Cover image courtesy of Coolmore
187 - The number of stallions who produced stakes winners
The diversity of the Australian stallion offering is often a point of discussion, but when it comes to representatives among the country's stakes winners, there is a wealth of opportunity for sires to make their marks through black-type winners. The total number of stallions to produce a stakes winner last season finished at 187, two more than last season (there were 606 stakes races this season, compared to 580 last season).
It is also an increase on the 2018/19 total of 177, the 2017/18 number of 182 and the 2016/17 total of 168. The last time there were more sires represented with stakes winners in a season was in 2015/16, when there were 188.
There were 88 individual sires with multiple stakes winners, again an increase on last season, where that number stood at 77.
Gallery: The leading sires by stakes winners in the 2020/21 racing season
The leading sire in terms of individual stakes winners was Coolmore's Fastnet Rock, with 14, some 3.1 per cent of the total number of stakes winners. He was just ahead of Arrowfield Stud's Snitzel with 13, and then four stallions, Written Tycoon, I Am Invincible, So You Think (NZ) and Zoustar on 12. Fastnet Rock's total of 14 is the lowest for an Australian-leading sire of stakes winners in five years.
The top sires in terms of stakes wins from their progeny were Snitzel and So You Think with 18 apiece, or just under three per cent each of total stakes races. Following them were Written Tycoon and I Am Invincible on 17 and Fastnet Rock on 16.
5 - Most stakes wins by an individual horse
That Chris Waller's Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ}) won five stakes races is a notable achievement in itself, that all five of those victories came at Group 1 level, speak to both her talent and dominance. She was the most prolific horse in Australia in 2020/21 when it came to stakes wins.
There were six horses who were able to win four stakes races through the season, Behemoth (All Too Hard), Eduardo (Host {Chi}), Probabeel (NZ) (Savabeel), Savatiano (Street Cry {Ire}), Western Empire (NZ) (Iffraaj {GB}) and Wild Ruler (Snitzel).
Gallery: The leading horses by stakes wins in the 2020/21 racing season
There were a further 24 horses win three Australian stakes races and another 88 win two.
The total of 449 individual stakes winners across the 606 stakes races in Australia through the season, was up from 426 across 580 stakes races in 2019/20. The jump in the number of stakes races was largely due to the impact of COVID-19 on the stakes schedule last season, especially in Queensland.
13 - Sets of siblings who were Australian stakes winners
Thirteen may be unlucky for some, but for the number of sets of siblings who secured Group or Listed success on the Australian turf in the past season, it places them in a select club and elevates their dams to rare territory.
Among those 26 horses (13 sets of two) are four Group 1 winners. Bivouac, now preparing himself for life as a Darley stallion, won a G1 Darley Sprint Classic last November, while a few weeks earlier, his brother Coruscate (Exceed And Excel) won a pair of Listed races at Caulfield, also in the Godolphin silks for trainer James Cummings.
The Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra-trained Zoutori (Zoustar) won a trio of stakes races through the season and deservedly got a Group 1 victory in the Newmarket H. at Flemington, while his sister Kiku prevailed in the G3 Carbine Club S. at Randwick during The Championships.
Savatiano (Street Cry {Ire}) has proven a marvellous mare for Godolphin and among her four stakes wins last season was a victory in the G1 Canterbury S. Her half-brother Athiri (Lonhro) was a dual stakes winner for Cummings through the summer.
There were also half-siblings successful at stakes level from an overseas-based mare in Heat Haze (GB) (Green Desert {USA}), who is the dam of the G1 Metropolitan H. winner Mirage Dancer (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and dual stakes winner Ironclad (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}).
