Bill's Columns

For European sires who went to stud between 2012-2014, so whose first foals are 5-, 4-, and 3-year-olds of 2018, their proximity to Frankel on the racetrack figured to be an important pointer to their prospects as sires, and so it has proved. Coolmore’s Zoffany, a son of Dansili who maybe gave Frankel the biggest scare of his career in the 2011 G1 St. James’s Palace S. at Royal Ascot as a 3-year-old, was the first of those who was in relatively close proximity to Frankel to go to stud, and had his first foals in 2013 (now 5-year-olds). He was comfortably the leading European Freshman Sire of 2015, and is now a solidly established mid-range sire standing for €25,000.

Frankel, who retired to Juddmonte’s Banstead Manor Stud, himself had his first foals in 2014, as did old adversaries Nathaniel, at Newsells Park, and Excelebration, at Coolmore. Frankel’s results have been nothing short of sensational. The statistics in these tables were run after racing of Saturday, June 2. The next day the 4-year-old Mozu Ascot became Frankel Black-Type Winner number 25 from his first two crops, his 18th Group winner (that’s 8.2% of his named foals in those two crops, about the same percentage as Galileo himself), and his third Group 1 winner – interestingly, his second in Japan. Though he trails Darley’s Helmet (sire of Thunder Snow, winner of $6-million in the 2018 G1 Dubai World Cup) and Nathaniel (sire of Enable, winner of €2,857,000 in last year’s G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe) by cumulative progeny earnings in these lists (keeping in mind the Blood-Horse adjusts Japanese earnings to a ‘par’ with North American earnings), the black-type figures tell the story here. Frankel has 25 Black-Type Winners; Nathaniel is second among European third-crop sires, with nine. Frankel has 18 Group winners; Nathaniel is second, with four. And Frankel has three Group 1 winners; Helmet, Nathaniel, Rajsaman, and Excelebration have one each.

The one horse who was most under the radar of Frankel’s top-class opponents, all of whom were Group 1 winners themselves away from Frankel, was Godolphin’s Farhh, who is by Pivotal out of the dual German G1 winner Gonbarda, by Lando. Farhh only ran ten times – once at two, once late as a 3-year-old, then six times at four, in 2012, and two times at five in 2013. He won his start at two and his start at three, and his first start at four – a maiden and two handicaps – then trainer Saeed bin Suroor fired him into Group 1 company. He was third to So You Think in the G1 Prince of Wales’s S., then was second in four consecutive Group 1’s: second to Nathaniel in the G1 Eclipse S.; second to Frankel (six lengths) in the G1 Sussex S. at a mile, then second to Frankel again (seven lengths) in the G1 Juddmonte International; then second to the champion race mare Moonlight Cloud in the G1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. As a 5-year-old, then, in 2013, Farhh finally won his first stakes race – the G1 Lockinge S. at a mile, at Newbury in May. He didn’t run again until October, when he won the G1 British Champion S. on Champions Day at Ascot. Total: 10 starts; 5 wins, 4 second, 1 third, all five placings in Group 1 races. He ran RPR’s of 126 or 127 five times.

So Farhh was undoubtedly a for-real Group 1 horse, but he was still under the radar, with only 33 named foals in his first crop, foals of 2015 and now 3-year-olds. He maybe surprised a few people by appearing on the freshman sire lists by virtue of siring Wells Farhh Go, a surprise winner of the G3 Acomb S. at York last August, for Northern trainer Tim Easterby; and Dee Ex Bee, who placed in two Listed races at two for another Northern trainer, Mark Johnston. Going into last weekend Farhh ranked just 20th by cumulative progeny earnings for European second-crop sires, but on June 2 Dee Ex Bee, who had placed in two more black-type races this term, placed in his fifth black-type race. This one just happened to be the G1 Epsom Derby, though, and Dee Ex Bee’s second placing in that earned him £322,500. That wasn’t too far off what all his runners had earned up until then, and it vaulted Farhh from 20th to sixth spot among European second-crop sires, now with cumulative progeny earnings totalling US$783,115. Hopefully this is the last of Farhh’s time under the radar; he definitely deserves to hit the radar screens now.

Then, after Farhh moved into sixth, three of the top five European second-crop sires had significant results on June 3, which was G1 Prix du Jockey-Club (French Derby) day at Chantilly. Intello, who had moved into fifth on the list of European second-crop sires, had the third and fourth in the French Derby, which will now propel him into fourth, ahead of Havana Gold. Dabirsim had the French Derby fifth so solidifies his hold on third spot; and Camelot got his third Group winner when his filly Pollara won the G3 Prix de Royaumont, moving him to within $50,000 of Society Rock for top spot among European second-crop sires. Camelot has 13 black-type horses so far this year; Society Rock has three. The writing is very much on the wall in that contest.

Among North American third-crop sires (first foals 2014, four-year-olds of 2018), WinStar’s Bodemeister retains the top spot, with cumulative progeny earnings now over $8-million. Union Rags edges past Dialed in for second, and fourth-ranked Creative Cause tops the $7-million mark in cumulative progeny earnings. Creative Cause has also edged past Dialed in by 2018 earnings, with G1 Kentucky Oaks winner Monomoy Girl’s sire, Tapizar, third by 2018 earnings, and Bodemeister fourth. The Factor, currently in Japan, is fifth by both 2018 and cumulative progeny earnings.

No change at all among the top ten North American second-crop sires by cumulative progeny earnings: the once and future Take Charge Indy holds the top spot, ahead of Violence and leading 2017 freshman sire Overanalyze.