The current list of leading sires of unrestricted SWs could be signaling a changing of the guard. Five of the top 10 stallions are under 13-year-old. Indian Charlie and Tribal Rule are 12, Giant’s Causeway and Malibu Moon are 11, and Johannesburg is just nine.
Two of these five, Ashford Stud’s Giant’s Causeway and Johannesburg, are tied for second place with four unrestricted SWs after coming off from big weekends. Giant’s Causeway’s son Heatseeker (Werk Nick Rating: A+) won the G1 Santa Anita Hcp., while Johannesburg was represented by two SWs – Ten Meropa (Werk Nick Rating: A), winner of the G3 Baldwin Stakes, and Gattopardo (Werk Nick Rating: A+), winner of the Miracle Wood Stakes.
To date, Giant’s Causeway is Storm Cat’s best son at stud. There are many ways to measure the success of a stallion. One of the factors I consider when evaluating higher-priced stallions is the number of G1 winners he’s sired. Giant’s Causeway’s star shines bright in this category. With four crops to race, he’s had seven G1 winners, or 1.75 per crop. Granted, he’s done this with very large crops. In fact, his first two crops totaled 303 foals, but he’s sired 10% SWs from those two crops, a remarkable percentage in this day and age. As Bill Oppenheim has pointed out several times in TDN, yesterday’s 10% SWs is today’s 6% SWs with the large foal crops. With these kind of numbers and two colts on the Derby Trail (undefeated Giant’s Moon and Tropical Park Derby winner Cowboy Cal), his $125,000 stud fee should look very, very attractive to breeders right now.
Johannesburg was a truly remarkable racehorse. He was a perfect seven for seven at two, while winning six stakes and named champion 2-year-old colt in England, Ireland, France, and the U.S. By recently-deceased Hennessy, another of Storm Cat’s best sons, and out of a strong Claiborne-family mare-line, he has the right ingredients to become a major stallion, and he’s showing all the rights signs from his first two crops to race. He was a very close second to Street Cry for leading freshman sire honors in 2006. He’s sired 11 first-crop SWs to date (from 143 foals), including G1 winner Scat Daddy and G2 winner Teuflesberg. His smaller second crop (114 foals) just turned three and includes four SWs. The star of the crop is G2 winner and Kentucky Derby candidate Eaton’s Gift. Another important factor is the class of the SWs a stallion produces. Johannesburg excels in this arena as 10 of 15 SWs are graded.
In the next few years it will be interesting to see which of the young lions replace the aging elite. I’m betting Ashford’s dynamic duo will be two of them!
NO. AMERICAN SIRES OF 2008 UNRESTRICTED SWS (Thru 3/2/08)
UNBRIDLED’S SONG (Unbridled) – KY – 6 SWs
GIANT’S CAUSEWAY (Storm Cat) – KY – 4 SWs
JOHANNESBURG (Hennessy) – KY – 4 SWs
A.P. INDY (Seattle Slew) – KY – 3 SWs
EL PRADO (Sadler’s Wells) – KY – 3 SWs
INDIAN CHARLIE (In Excess) – KY – 3 SWs
MALIBU MOON (A.P. Indy) – KY – 3 SWs
SMOKE GLACKEN (Two Punch) – KY – 3 SWs
TRIBAL RULE (Storm Cat) – CA – 3 SWs