Broodmare sires of the future
Northern Guest has been the dominant broodmare sire in South Africa for the past 15 years. The former champion sire has headed the log on no fewer than ten occasions, with his daughters producing the likes of G1 winners Pomodoro, J J The Jet Plane and Bold Ellinore, to name just a few.
But what of the up and coming broodmare sires? Last season, three stallions, still active at stud, featured in the top ten on the log. Fort Wood was highest, in sixth position, thanks in party to his G1 Paddock Stakes winning granddaughter, Thunder Daughter. Fort Wood mares, however, produced another 86 winners last season to give him earnings of over R8.5 million.
Another champion sire, Western Winter, was ninth ahead of Caesour.
Remarkably Western’s Winter top earner, Shattered Image, accounted for just 4% of his R5,371,703 earnings as a maternal grandsire! His tally included no fewer than 59 individual winners, and he is also the broodmare sire of Howe Great, a graded stakes winner in North America.
Caesour, who finished ten on the premiership, was represented by dual G1 winner Dancewiththedevil last year. Of the top ten sires on the list, Caesour’s Average Earnings Per Runner as a broodmare sire were highest – a highly respectable R82, 771. He is already broodmare sire of the likes of Goat, Tales of Bravery and SA Derby winner Royal Bencher, and Caesour is another Nureyev son to do well as a maternal grandsire.
Captain Al, whose oldest daughters are just ten, is already broodmare sire of a G1 winner in Potent Power (National Emblem), and it will be interesting to see how he does a broodmare sire with daughters of some of his more fashionably bred daughters from later crops. He could well follow in the footsteps of his sire Al Mufti, who has proven an excellent broodm
Sea The Stars – fourth leading sire, in the world, by average price paid per yearling – with first crop to race in 2013.
re sire.
Sea The Stars vs Cape Cross?
The first progeny of the great champion Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) are yearlings in 2012 and, understandably, have been making waves at all the auction rings they have passed through.
Sea The Stars has had a yearling son top the Arqana Yearling Sale at 1.2 million euros, and last year sold foals for up to 850,000 guineas. These are astounding figures for an unproven sire, yet to be represented by a winner, in a still fluctuating market!
Sea The Stars’ five yearlings at the Arqana Sale sold for a gross total of 2.08 million euros. His average of 416 000 euros was higher than numerous proven top-class sires achieved at the sale – including the world’s very best sire (and Sea The Stars’ half brother) Galileo.
In total, Sea The Stars is currently the fourth leading sire, in the world, by average price paid per yearling. His average of $474, 723 puts him above such top stallions A P Indy, Distorted Humor, Tapit and his half-brother Galileo.
Quite whether or not this he turns out a good buy remains to be seen, but it is hard to imagine he can become a greater sire than the likes of Galileo or A P Indy.
It remains to be seen how his offspring fare at the Tattersalls and Goffs Sales later in the year, but, if previous results are anything to go by, they should continue to fetch top dollar.
However, the true test will come when the champion’s first crop step on to the track in 2013.
Leading Keeneland Stallions
The mammoth Keeneland September Yearling Sale ended recently. The sale, which lasted for 11 days, ran from September 10th to September 21st, and saw increases both in average and median prices.
A Distorted Humor colt, who fetched $1.65 million, was the sales topper, while the top priced filly on sale was a daughter of Smart Strike. She fetched A$1.3 million.
The sale also the final crop of the great racehorse and stallion A P Indy go through the ring. The sire of over 140 stakes winners, A P Indy was not only a dual champion sire in the USA, but has become an important sire of sires, and broodmare sire.
A P Indy did indeed prove popular, and he was the leading sire by average. His nine yearlings to sell fetched $4.195 million and averaged over $460,000. His top priced yearling was a filly out of the G3 winner Moonlight Sonata, and who counts two graded winners as siblings. She fetched $1.1 million, and was the sale’s second top priced filly.
The A P influence was wider reaching than that, however. Grandson Tapit, one of North America’s most popular sires, led the sires list by aggregate. He sold 44 yearlings for an average of $263,000. His top priced yearling was an own brother to the G2 placed performer Tempted to Tapit, who fetched $700,000.
A P Indy sire sons Bernardini and Malibu Moon were also very popular at the sale. Bernardini, who was third leading sire by aggregate, sold 30 yearlings for a gross total of $7.517 million.
His son, a half-brother to G1 winner and ill-fated sire Stormello, cost $1.55 million – and was the sale’s second top lot.
Malibu Moon’s 53 yearlings (!) to sell fetched $7.103 million.
However Malibu Moon’s stock averaged $134, 019, by comparison Bernardini’s yearlings averaged just over $250,000. Top priced Malibu Moon was a filly who sold for $375,000. She is a half-sister to the G1 winner J B’s Thunder (Thunder Gulch).
The leading sire Distorted Humor, a consistent producer of G1 winners, was Keeneland’s second leading sire by aggregate and average (three or more sold). The son of Forty Niner had 28 yearlings fetch a total of $8.932 million at an average price of $319,000.
De Kock Buys Cape Cross Filly
Four yearlings achieved six-figure returns at the Societa Gestiona Aste (SGA) Select Yearling Sale in Milan on Friday, all of which were offered by Isabella Asti Bezzera’s Razza del Sole, which was responsible for the top seven lots sold overall.
Just as he did in France, first-season sire Sea the Stars (Cape Cross) stole the show when his son Nabateo (lot 8) out of Group 3 winner Rosa Del Dubai (Dubai Destination) sold for i250,000 to Marco Botti. Despite being bought by an Italian, the colt can be considered an international purchase as Botti, the son of Italy’s champion trainer Alduino Botti, trains successfully in his own right in Newmarket, which is where his purchase is bound.
Boosting the international contingent were South Africans Jehan Malherbe and Mike de Kock, who paid i30,000 for a Cape Cross (Ire) filly out of G3 Prestige S. winner Sesmen (GB) (Inchinor {GB}) through Armando Duarte for Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum.
“She’ll either go to be trained in the UK or we’ll take her home”, said Malherbe. “I need to discuss that with Sheikh Khalifa, we haven’t decided yet.”
Malherbe confirmed that this was his first time at the sales in Milan, following on from a debut visit to Arqana’s August Sale in Deauville.
“I’ve been going to Goffs and Tattersalls for many years,” he said, “but we thought we’d have a wider look around Europe and try to source a bit of value. This was a lovely filly, and Cape Cross is a really good sire who is constantly undervalued at the sales.”
Trainer Mike de Kock has a satellite stable in the historic Abington Place in Newmarket, the base of Geoff Wragg until his retirement and its purchase by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum in 2009. The yard has recently changed hands again and has been bought by another client of de Kock and Malherbe, Mary Slack of Wilgerbosdrift Stud in South Africa. – extract TDN
Death of Kitalpha
Kitalpha
Former leading Zimbabwean stallion, Kitalpha, has died of cancer in North America. He was 13.
Standing at War Horse Place in Kentucky, Kitalpha was a son of Mr Prospector and champion Miesque. A full brother to leading sire, sire of sires, and broodmare sire Kingmambo, the unraced Kitalpha was also half-brother to dual classic winner East of The Moon.
He sired four champions in Zimbabwe, where he was champion sire three times, and was responsible for a myriad of good performers in South Africa, such as Bluemambo (2nd Cape Derby), Moroccan (G2 Senor Santa Hcp) and Royal Exit. Kitalpha is also the sire of the smart performers The Shark and Killaridge.
At the time of his death, Kitalpha was standing for a $10,000 stud fee – the equivalent of over R80,000. His first two crops to race in the USA included 12 winners.
