THE tables attached to this article will generate many conflicting emotions. A look at the 2018 coverings by three super-sires in Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) and Frankel (Galileo) shows the depth of quality they each received.

All three had roughly similar numbers of mares, and some of their percentages are also quite similar.

However, it is not unexpected that Galileo, as the multiple champion sire, has the largest cohort of Group 1 winners covered at 46, while the three stallions together covered a staggering 113 Group or Grade 1 winners in 2018.

Another feature of the lists is the number of mares owned by Godolphin which visited Galileo and the Coolmore mares who were covered by Dubawi.

Dubawi and Frankel covered more mares aged eight years or younger; therefore it’s no surprise that the mares covered by Galileo this year have already bred 50 individual Group 1 winners (including Frankel himself), while Frankel outscores Dubawi with the dams of 30 individual Group 1 winners compared to his rivals 26.

One of the most fascinating stories lurking among the list of mares visiting Galileo in 2018 was his four graded National Hunt winners, five-time Grade 1 winner Annie Power (Shirocco), three-time Group 1 winner Vroum Vroum Mag (Voix Du Nord), the Grade 1 winner Kotkikova (Marteline) and Grade 2 winning mare Byerley Babe (Beneficial).