Silvano
With the season drawing to a close, the question of who the leading sires are comes into question. Silvano is by a country mile South Africa’s top sire for the 2012-2013 season. The son of Lomitas is over R5.3 million clear of the runner up Jet Master, who is set to lose his sires crown for the first time in seven seasons.
Silvano, recently represented by the 1-3 finishers in the R3 500 000 Vodacom Durban July, has smashed the seasons record for a sire’s progeny earnings. He was represented by 12 individual stakes winners this season in South Africa, of which five were Gr1 winners.
Silvano’s progeny captured three of the country’s richest races – July, Met, and President’s Champion Challenge, and they won features from 1200m to 3600m. The sire was also tops on average earnings per runner, with his offspring averaging over R99 000.
Var
In second place, on the leading sires by AEPR, was Var, who has established himself an outstanding sire of fast, precocious stock. While Horse of the Year Variety Club was Var’s standard bearer for the season, the stallion was also represented by the exceptional sprinting filly, Via Africa, and high-class juvenile Normanz.
Just behind Var on the AEPR list was a sire who enjoyed something of a revival this season – Tiger Ridge. A P Indy’s little brother was represented by a pair of Gr1 winners (Cherry on the Top and Wagner), and his runners’ average earnings was a respectable R72,058, well ahead of the likes of Dynasty, Kahal and Jet Master.
While he could only finish second on the sires list, the late, great Jet Master had a superb season. He was the top sire in the country by individual stakes winners, having been represented by no fewer than 16 black type winners. They include the Gr1 winner Thunder Dance, Gr2 Astrapak 1900 hero Jet Explorer, high-class 3yo Chave de Oura, and Gr2 Colorado King winner E-Jet.
Once again, Kahal was the shining light for KZN sires. The son of Machiavellian, currently in fourth place on the general sires list, is not only one of SA’s best sires, but also an extremely consistent stallion. His seven individual stakes winners in 2012-2013, thus far, include the top-class 3yos Love Struck (Gr1 SA Classic) and Festival of Fire (Gr2 KRA Guineas).
The juvenile sires list is currently headed by Captain Al, who is on track to land his fifth consecutive title as South Africa’s champion sire of 2yos. The son of Al Mufti had another magnificent season with his juveniles, and he is over R500 000 clear of the runner up, leading first crop sire Antonius Pius.
Captain Al had five stakes winning juveniles this season – with Antonius Pius the only other on the list with as many as three. Captain Al’s juveniles included the Gr1 Tsogo Sun Medallion hero Captain Of All, and he was also responsible for a 1-2-3 finish in the Gr3 Kenilworth Fillies Nursery.
A tribute to the quality of Captain AL’s juveniles, is that his Gr1 winner’s earnings have made up just 23% of his overall total thus far. One interesting name on the juvenile sires list is Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), one of the world’s premier stallions.
Dubawi has only been represented by a handful of runners in South Africa, but all have won, and two (Willow Magic and Happy Archer) are Grade One winners. Already an outstanding sire, Dubawi should, eventually, be represented by a sire son in this country.
It is interesting to see the influence that the great US sire A P Indy has had on the local first crop sires log. One son (Judpot) is the country’s second leading season for 2012-2013, while another, Jay Peg, is fifth. Antonius Pius is comfortably clear on the first sires list, with his first local juveniles having earned over R1 500 000 this season.
While the son of Danzig benefited from the huge stake won by his son Ace Antonius in the restricted KZN Yearling Sale Million, Antonius Pius is the leading first crop sire by stakes winners. To date, he has had three stakes winners ahead of the likes of Jay Peg and Judpot, both of whom have had a pair of stakes winners each, to date.
Antonius Pius
The first crop sires list could have a different look to it, however, after the running of the two Gr1 juvenile feature races at Clairwood Park at the end of the month. However, the likes of Antonius Pius, Judpot, Jay Peg and Sail From Seattle (Gone West), in particular, have all stamped themselves as exciting young sires for the future – regardless of the outcome of the sires title.
Fort Wood looks on track to record his first ever broodmare sires title. The son of Sadler’s Wells has had a phenomenal season as a damsire, and his daughters’ progeny have earned over R14 000 000 this season. Fort Wood is the broodmare sire this season of no fewer than 12 stakes winners, who have won an accumulated 19 stakes races.
Amongst the feature race winners produced by Fort Wood mares this season are the multiple Gr1 winners Capetown Noir (Western Winter), Cherry On The Top (Tiger Ridge), Contador (Var), Forest Indigo (Judpot) and Thunder Dance (Jet Master), as well as such stakes winners as Cherry On The Cake (Strike Smartly), Fantastic Mr Fox (Right Approach), General Sherman (Strike Smartly) and Wheredowego (Captain Al).
As can clearly be seen, Fort Wood’s daughters have done well with a number of different sires from various sire lines. Commercially, former Horse of the Year Dynasty truly shone during this past year.
Not only did the son of Fort Wood sire five yearlings who fetched R1 000 000 plus at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book One (including a colt who sold for R3 000 000), but he dominated the National Yearling Sale as well. Dynasty was represented by the 2013 sales topper at the National Sale (a colt who fetched R3 600 000), and was the sire of three of the top five priced lots.
