Beyond question is the fact that Danehill (USA) has set the standard against which all other shuttle sires are compared and judged.
For the record, the son of Danzig (USA) sired 172 stakes winners from his Australian crops and remarkably another 172 stakes winners from his crops conceived in Ireland. And his strike rate in each region is equally impressive: 15.9% stakes winners to runners from his Irish crops and 17.4% from his Australian stock.
Exacting standards indeed. In fact, his numbers are so good that no stallion has since come close to matching them. But who are the next best group of stallions that flew south and found success?
The key to success in Australia is the ability to produce sprinters, milers and middle-distance runners, something that Danehill was very good at doing in both hemispheres. His Group 1 winners range from 1,000m to 3,200m in Australia and from 1,200m to 4,000m in Europe.
He’s got top-class sprinters like Fastnet Rock and Mozart (Ire), milers like Fairy King Prawn and Rock Of Gibraltar (Ire), middle-distance horses as good as Duke Of Marmalade (Ire), Zipping and Dylan Thomas (Ire), plus great stayers like Westerner (GB).
That said, the key to Danehill’s global reputation was his ability to sire primarily fast horses in Australia and middle-distance horses in Europe, precisely what local breeders required of him.
The next best
Ranking the best shuttle sires is not easy. There are many that shuttled intermittently and have since proved to be successful at least statistically speaking. Three of the very best sires in Europe, Galileo (Ire), Dubawi (Ire) and Shamardal (USA) all shuttled early in their careers before staying north in later years. Winx’s sire Street Cry (Ire) produced nine crops in Australia, but took a two-year break after his first four crops.
To take account of the infrequent shuttlers, our first ranking looks at all stallions that came to Australia and New Zealand and produced at least 100 runners, and ranks them by % stakes winners to runners. Our second ranks stallion by the sheer number of stakes winners.
| Dubawi | 2002 | Dubai Millennium | 188 | 22 | 11.7 | 4.1 |
| Shamardal | 2002 | Giant's Causeway | 255 | 25 | 9.8 | 6.0 |
| Montjeu | 1996 | Sadler's Wells | 301 | 26 | 8.6 | 6.9 |
| Street Cry | 1998 | Machiavellian | 609 | 52 | 8.5 | 7.2 |
| High Chaparral | 1999 | Sadler's Wells | 793 | 67 | 8.4 | 8.1 |
| Elusive City | 2000 | Elusive Quality | 302 | 25 | 8.3 | 3.5 |
| Makfi | 2007 | Dubawi | 170 | 13 | 7.6 | 7.1 |
| Dehere | 1991 | Deputy Minister | 521 | 38 | 7.3 | 6.6 |
| More Than Ready | 1997 | Southern Halo | 1,186 | 86 | 7.3 | 7.2 |
| Stravinsky | 1996 | Nureyev | 611 | 44 | 7.2 | 8.1 |
Table: Stallions ranked by black type winner to runner percentage
| More Than Ready | 1997 | Southern Halo | 1,186 | 86 | 7.3 | 7.2 |
| High Chaparral | 1999 | Sadler's Wells | 793 | 67 | 8.4 | 8.1 |
| Street Cry | 1998 | Machiavellian | 609 | 52 | 8.5 | 7.2 |
| Danehill Dancer | 1993 | Danehill | 781 | 48 | 6.1 | 4.8 |
| Stravinsky | 1996 | Nureyev | 611 | 44 | 7.2 | 6.5 |
| Pentire | 1992 | Be My Guest | 764 | 40 | 5.2 | 5.7 |
| Dehere | 1991 | Deputy Minister | 521 | 38 | 7.3 | 6.6 |
| Rock of Gibraltar | 1999 | Danehill | 605 | 37 | 6.1 | 7.9 |
| Anabaa | 1992 | Danzig | 482 | 34 | 7.1 | 6.4 |
| Galileo | 1998 | Sadler's Wells | 444 | 28 | 6.3 | 6.7 |
Table: Stallions ranked by the number of black type winner
Dubawi only produced three crops of runners in Australia, all of which produced Group 1 winners. His first, foaled in 2007, featured Secret Admirer, Tiger Tees (NZ) and Happy Archer. His second crop, produced two years later, included Shamal Wind, plus the brilliantly consistent Catkins, while his third added five more Group 1 horses, including Srikandi, Willow Magic and Ball Of Muscle.
