NUMERICALLY, five first-season sires have opened up a gap to the chasing pack in the race to head the sires list based on the number of individual winners. Persian Force (Mehmas) is three in front of Blackbeard (No Nay Never), who is in a ding-dong battle with Minzaal (also by Mehmas), Closing in on them is Bayside Boy (New Bay), while Space Traveller (Bated Breath) is the only other stallion in double figures.

Just outside the top 10 is a stallion who may not be so familiar with readers. Rubaiyat (Areion) did all of his winning in Germany and Italy where he was successful at up to Group 2 level, and at up to a mile. His Group 2 wins came in two races that once were Group 1s, the Italian Gran Criterium at two and the Premio Vittorio di Capua two years later. He was runner-up in two classics, the Italian and German editions of their 2000 Guineas.