The siblings of major winners are inevitably burdened with so much expectation. The same is to a lesser extent true of the siblings of great stallions or great producers. For the most part, expectations are often unrealistic.
It is rare to find two or more truly top-class siblings on the track and rarer still to find two or more stallions that have proved equally effective at siring high-class racehorses. In my search, I have set the pass mark at a minimum of 10 stakes winners and at least 10% stakes winners to runners.
Top-class siblings
We are blessed to have Galileo (Ire) and his excellent eight-year younger half-brother Sea The Stars (Ire) in Europe. Both sires were top-class racehorses between 10 and 12 furlongs and Sea The Stars was also pretty handy at a mile. As things stand, Galileo gets stakes winners at a rate of 16.7% and Sea The Stars at 11.7%, performances right out of the top drawer.
Even when we factor in Galileo’s less successful stint in Australia, his stakes-winner rate is still an excellent 14.4%. They both thrive in an environment that respects and cherishes middle-distance racing. In fact, you could say that they dominate the staying race scene in Europe as there are precious few others that have the same class, aptitude and support to achieve as much.
'Even when we factor in Galileo’s less successful stint in Australia, his stakes-winner rate is still an excellent 14.4%." - John Boyce
The last time a European pair of brothers did as well was Galileo’s sire Sadler’s Wells (USA) and his younger brother Fairy King (USA), who had nothing to recommend as a potential stallion other than his famous sire Northern Dancer (Can) and very able older brother.
In the event, breeders didn’t hand him success on a plate. The once-raced colt had to earn his stripes the hard way. But there was early evidence that these two sons of Northern Dancer were set on divergent paths. A comparatively low fee made it more difficult for him to achieve success. But he got there in the end and became a stud companion of his elder brother in 1994 at Coolmore after starting out at Ballysheehan Stud.
Though not as successful as Sadler’s Wells, who sired 294 stakes winners at an outstanding rate of 17.1%, Fairy King amassed 66 stakes winners from his northern hemisphere crops and, given his lowly beginning, his percentage of stakes winners to runners (12.7%) is excellent, right up there with the very best.
Sadler's Wells | Coolmore Stud
Striking gold
Fairy King sired only three crops in Australia. But he struck gold with the first one, siring the speedy Encosta de Lago, who was a Group 1 winner over seven furlongs and was rated 126 by Timeform. History also recounts that Encosta de Lago won the G2 Ascot Vale S., which is the modern day G1 Coolmore Stud S. that has also fallen to his outstanding but ill-fated son Northern Meteor, the sire of another Coolmore hero in Zoustar, who himself got the 1-2-3 in the most recent renewal of the G1 1,200m contest for 3-year-olds.
"Fairy King sired only three crops in Australia. But he struck gold with the first one." - John Boyce
Two other northern hemisphere sets of sire siblings to have topped 10% stakes winners to runners are Rahy (USA) and Singspiel (Ire), and A.P. Indy (USA) and Summer Squall (USA) in America. There is a seven-year gap between Rahy and his younger half-brother Singspiel, which often means that the younger brothers fail to scale the same heights.
A.P. Indy statue | Lane's End Farm
This is because the younger siblings – as is the case with Fairy King – can have inferior race records and therefore attract poorer mares to begin with. But this wasn’t necessarily true of Galileo and Sea The Stars, as their respective Timeform ratings of 134 and 140 suggest. And it was wasn’t true either of Singspiel.
Although a younger brother, he was assessed and accepted purely on his own considerable merits as the racehorse that won the Dubai World Cup and Japan Cup and earned a Timeform rating of 133. Rahy, by contrast, was a 115-rated 2-year-old in Britain before later winning a Group 2 on turf in America. In the circumstances, he did exceptionally well to sire 15 Group 1 winners, including Fantastic Light (USA) and Noverre (USA), the sire most likely to prolong his line through his son Le Havre (Ire).
Singspiel, as it turns out, didn’t quite match Rahy’s tally of Group 1 winners, falling just one short. Significantly, both have arguably made a bigger impact through their daughters, with Rahy mares being responsible for 177 stakes winners, including the likes of Giant’s Causeway (USA) and Alpha Centauri (Ire), while younger brother Singspiel has 84 in the bag so far.
Great influences
There’s no doubt that A.P. Indy is one of the great sires of America and indeed one of the great influences. Responsible for 156 stakes winners at a rate of 16.5%, including the likes of Bernardini (USA) and Mineshaft (USA), A.P. Indy is in the male line of no fewer than 135 Group 1 winners. That’s the colossus he is. Born two years earlier was his Storm Bird half-brother Summer Squall, who in many respects was just as accomplished a racehorse if not quite a brilliant, winning Group 1s at both two and three.
Summer Squall, sired 35 stakes winners, considerably fewer than his brother, but they featured the Secretariat (USA) lookalike Charasmatic (USA), whose U.S. Triple Crown bid was only thwarted in the final leg at Belmont when he finished third. Even so, Summer Squall’s output was an excellent 12.1% stakes winners to runners.
In Part 2 of this series, which will run in TDN AusNZ later this week, we will take a closer look at the sire siblings in Australia and New Zealand.