ALMOST any trainer would be delighted to win a couple of Group 1 races in their career. This helps to put into perspective the fact that Aidan O’Brien has landed the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes an incredible 16 times in the last 20 runnings of the race.

A look at the list of winners reveals that it is also a fair pointer to future sire success. Given that it is said that most stallion careers end in failure, it is interesting to take a quick look at how the Ballydoyle winners of this two-year-old contest have done at stud.

Lavery was the first O’Brien-trained winner and he went on to race in South Africa where he later retired to stud. He sired just three stakes-placed runners in 10 small crops. Not an auspicious start!

That was not the case with Fasliyev who was European champion in the only season he raced and who died in 2013. He sired the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Carry On Katie and is broodmare sire of Big Orange.

Minardi won the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes also and was placed in the Irish 2000 Guineas but his sole group winner was My Sweet Baby who won the Italian 1000 Guineas in 2009.

Johannesburg won all his seven juvenile starts, culminating with the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Belmont. He is the sire of some 30 group or graded stakes winners and his Grade 1 winning son Scat Daddy has been responsible for the last two winners of the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes. His daughters have produced the Irish classic winners Jet Setting and Seventh Heaven.

Spartacus provided Aidan O’Brien with one of his three Group 1 wins in Italy when he added the Gran Criterium to his haul at two. He has had only moderate success at stud with three group or graded winners.

One Cool Cat ended up in South Korea having gained European champion honours at two and enjoying some success at stud, though none at the highest level. He has sired 22 stakes winners to date.

George Washington has the distinction of a 100% record at stud, his only foal being a winner and stakes placed. Sadly he was blighted by infertility and died when put back in training and suffering a fatal injury at the Breeders’ Cup.

Holy Roman Emperor has enjoyed much international success and has already sired more than 30 group or graded stakes winners. They include the multiple Hong Kong champion Designs On Rome, New Zealand champion Mongolian Khan, 1000 Guineas winner Homecoming Queen, Grade 1 winner Rich Tapestry and Group 1 two-year-old Morandi.

Mastercraftsman is another to enjoy great international success and his five Group 1 winners include Kingston Hill, The Grey Gatsby and Amazing Maria. There is more to come from this grandson of Danehill who is sire of four Phoenix Stakes winners, including Danehill Dancer, grandsire of three more and great-grandsire of another.

Alfred Nobel’s oldest crop are five and he is the sire of a single group winner in Australia and one other stakes winner there.

Zoffany is an emerging sire of quality runners, his son Ventura Storm being his initial Group 1 winner from his first crop, Washington DC being one of seven other group winners, while he is responsible for 13 stakes winners in all.

Perdro The Great stands in France and has his first crop racing in 2017. He is already sire of five winners, headed by the listed winner Feralia and the group-placed Bonita Fransisca. His sire Henrythenavigator sired another winner of the race in Sudirman.

Dick Whittington transferred to Luke Comer following his sale last year for 150,000gns, Air Force Blue covered his first book of mares in 2017 at Ashford Stud at $25,000 and they included the winner of this year’s Keeneland Phoenix Stakes, Sioux Nation, while Caravaggio continues to race for Ballydoyle.