Who are Hong Kong’s favourite sires?

Cover image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club

The Hong Kong racing season wrapped up on Wednesday night with David Eustace celebrating a treble to sign off his second season as a trainer in the region. His Happy Valley winners were Gratifide (Shamus Award), Kyrus Treasure (NZ) (Smart Missile) and Fashion Legend (Deep Field).

With a small horse population and strong prizemoney, the Australian commercial market is always chasing the Hong Kong dollar. And so, which stallions stood clear in 2025/26 and which ones have promising youngsters who could be flying the flag in the next season?

Across the 2025/26 Hong Kong season, 1468 horses competed in 868 races. Of those, 21 horses won the 34 stakes races on offer. Those 21 individual stakes winners were by 20 different stallions, with only Toronado (Ire) siring two stakes winners.

Australian-bred horses won 507 races (58%) while New Zealand-bred horses were the next biggest contingent, winning 216 races (25%).

Acclamation (GB) wins the Champion Sire Title with progeny earnings of HK$77.24 million (AU$14 million), largely earned by Romantic Warrior (Ire) who was jointly voted Horse Of The Year alongside Ka Ying Rising (NZ) (Shamexpress {NZ}). Between them, they won nine of the 12 Group 1 races held in the season.

Deep Field, who has long been a force in Hong Kong, was second by earnings. Last year’s Triple Crown winner Voyage Bubble continues to fly his flag, winning this season’s G1 Hong Kong Mile.

Toronado is king of the 4-Year-Old Series

This season’s important 4-Year-Old Series went to Little Paradise (Toronado {Ire}) who won the Classic Mile, Stormy Grove (Toronado {Ire}) who won the Classic Cup and Invincible Ibis (Hellbent) who won the Hong Kong Derby. Little Paradise also won the G3 Premier Cup later in the season but it was Invincible Ibis who won Champion 4YO for the season.

There were five 4-year-olds who won stakes races across the season with the other two being G3 Centenary Vase winner Numbers (NZ) (Tivaci) and G3 Sha Tin Vase winner Patch Of Stars (All Too Hard).

But it was Toronado (Ire) who stood clear with two individual stakes winners – the most of any stallion in Hong Kong.

The 4-Year-Old Series always finds new stars with Romantic Warrior winning two of the three legs in 2022, and Voyage Bubble achieving the same in the following year. Last season’s Listed Classic Mile winner, My Wish (Flying Artie), who was second in the other two legs, added the G1 Champions Mile and two other group races this season.

Toronado’s own Helios Express, who won the Classic Mile and Classic Cup in 2024, spent most of this season knocking around behind the superstar sprinter Ka Ying Rising with six of his seven starts during the season won by the Horse Of The Year.

Next year’s Classic crop

Of the 868 races in Hong Kong, only 41 were won by 3-year-olds, and a further eight were won by 2-year-olds. From this group of youngsters comes potentially the next rising stars in the region and one stallion stood clear on the 3YO Sires table. No two or 3-year-olds won a stakes race in 2025/26.

Zousain had four individual 3-year-olds winners in Hong Kong who won ten races. Zousain’s impressive Salon S ended the season as the second-highest ranked 3-year-old on 85 behind Hot Delight (Too Darn Hot {GB}) on 89. Both have won four of their five starts.

“Next season, if he can learn to be a bit more relaxed it will be good. Now, he’s still a bit keen and we need him to relax a bit more during the races,” trainer Frankie Lor told scmp.com about Salon S.

“He’s still a big baby at the moment, he grabs the bit and goes. The jockey wants to slow down but he doesn’t want to, so if he can just relax next season, it will be good. At this moment, I think 1600m is best for him, but any further I can’t say right now. He’s having a long break at the moment to get ready for next season.”

Both Capitalist and All Too Hard had three individual 3-year-old winners, with Capitalist’s progeny of that age collecting nearly HK$8 million (AU$1.5 million) in prizemoney with half of that earned by Love Together.

Six stallions had two individual 3-year-old winners, led by Hong Kong stalwarts Toronado and Written Tycoon. Alabama Express, whose Winning Champion won on the final day, joined the collection at the final hour. D’Argento, Harry Angel (Ire), and Hellbent were the others.

Hellbent is one to watch with the Hong Kong Derby under his belt and a pair of promising 3-year-olds for the season. All up, he had 10 individual winners for the season and finished sixth on the Sire's Premiership by earnings.

Deep Field has the most individual winners

Deep Field finished the season with 22 individual winners of 34 races, with Fashion Legend winning on the final evening of racing. Starspangledbanner concluded the season with 16 individual winners, while Capitalist was third with 15.

Toronado and All Too Hard both had 13 individual winners in 2025/26, and a trio of stallions were next on the table with ten winners apiece – Hellbent, Zoustar, and Charm Spirit (Ire).

The order reverses a bit when looking at races won with Deep Field still on top with 34, but Toronado second with 27 and Capitalist third with 26.

Pierata and Zousain, who both have their oldest crops as 4-year-olds, look like stallions to watch in the region with six individual winners apiece. They are the youngest of the 28 stallions to sire five or more winners this season. Zousain’s six winners won 12 races, while Pierata’s six winners won eight races.

Also with their oldest being 4-year-olds are Super Seth, Too Darn Hot (GB), and D’Argento who all had four individual winners this season in Hong Kong.