer Duke De Sessa captured the G1 Caulfield Cup.
Lope De Vega has a handful of sons at stud including one of the more productive second-crop stallions of 2024 in Phoenix Of Spain, sire of the Classic-placed Haatem out of his first 3yos. Lope Y Fernandez and Lucky Vega come under scrutiny with their first European runners in 2025 although Lucky Vega is already off to a rapid start down under where his first runners include the Listed-placed Vega For Luck. Meanwhile, Look De Vega has joined his sire at Ballylinch Stud for 2025.
Lope De Vega’s burgeoning reputation as a broodmare sire also took another step forward in 2024 with a quintet of European stakes winners led by the G2 Prix Saint-Alary heroine Birthe and unbeaten G3 Acomb Stakes winner The Lion In Winter.
Further afield….
As ever, it is the Shadai Stallion Station that dictates the top end of the Japanese stallion market. At ¥20,000,000, the proven pair of Kizuna and Kitasan Black alongside the latter’s son Equinox are the most expensive stallions based in Japan. The figure equates to around £102,000, €122,000 or $128,000
Kizuna, who was Japan’s busiest sire of 2024 as the recipient of 218 mares, gained a deserved breakthrough in 2024 as Japan’s champion sire, making him the first son of Deep Impact to land the title and handing him a hefty fee rise from €12,000,000 (£61,000) in the process. Kizuna’s year pivoted around the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas) winner Justin Milano, who was also runner-up in the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby). However, he was just one of 15 stakes winners during the year in total; next best by that metric is fellow Shadai stallion Maurice on 11.
Kitasan Black finished in 10th, his year highlight arriving in late December when 2yo Croix Du Nord maintained his unbeaten record in the G1 Hopeful Stakes at Nakayama. It is his place as the sire of Equinox, however, that makes him such a desirable proposition for breeders. Kitasan Black’s fee was doubled to ¥20,000,000 in the aftermath of Equinox’s championship career and he was one of Japan’s most popular stallions last season, covering 191 mares.
As for six-time G1 winner Equinox, he received a debut book of 203 mares at ¥20,000,000, the highest price ever afforded to a first-year Japanese stallion.
In Australia, the top fee of A$275,000 is commanded jointly by I Am Invincible and Zoustar, who between them finished first and second in the Australian sires’ championship for 2023-24.
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