Essential guide to the first-season sires of the 2024 Flat season

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (Highest Timeform rating 114)

Scat Daddy – Orchard Beach (Tapit)

Sergei Prokofiev comes from the final crop of Scat Daddy, a stallion responsible for the champion first-season sires No Nay Never in 2018 and Caravaggio in 2021. Like that pair, the Canadian-bred Sergei Prokofiev raced for the Coolmore partners but they didn’t retain him for stallion duties. Instead, he stands at Whitsbury Manor Stud, also home to 2022 champion first-season sire Havana Grey, where his first crop was conceived at a fee of £6,500.

A strong sort who was an imposing type at two, Sergei Prokofiev fetched $1.1m as a yearling and proved smart, speedy and precocious for Aidan O’Brien in his first season. He won twice before Royal Ascot, including the listed Rochestown Stakes at Naas, and was a good third to Calyx in the Coventry Stakes. However, his very best effort came later in the year back at the minimum trip when an impressive winner of the Cornwallis Stakes at Newmarket. Another listed win on his reappearance at Navan at three showed he’d trained on but Sergei Prokofiev proved disappointing thereafter, including in two more runs at four.

Sergei Prokofiev has the all-important numbers on his side with his 121 foals giving him a numerical advantage over the other first-crop sires. They sold for an average of £38,808 as yearlings, with a couple fetching 220,000 guineas. He was off the mark with his first runner, Amo Racing’s Arizona Blaze, at the Curragh earlier this week and the same owners have his daughter Enchanting Empress among their entries in Saturday’s Brocklesby at Doncaster.

PINATUBO (134)

Shamardal – Lava Flow (Dalakhani)

By Shamardal out of a useful French middle-distance winner, the sturdy Pinatubo wasn’t a precocious sort on paper and nor was he campaigned like a top-class two-year-old early on. But having made a successful debut for Charlie Appleby at Wolverhampton over six furlongs in May, he went on to win the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom before his form went from strength to strength from the summer onwards over seven furlongs.

He then won the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot before an impressive five-length win in the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood and an even better performance in the National Stakes at the Curragh which he won by nine lengths. With the champion two-year-old title already wrapped up, he kept his unbeaten record at two by winning the Dewhurst Stakes on his final start, just like his sire. An odds-on defeat in the 2000 Guineas, in which he finished third, showed his contemporaries had caught up with him at three, though he added another Group 1 to his record, in the Prix Jean Prat at Deauville later in the season.

Pinatubo was retired to Dalham Hall Stud where he stood his first season at a fee of £35,000, making him the most expensive of these first-season sires. His yearling proved very popular last year, fetching an average of £149,328 and with a top price of 500,000 guineas for a half-brother to last year’s Earl of Sefton Stakes and US Grade 2 winner Ottoman Fleet who was bought by Godolphin. With 109 foals in his first crop, Pinatubo shouldn’t be short of two-year-olds able to make their mark.

EARTHLIGHT (121)

Shamardal – Winters Moon (New Approach)

Shamardal’s son Blue Point was last year’s champion first-season sire for Darley and, as well as Pinatubo, another son of Shamardal likely to be among the leading contenders for the title for Darley again this year is Earthlight. Trained by Andre Fabre, he was somewhat in Pinatubo’s shadow as a two-year-old but was a smart juvenile in his own right and likewise unbeaten, winning all five of his starts, notably the Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes, both of them by a neck.

Unlike Pinatubo, Earthlight did improve his rating at three, and while his two wins that season only came in listed and Group 3 company, his best efforts came in defeat at Group 1 level, finishing a close fourth in the Prix Maurice de Gheest and a neck second in the Prix de la Foret.

Earthlight stood his first season at Kildangan Stud in Ireland at a fee of €20,000 and has a first crop of 110 foals which will give him plenty of ammunition in the coming months. They did notably well in the sales rings last year, fetching an average of £88,441. Amo Racing bought Earthlight’s most expensive yearling for 325,000 guineas while Godolphin snapped up a colt out of Blue Point’s dam, named Olympus Point, for 260,000 guineas.

FAR ABOVE (122)

Farhh – Dorraar (Shamardal)

Far Above was unfortunate to sustain a serious injury just as his career as a sprinter looked about to be take off. It came on his four-year-old reappearance in the Palace House Stakes on his first try at five furlongs which proved to be the last of just five career starts for James Tate. Unraced at two, when he’d made 105,000 guineas at the breeze-ups, Far Above made a successful debut in a seven-furlong maiden at Newmarket’s Craven meeting the following spring. He won three of his four starts that season but wasn’t seen out after a listed win at Deauville over six furlongs until the Palace House almost a year later.