The 4.1% stakes winners to runners produced by Dubawi’s mares when covered by other sires tells us that Britain’s best-ever sire was not the height of fashion when he first arrived in Australia, but his 11.7% stakes winners is good enough to give him the best strike rate of any shuttler since Danehill.
Gallery: Successful progeny of Dubawi
It’s a similar story with Shamardal. This son of Giant’s Causeway (USA) missed three seasons between 2005 and 2014 but his 25 stakes winners included five Group 1 winners including Hong Kong star Able Friend, rated 130 by Timeform and thus his sire’s second highest rated son or daughter after dual Royal Ascot Group 1 winner Blue Point (Ire).
Montjeu’s (Ire) presence in New Zealand lasted five consecutive seasons, before his European runners made him a top-class sire. He would go on to produce 26 Group 1 winners from his Coolmore base in Tipperary. But he still added value to his New Zealand-covered mares and produced five Group 1 winners, including the very promising young sire Tavistock (NZ).
There’s no doubt that the return of Darley’s Street Cry from his Jonabell base in Kentucky, prompted by the success of Whobegotyou and Shocking, after a two-year break in 2007 and 2008 proved fortuitous not only for his own reputation as a sire but also for the reputation of Australian racing in general.
But Winx was not the whole story for Street Cry as his 8.5% stakes winners to runners and 123.3 top-ten average Timeform rating suggest. Although he has similar success in each region, there’s no doubt he made more of his Australian mares.
High Chaparral (Ire), like Montjeu a son of Sadler’s Wells (USA), also added to the rich tapestry of racing in Australia and New Zealand. Not only has he sired top-class racehorses like 10-time Group 1 winner So You Think (NZ), who won two Cox Plates, he also has a sound chance of preserving his sire line through the promising young stallion Dundeel (NZ), another tip-top racehorse. In fact, High Chaparral has the best ten racehorses of any shuttle sire according to the ratings with a score of 123.6.
One shuttle sire that has no peers when it comes to the number of stakes winners is More Than Ready (USA) who has contributed enormously to Australian breeding and it is a travesty that his talented son Sebring had his stallion career cut short. There are other top-class shuttlers we can also mention, none more so than Danehill Dancer (Ire) and Pentire (GB) who started out commuting between the Japan and New Zealand before eventually seeing out his remaining days at Rich Hill Stud in Waikato.
From South to North
Reverse shuttling (from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere) has been far less common in the past, but it’s on the increase. And who better to show what’s possible than Darley’s Exceed And Excel.
| Exceed and Excel | 2000 | Danehill | 983 | 69 | 7.0 | 7.5 |
| Fastnet Rock | 2001 | Danehill | 408 | 35 | 8.6 | 12.1 |
| Choisir | 1999 | Danehill Dancer | 509 | 32 | 6.3 | 3.8 |
| Redoute's Choice | 1996 | Danehill | 129 | 13 | 10.1 | 13.1 |
| Lonhro | 1998 | Octagonal | 195 | 10 | 5.1 | 10.3 |
Table: Reverse shuttle sires
In an arena where stamina is still highly valued and up against all of Europe’s speed sires, Exceed And Excel has shown what’s possible from an Australian sire. His 69 northern hemisphere stakes winners (7%) is a commendable total and some way ahead of Fastnet Rock, who only started coming north five years into his Australian stud career.
Fastnet Rock sires just about the same ratio of stakes winners in Europe as he does in Australia and he’s formed a lethal partnership with Galileo mares, siring 34.5% stakes winners to runners, including an G1 Epsom Oaks winner in Qualify (Ire). Redoute’s Choice, meanwhile, has just earned his Group 1 sire stripes in Europe through Danceteria (Fr) and he’s currently scoring above 10% stakes winners to runners.
All in all, the two sires that give everyone hoping to shuttle a stallion all the encouragement they need are WinStar/Vinery’s More Than Ready and Darley’s Exceed And Excel. Their success in the regions they operate – even though not on the same scale as the great Danehill – are proof positive that shuttling will always be beneficial in all aspects of breeding racehorses.
