Exceed’s time of Excelling in Europe comes to a close

Stalwart shuttler Exceed And Excel will not stand at a Darley Europe base in 2021 for the first time since he first shuttled in 2005, marking the end of a significant legacy for the champion stallion and global racing operation.

Arguably Australia’s greatest ever reverse shuttle stallion, the son of Danehill (USA) is responsible for 75 stakes winners including four Group 1 winners born in the Northern Hemisphere but as he was approaching 20 years of age, Darley decided 12 months ago that 2019 would be his final trip to Europe.

“Well the horse is in perfect health and he’s obviously going extremely well but he’s of an age now, he’s 20-years-old and we had called it a long way out, but enough was enough,” Alastair Pulford, Darley’s Head Of Sales told TDN AusNZ.

“The horse is physically capable of going again but he’s been a fantastic servant for us in both hemispheres since he retired in 2004 and first shuttled in 2005.

“We just figured we would call time on it. We’ve done it before in reverse with Medaglia D’Oro. He was perfectly capable of continuing to shuttle but we elected not to shuttle him.

“Once they get to 20, we figure that’s enough. That’s not to say that’s our outright policy, but in Exceed’s case we figured he had more than done enough over that time and we thought he could at last have a summer off.”

Since Darley announced Exceed And Excel’s retirement from shuttling last year, the stallion has had a phenomenal 12 months on the track, headed by the feats of Bivouac’s Group 1 wins in the G1 Newmarket H. and G1 VRC Sprint Classic.

Since January 1, 2020 Exceed And Excel has been responsible for 20 individual stakes winners worldwide, including four Group 1 winners.

No temptation

In his first year in Europe in 2005, Exceed And Excel stood at Darley’s Kildangan Stud in Ireland for a fee of €10,000 (AU$16,201) and then went to Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket the following year where he stood for £7000 (AU$11,340).

“But we made the decision a long way out and we weren’t going to reverse it. It would’ve taken extraordinary circumstances for us to change our mind.”

The only way was up from there with his fee continuing to rise until he stood for his highest European fee of €50,000 (AU$81,005) from 2017 to 2019 before going down to €40,000 (AU$64,804) in his final year in 2020.

“He had to do it the hard way there whereas here, he did it the easy way,” Pulford said. “He retired with such a high profile and he got such high-quality mares and he made an impact straight away.

“But in the Northern Hemisphere he was essentially the first of the reverse shuttlers to really get an opportunity but he still had to do it tough.

“He probably already had enough numbers around him but the mare quality wasn’t huge in the early part, but he did well enough that he sustained a career for a long time and he did a fantastic job.

“I remember on one occasion when one of our stallion men suggested to Olly Tait that he might have had enough shuttling and Olly said ‘well be careful what you wish for because he’s going better in the north than he is in the south’.

“So he’s just been a great success over there and he’s left sons at stud and he’s also left plenty of broodmares, and he’s a very high-quality sire of broodmares with the speed that he imparts on pretty much all of his progeny.”

A legacy

Exceed And Excel leaves behind his sire son Excelebration (Ire) to pass on his bloodline as well as a number of his daughters.

So far he is the broodmare sire of 18 individual Northern Hemisphere-bred stakes winners, including young Coolmore sire Ten Sovereigns (Ire) and the late G1 Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck (Ire).

His strongest attribute as a shuttle sire according to Pulford, however, is his ability to produce precocious and fast types which isn’t typical of the normal European stallions.

In the Northern Hemisphere alone, Exeed And Excel is responsible for a remarkable 311 2-year-old winners, 30 of which are stakes winners, and while speedy juveniles aren’t the dominant types in the market, there are still several Group 1 races to be won each year for that age group.

“I think speed and precocity and the consistency in which he throws, early foals are what has made him a success in Europe,” Pulford said.

“I think he’s the first stallion ever to reach 500 2-year-old winners in the world and even though the Northern Hemisphere has a much bigger focus on middle distance racing than we do, I think the ability for him to throw 2-year-old winners and for his daughters to throw speed is probably the key.

“Just consistently he did that time and time again.

“He crossed very well early with the Sadler’s Wells line but like many good stallions he works with a raft of different lines and he’s not dependant on one kind of mare.

“One thing about Exceed is that he brings out the best in a race mare so if you sent him a mare that could run, he would bring out the best in her and he did that time and time again.”

Heir apparent

The obvious horse for Darley to fill Exceed And Excel’s spot on the plane to Europe each year is his son Bivouac who is targeting an international campaign across Dubai and England next year, but Pulford said there is a long way to go before that decision will be made.

“That’s a long time away and quite a few things have to happen before that takes place, but I think everyone is very excited about Bivouac and about his prospects,” he said.

“His last win (in the VRC Sprint Classic) was so exciting, we hope that we can go to the Northern Hemisphere and repeat that success in which case the market would stand up and take notice of him, but who knows.

“It’s certainly on the radar but a lot of things have got to go right before that happens, and not least the horse has got to demonstrate that he’s capable of travelling and is healthy enough to do that because his welfare always comes first.”