The quiet achievers

Instead of assessing stallions by the traditional premiership measure of prizemoney, or by their results in elite races, we have taken a look against different criteria.

The first step was to take the list of the top 100 sires from the 2018-19 Australian season, based on their number of winners – headed by I Am Invincible with an impressive 184.

We then compared those sires’ Southern Hemisphere career totals of runners, winners and prizemoney, then calculated their winners-to-runners percentages and their average prizemoney per runner. The attached tables show the top 20 sires for each of those criteria. Some of the names appearing on these tables are predictable; others less so.

For starters, these statistics show once again that the big-name stallions are big names for a reason - with Street Cry (Ire) heading up both. Redoute’s Choice, I Am Invincible and Snitzel are also up the top.

Other headline acts such as Fastnet Rock, Written Tycoon, Medaglia d’Oro (USA) and Not A Single Doubt are prominent. With the highest profiles and the highest-quality books of mares, these stallions have produced superb results to match.

But they have some interesting company on our tables, sitting alongside stallions who have stood for a fraction of their service fees.

Winners-to-runners percentage

There has never been much fanfare or hype surrounding Testa Rossa, but his results speak for themselves.

Now retired from stud duties, he has been represented by 739 winners from 998 runners – an outstanding percentage of 74.05%, placing him seventh on our table behind only the elite sires.

Testa Rossa began his career at a $22,000 fee and never stood for more than $44,000, even dipping below $20,000 for his final four seasons at stud. His books of mares would never have had the quality enjoyed by the sires ranked above him.

There are 65 individual stakes winners among Testa Rossa’s progeny, including four at Group 1 level – Ortensia, Enzo’s Lad, Rostova and Testifiable.

Just behind Testa Rossa is another of the unsung heroes of Australia’s stallion ranks this century. Commands began his stud career in 2000 at a fee of only $10,000 – a figure which swelled to $66,000 due to the weight of his results.

The Commands honour roll is headed by multiple Group 1 winning daughters such as Appearance and Purple, and his legacy has continued to be boosted posthumously with the New Zealand feats of all-conquering eight-time Group 1 winner Melody Belle (NZ).

Nicconi has been another of Australia’s quiet achievers. He began his career at a $22,000 fee in 2010, but that dropped steadily to a low point of $11,000 in 2015 and 2016. He has turned things around in great style since then, and he is standing for a career-high $38,500 at Widden this spring.

Nicconi’s 298 winners have come from 411 runners, a percentage of 72.51%. His current flagbearer is his first Group 1 winner, the quality speedster Nature Strip.

The $4400 Western Australian stallion Patronize makes the top 20 with 70.4%.

Other lower-priced stallions in our top 20 include Magnus ($16,500), Casino Prince ($6600), Duporth ($8800), closely followed up by Magnus ($16,500), Jet Spur ($3850), Denman ($8800) and Bel Esprit ($11,000).

The retired Mossman, whose fee was never higher than $27,500, also features prominently in our table with 71.45% winners to runners.

The table also features a New Zealand flavour, with Waikato Stud supremo Savabeel sitting in 17th and returning a percentage of 70.53%.

Meanwhile, the global superstar More Than Ready (USA) holds the world record for the highest number of individual winners with 1826, and an excellent 71.37% winners from his total number of Australian starters.

Prizemoney per starter

All of the top six on this table either command a service fee of more than $100,000 this season, or did so in their most recent season at stud in Australia.

Winx’s sire Street Cry, with an average prizemoney per runner of $167,794, unsurprisingly heads up this list. With astonishing prizemoney hauls of $29 million and $24 million in the last two completed Australian seasons, Snitzel is second in this category while I Am Invincible averages over $120,000. Not A Single Doubt and Redoute’s Choice are close behind them at $117,378 and $112,851 respectively.

I Am Invincible’s top-three finishes on both of these tables are noteworthy, because while he now commands a service fee of $247,500, he started out with a very low profile at just $11,000.

It is a similar story with Written Tycoon, who stood for an introductory fee of $8250 and now stands for $110,000. He ranks ninth in the winners-to-starters percentages table and 12th in terms of average prizemoney per starter.

Hard Spun (USA), who shuttled to Australia from 2008 to 2013, comes in eighth on the prizemoney table on the back of strong international results throughout his career. He has sired 75 stakes winners globally, with 11 at Group or Grade 1 level including Le Romain and Gatting in Australia.

Seventh-placed Tavistock (NZ) appears to represent great value at his NZ$50,000 (AU$46,000) service fee. He has returned a strong average of NZ$107,169 (AU$99,500) per runner despite the much lower prizemoney available in New Zealand, where the majority of his runners have competed. He has proven his versatility with Group 1 winners in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong, along with Singapore Derby winner Infantry (NZ).

The late Hinchinbrook, who stood for a $16,500 fee for each of his first five seasons before rising to $38,500 and $44,00 for his final two years, has achieved an excellent top-10 result in this table. His progeny have averaged $102,955 per starter.

Mossman, Commands, Duporth, Testa Rossa and Casino Prince, who defied low profiles and service fees to be so prominently placed on winning percentages.

Mossman is the highest-ranked of that overperforming group, sitting in 10th spot with $102,386 per starter. Commands is in 17th position with $96,139, while Duporth averages $93,933 per starter and Casino Prince $83,848 – both remarkable returns on their 2019 service fees of $8800 and $6600 respectively.