Far Above, who’s out of a Shamardal mare, was a speedier type than most by his sire, the Lockinge and Champion Stakes winner Farhh who himself had a stop-start career early on. Having stood for €6,000 in his first season at Starfield Stud in Ireland, Far Above has a first crop of 83 foals, a fair number of whom will presumably be sprinting a lot earlier in their careers than their sire. They didn’t set the sale ring alight on the whole last year, averaging just £18,063, though it was Far Above’s trainer who bought his most expensive yearling at 70,000 guineas.

MOHAATHER (129)

Showcasing – Roodeye (Inchinor)

The sturdy Mohaather was restricted to just eight career starts for Marcus Tregoning and was seen out just twice as a three-year-old, but he won five of them and proved himself a high-class miler at four. Wins at Newbury in the Horris Hill Stakes at two and the Greenham Stakes at three were early indications of his ability, but it was in a brief summer campaign at four that he was finally able to reveal just how good he was.

After a luckless run in the Queen Anne Stakes, he won the Summer Stakes back at Ascot and followed up in the Sussex Stakes, overcoming trouble in running and impressing again with his turn of foot. Among those behind him at Goodwood was the 2000 Guineas winner and fellow first-season sire Kameko.

Mohaather was retired to Shadwell’s Nunnery Stud in Norfolk as the highest-rated performer by Gimcrack winner Showcasing, a speed influence. He stood for £20,000 in his first season there, producing 96 foals in his first crop. His yearlings sold for an average of £46,920 (top price 175,000 guineas), but there will naturally be home-breds in his first crop too. Among the notable Shadwell mares in his first book were the Falmouth/Sun Chariot Stakes winner Nazeef (a half-sister to Mostahdaf), the 1000 Guineas/Coronation Stakes winner Ghanaati (dam of very smart miler Mutasaabeq) and the South African Group 1 winner Majmu. Mohaather could have his first runner as early as Saturday in the Brocklesby at Doncaster, Dukes of Haather.

OTHER FIRST-SEASON SIRES

Others likely to make their mark with early and/or speedy two-year-olds are Arizona (Timeform rating 119) and Sands of Mali (125) who were notable winners themselves as juveniles. Arizona won the Coventry Stakes and finished second to Pinatubo in the Dewhurst for Aidan O’Brien, while Sands of Mali won the Gimcrack for Richard Fahey and later the Champions Sprint Stakes at Ascot. By No Nay Never who was a champion first-season sire himself, Coolmore’s Arizona would be in the running for the title himself were it not for a first crop of only 66 which puts him at a numerical disadvantage with his competitors.

Group 1-winning sprinters Wooded (120) and Hello Youmzain (124), the latter winner of the Sprint Cup and Diamond Jubilee Stakes for Kevin Ryan, are other likely types to have two-year-old success, though the fact that both are based in France means they too are unlikely to have the numbers in Britain and Ireland needed to be challenging for champion first-season sire honours.

With a first-season fee of £25,000, Kameko (128) is one of the more expensive stallions among this year’s first-season sires. As well as winning the 2000 Guineas, his other Group 1 win came in the Futurity Trophy at two which was run that year on the tapeta at Newcastle. He’ll get winners at two, though probably not early types.

It will be interesting to see how Shaman (119) fares with a first crop of 103 conceived at Yeomanstown Stud (the home of Dark Angel) in Ireland. While Shaman ended up winning a Group 2 in France over a mile and a quarter at four, he won over seven furlongs on his two-year-old debut and was runner-up in Group 1 company over a mile at three in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and Prix Jacques le Marois. From a hugely successful family, he’s another son of Shamardal and out of a Green Desert mare so should get his share of two-year-old winners.

Two of the biggest names with their first runners this year are Darley’s Ghaiyyath (133), Timeform’s champion of 2020, and Coolmore’s Sottsass (127), winner of the same year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, though as middle-distance horses it will be later in the year before they start to have two-year-old winners in any number. Dubawi’s son Ghaiyyath stood for £30,000 in his first season, with his first crop of yearlings averaging an impressive £149,058. Godolphin bought his six most expensive yearlings headed by a half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Victoria Road, from the family of Derby winner Auguste Rodin, who sold for 1,050,000 guineas.

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