Oppenheim: War Front, Galileo Top APEX Sires

At the end of 2006, a total of 1,156 sires which stood or had stood in North America, Europe, and Japan qualified for APEX ratings, meaning, basically, that they had 10 or more 3-year-olds in the last year covered (in that case, foals of 2003 and 3-year-olds of 2006). By midyear 2014–The Jockey Club Information Systems (TJCIS) ran the data on July 8–the number of sires which qualified was down to a record low of 821. By that measure, there has been a 30% decline in the viable ‘commercial’ stallion population since 2006. 

There are actually 17 different APEX ratings, as veteran readers will know (but may not be able to recite by heart), but the ‘signature tune’ is the A Runner Index. Here’s a very brief recapitulation. To calculate APEX ratings, we collect all the runners by all qualifying sires (10+ 3-year-olds of the final year covered) for each year, in each of five racing jurisdictions covering three regions. The three regions are: North America (USA and Canada); Europe (GB/Ireland, France and Germany); and Japan. For each jurisdiction, for each of the last seven years, we find the top 2% of earners, which are designated ‘A Runners’; the next 2% (B Runners); and the next 4% (C Runners). Combined, they are designated ABC Runners (top 8%). We then simply add up the totals from all five jurisdictions for all seven years (or however many the relevant sire has had runners, if fewer than seven). 

The seven-year limit prevents us from assuming once-great sires are still operating at their peak levels: Gone West and Green Desert were examples of once-great sires whose success rates halved toward the end of their careers. Most importantly, though, the APEX ratings measure “the frequency with which” sires prove capable of producing high-level (ABC Runners) or top-level (A Runners) racehorses. The figures aren’t skewed by one huge earner, as an average-earnings index can be; African Story (GB) (Pivotal)’s $6-million payday in the G1 Dubai World Cup counted him as just another A Runner in this system. 

The A Runner Index is a simple compilation: the average for all qualifying sires is 2% of the runners, so 2.00% A Runners equals an A Runner Index of 1.00. The elite of the elite these days can still top 4.00 A Runner Index, which is 8.00% of their runners. At the end of 2013, the young upstart War Front (Danzig) dethroned nine-time APEX Champion Sire A.P. Indy (Seattle Slew), with the consensus World number one, Galileo (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells), taking second spot, and A.P. Indy third. Midway through 2014 the top three retain their positions, in that order: of the 438 sires which had 200+ year-starters (a horse is counted as a ‘year-starter’ every year it runs, up to seven), Claiborne’s War Front is the number one APEX sire, with an A Runner Index of 4.38% (8.76% of year-starters 2008-2014). That’s based on his having 40 A Runners from 457 year-starters since 2008 (or, in his case, 2010, since that’s when he had his first runners). Coolmore’s Galileo is nearly the world’s most prolific as well as its best sire: he’s had 1725 year-starters since 2008–nearly four times the number War Front’s had. Galileo has had 144 A Runners since 2008, miles ahead of any other North American or European sire (Giant’s Causeway {Storm Cat}, also a Coolmore sire, is a distant second, with 108), which means Galileo has an A Runner Index of 4.17 (8.34% of Runners). The former Lane’s End sire and nine-time APEX champion A.P. Indy remains in third (3.59). 

We specify North American and European sires (at least originally) in this context because we do also compile and publish APEX ratings for Japanese sires. These lists are invariably dominated by Yoshida family stallions, of which two in particular, Deep Impact and King Kamehameha, are the stand-outs. King Kamehameha is the sire of 150 A Runners since 2008–even more than Galileo–and ranks second in Japan with a 3.06 A Runner Index (6.12% of year-starters). Deep Impact, meanwhile, whose oldest foals are just six this year, has sired 119 A Runners and is the leading sire anywhere by A Runner Index, with 4.49 (8.98% of runners). But because Japanese racing is very focused in Japan, in spite of their good record when they ship, it’s more appropriate to consider Japanese sires separately from North American and European stallions. 

Through July 8, and covering racing from the beginning of 2008, there are 30 NA/EU sires with 200+ year-starters and A Runner indexes of 2.50 (5.00%) and above. They’re a mixture, as you might expect, of old, new, and ‘slots’ sires. Horses like Monsun (3.37) and Dynaformer (2.87) still rank high (5th and 13th respectively), not to mention Unusual Heat (3.20), who was claimed for $62,500, but has been the leading sire in California, along with In Excess (Ire), for a decade. Slots state New Mexico provides the now-retired Desert God (3.17), a son of Fappiano who still ranks in a tie for ninth by A Runner Index; while two former Ontario sires, Niigon (2.87, died in 2012) and Philanthropist (2.79, sold to South Africa), by Unbridled and Kris S. respectively, rank equal 13th and 15th. 

Otherwise there are a lot of names you know from both progeny earnings and previous APEX lists: European sires Dansili (3.17), Dubawi (3.06), and (deceased) Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells) (2.98) rank 9th, 11th, and 12th. F2006 North American sires Speightstown (3.45), Medaglia d’Oro (3.19), Tapit (2.66), and Candy Ride (2.65) are all in the top twenty. Adena Springs’s F2007 Ghostzapper (3.23) stumbled at the start of his stud career and now stands for a fraction of where he started, but has climbed back up to achieve a ranking of 6th among the 438 NA/EU sires with 200 or more 2008-2014 year-starters. 

Among younger sires, Lane’s End’s English Channel (2.76) is the highest-rated F2009 sire (first 5-year-olds 2014), ranking 16th, one spot ahead of his veteran sire, also at Lane’s End, Smart Strike (2.71). Darley’s Teofilo (2.55), Richland Hills’ deceased son of Dynaformer, Purim (2.27); Darley’s Discreet Cat (2.24) and Hard Spun (2.11) also figure among the top 50 sires overall by A Runner Index. Among F2010 sires (1st 4-year-olds 2014) – and remembering that a good few of those may not yet have 200 year-starters and thus do not yet qualify for this list–Hill ’n’ Dale’s Midnight Lute (2.63) is top-rated, ranking 21st. Darley’s New Approach (2.14) is the only other F2010 Top 50 qualifier at this stage. 

We are working away at the formatting and will let you know as soon as we have posted the full details for all 821 sires on the TDN website; and we’ll look at some other “Leaders Lists” and younger (F2010 and F2011) sires in next week’s column.