The total of 13 sets of siblings in this category is up from last year's total of seven. The full list of this year's siblings is below.
| Acouplamas (Al Maher) | Quick Thinker (So You Think) | Seasons (Sebring) |
| Acquired (O'Reilly) | Splintex (Snitzel) | Invictus Salute (Exceed And Excel) |
| Atotori (Haradasun) | Zoutori (Zoustar) | Kiku (Zoustar) |
| Bonnie Mac (Thorn Park) | Mac 'n' Cheese (Sebring) | Oxley Road (Exceed And Excel) |
| Dazzler (More Than Ready) | Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) | Coruscate (Exceed And Excel) |
| Doulmera (Mr Greeley) | Four Moves Ahead (Snitzel) | Emeralds (Sebring) |
| Halloween (Encosta De Lago) | All Hallows' Eve (Sacred Falls) | All Saints' Eve (Sacred Falls) |
| Heat Haze (Green Desert) | Ironclad (Dubawi) | Mirage Dancer (Frankel) |
| Old Money (Old Spice) | Trap For Fools (Poet's Voice) | Too Close The Sun (Carlton House) |
| Retsina (Redoute's Choice) | Savatiano (Street Cry) | Athiri (Lonhro) |
| Sambar (More Than Ready) | Tiger Of Malay (Extreme Choice) | Samizdat (Not A Single Doubt) |
| Smooth Return (Redoute's Choice) | Hela (Night Of Thunder) | Toorak Affair (Toorak Toff) |
| Western Jewel (Jeune) | Western Empire (iffraaj) | Western Temple (Dream Ahead) |
Table: Dams who have produced multiple stakes winners in the Australian 2020/21 season
9 - Number of countries where stakes winners were bred
The exact nine countries who produced stakes winners in Australia in 2019/20 were represented again in 2020/21, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan and South Africa.
Of the stakes races in 2020/21, 468 were won by Australian-bred horses, or 77.1 per cent, while 82, or 13.5 per cent, were won by horses bred in New Zealand. A total of 23 black-type races were won by horses bred in Ireland, 18 from Great Britain, seven from France, three from Germany, two from the United States and one each from Japan and South Africa.
"Of the stakes races in 2020/21, 468 were won by Australian-bred horses, or 77.1 per cent, while 82, or 13.5 per cent, were won by horses bred in New Zealand."
The percentage of Australian stakes races won by Australian-bred horses dropped from 84 per cent in 2019/20 to 77.1 per cent in 2020/21.
The biggest jump in terms of percentage came from New Zealand-bred horses, which in the previous season was represented with the winners of 8.9 per cent of stakes races.
| Australia | 468 |
| New Zealand | 82 |
| Ireland | 23 |
| Great Britain | 18 |
| France | 7 |
| Germany | 3 |
| USA | 2 |
| Japan | 1 |
| South Africa | 1 |
Table: Number of stakes races won by the country where the horse was bred
211- Number of broodmare sires represented
Going back a further generation in the pedigree and again, the diversity of sources of Australia’s best horses comes to the fore.
There were 211 broodmare sires represented with a stakes winner in Australia in 2020/21, 79 of them with multiple stakes winners.
The leading broodmare sire by stakes victories was the late, great Redoute's Choice with 29 stakes wins from 19 individual horses, while Zabeel (NZ) had 22 wins from the progeny of his daughters from 17 stakes winners. Then followed More Than Ready (USA) (20 from 13) and Encosta De Lago (13 from 12).
The leading broodmare sire by stakes victories was the late, great Redoute's Choice
Despite Encosta De Lago having seven fewer stakes winners and 16 fewer stakes successes as a broodmare sire than Redoute's Choice last season, he was crowned Champion Broodmare Sire, helped by the substantial contribution of The Everest winner Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt), who was Australia's highest-earning racehorse of the last season.
1 - Number of dead heats in stakes races
While there were 606 stakes races in Australia in 2020/21, there were 607 winners, thanks to the rarity of a dead heat in the G1 Oakleigh Plate in February.
Portland Sky (Deep Field) and Celebrity Queen (Redoute's Choice) could not be separated by the judge in the famous Caulfield sprint in what was the first dead-heat in an Australian Group 1 race for 20 years.
It was a significant win for Portland Sky's sire Deep Field as it represented his first Group 1 win, while it was the 39th Group 1 winner for Redoute's Choice.
The 2019/20 stakes racing season also produced just the single dead heat from 580 stakes races.
