Fairyland (Ire) (Kodiac {GB})'s victory in the G1 Cheveley Park S. and Jash (Ire) (Kodiac {GB})'s second in the G1 Middle Park S. could quite easily be a watershed moment for their sire Kodiac, the younger three-parts brother of top-class sire Invincible Spirit (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}). These two excellent juveniles–plus six other group performers, [...]

May 13, 1977. The legendary Vincent O'Brien sends a grey filly by Sir Ivor to The Curragh for her racecourse debut. In the colours of Robert Sangster worn by stable jockey Tommy Murphy, the filly defies her starting price of 16-1 to win impressively by three lengths. Nothing remarkable about a Ballydoyle runner scoring on [...]

It's 50 years since the great Vincent O'Brien first laid eyes on the imperious Nijinsky II on a yearling inspection trip to America, thus altering for evermore the course of Thoroughbred breeding in Europe. Of course, Nijinsky drew O'Brien's attention to the not inconsiderable merits of Northern Dancer, a stallion that still sets the standard [...]

Like some two-year-old maidens and newcomer races that promise to give us a first glimpse of future stars, it's equally exciting observing a young stallion progress in his first two years with runners at the races. And we are all just as pleased when a new super sire appears on the scene, especially one that [...]

The essence of Quality Road the racehorse was his uncompromising speed at distances short of a mile-and-a-quarter. His 121 Beyer winning the 9-furlong Donn at Gulfstream Park, when he lowered his own track record set a year earlier winning the GI Florida Derby, has not been bettered since at distances beyond a mile. In fact [...]

The early identification of good young broodmare sires is an important endeavor for many breeders. Having a broodmare sire that is in vogue is certainly something than can influence mare buyers or even yearling buyer to make that extra bid at the sales. Our list of stallions are all foaled on or after 2000 and [...]

Great stallions tend to do well with a wide cross-section of mares. If they don't, they simply won't become dominant sires. But breeders tend to look for patterns of success and then repeat them. The Nicks industry is thriving and whether you buy into it or not, there's no doubt that some sires produce good [...]

As we near the end of May, it's quite something to think that Cheveley Park's Pivotal (GB) (Polar Falcon) can already boast three Group 1 winners–Cracksman (GB), Rhododendron (Ire) and Olmedo (Fr), plus probable future Group 1 winner Defoe (Ire)–as a broodmare sire. Currently, he heads the great Galileo (Ire) by about £700,000 on the [...]

Doing well with your first set of runners is neither a prerequisite nor a guarantee of ultimate success as a stallion. But there are certainly strong indicators that a sire's merits do in fact appear quite early. Traditionally, in Britain and Ireland in any case, we tend to quantify freshman sire success by the number [...]

The recent Dubai World Cup meeting shone a very bright light on Thunder Snow (Ire) (Helmet {Aus}), but one aspect of his profile that may have escaped most is that he's out of an outstanding mare in Eastern Joy (GB). This daughter of Dubai Destination was no great shakes as a racehorse, winning once over [...]

Since the turn of the century 12 sires have become champion sire in North America. The title is bestowed for the most progeny earnings worldwide by a North American stallion during the calendar year. The apposite phrase here is worldwide earnings. For had it been based on North American earnings only, then four of the [...]

There is no clearer demonstration of the impact being delivered by Japan's world-class leading sire Deep Impact (Jpn) (Sunday Silence). Our leader board arranged by the percentage of horses to starters rated 100 or higher on the World Thoroughbred Rankings leaves us under no illusions as his dominance. The son of the equally dominant Sunday [...]