IT’S the time of the season when new stallion fees are rolling out each week.The most interesting of the new sires’ fees came two weeks ago. Two champions, one on each side of the ocean, retired. Daryz - dual Arc winner - and Sovereignty, the likely dual Horse of the Year in the US. Neither were really noted as two-year-olds but, at three and four, proved themselves exceptional.
It came as a bit of surprise to see Daryz, son of a great racehorse and sire Sea The Stars, begin his stud career at €50,000. Sea The Stars stands at €300,000. While in America, Sovereignty begins his stud career at much higher $150,000, as a son of top sire Into Mischief who stands at $250,000.
Also in America last week, the leading juvenile of 2025, Ted Noffey, was retired after missing most of his three-year-old season with ‘bone bruising’ and made a pretty poor return in a listed race in November. Based on that, the €60,000 initial fee raised a few eyebrows for another son of Into Mischief.
The five-year-old Knightsbridge, a son of Nyquist ($225,000), who won just one Grade 1 on the track, also enters stud at a high fee - $75,000 compared to a horse in Britain like Bow Echo for £65,000.
Also in Europe, Gstaad and Puerto Rico join the Coolmore rankings. Gstaad is rated just 2lb behind Bow Echo in the World Thoroughbred Rankings and looks reasonable at €25,000.
Two-year exploits
As a dual Group 1 winning two-year-old, and the third son of Wootton Bassett, joining Camille Pissarro (€27,500) and Henri Matisse (€17,500) to go on the Coolmore roster, Puerto Rico’s racing career bears more comparison with Ted Noffey as both reputations are based on their two-year-old exploits. His third to True Love in the Group 1 Qatar Prix de la Foret was his best effort but he comes in at €12,500, in comparison to his US compatriot. Constitution River at €25,000 also joins the team. Of course, Wootton Bassett is the poster boy for accepting a horse on his two-year-old exploits, he rose from €6,000 to €300,000 over his successful stud career.
Night Of Thunder goes to new heights at a whopping €450,000. He’s had a terrific few seasons but I glanced back at his top lots through the sales ring at Goffs and Tattersalls in 2024, these are now three-year-olds.
The top lot at Goffs Orby was Asmeralda at €640,000 who won one maiden in two runs while Ombudsman’s sister Synchronicity was the top lot at Tattersalls Book 1 and, while a terrific breeding prospect, won once in her two racecourse outings. It’s a risky business!
DESPITE the recent ‘invasions’ of Irish horses cleaning up the majority of the top prizes at the Cheltenham Festival, relations have always been on the best of terms!
Those of us of older vintage remember the ‘80s when winners were few and Irish riders didn’t always enjoy the best of relations with authorities.
For a few hours on Festival Wednesday last year, we had memories of the old days with the Declan Queally/Nico de Boinville spat and four Irish-based jockeys were suspended after the start of the Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Hurdle.
Willie Mullins was also not happy on the Thursday, criticising ground conditions and he spoke out again this week about conditions on the old course saying: “J.P. took out Fact To File and we had significant damage from the Thursday and the Friday with some of our runners, which is not on. It needs to be checked and looked at.”
Then he also gave clearer details on the events leading to the positive test for a prohibited substance, a local anaesthetic mepivacaine, and disqualification of Final Demand. The BHA could not determine the exact cause of the finding and opted for low level fines totalling £1,100 as a penalty. Cheltenham were also fined for the loss of CCTV recording in the stabling area.
The BHA had concluded: “the most likely explanation is a low dose contact shortly before sampling”, something that “places the likely contact on raceday in the period between when the race was run, and when the samples were taken.”
Wilie Mullins countered that this week, saying that: “we gave it up about three years ago, because we found through testing that in some horses it stayed way over the three days. They gave an outside view of seven days, and on the eighth day he was running. We have found it actually 19 to 21 days in the horse, so that’s why we won’t use it.”
Following a dry autumn, and Dan Skelton in opposition with a bigger than ever team of horses, the 2027 Festival might be a shade spicier than some of the more recent ones!