Champion sire title up for grabs in wide open year

This time last year Mostahdaf and Nashwa had just claimed a one-two for Frankel in the Juddmonte International, extending an already huge lead in the British and Irish sires’ championship for their sire which he had built up through the season. Frankel duly went to on to claim his first sires’ championship, having the best part of £3m to spare at the end of the year over his nearest pursuers Dark Angel and Dubawi.

But the picture is very different this season. Frankel is languishing in eighth place in the prize-money table, a million pounds off the pace, so the sires’ championship looks all set to change hands again. In a wide-open year when no single sire has managed to dominate, this year’s title race looks set to be a fascinating battle which will continue well into the autumn.

DUBAWI £3.47m Leading earner: Notable Speech

Dubawi, champion sire in 2022, is in pole position to reclaim his title this season but his lead at the time of writing is a very slender one – around £36,000. But that’s despite mixed fortunes for some of his most promising three-year-olds. Oaks winner Ezeliya suffered a career-ending injury after Epsom, Hidden Law was fatally injured when winning the Chester Vase and Arabian Crown hasn’t run since winning the Classic Trial in the spring. Dubawi’s hopes for big-race success in the autumn therefore rest with his 2000 Guineas and Sussex Stakes winner Notable Speech (Timeform rating 126), though with only two weeks between the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup Mile, Godolphin have a tricky decision to make as missing Ascot could damage Dubawi’s title hopes. He could get help from an unlikely quarter as Coolmore’s St James’s Palace Stakes runner-up Henry Longfellow (124), favourite to beat Notable Speech in the Sussex Stakes, has some big entries. Juddmonte’s Lead Artist (120p), winner of the Thoroughbred Stakes at Goodwood, is another Queen Elizabeth II Stakes entry and a bright prospect for Dubawi for the remainder of the season, as is Godolphin’s unbeaten two-year-old Ancient Truth (110p).

DARK ANGEL £3.44m Leading earner: Charyn

Dark Angel ended up pipping Dubawi for second place in last year’s sires’ championship and is breathing down his neck this year in his bid to become leading sire for the first time. Weight of numbers have served Dark Angel well in recent seasons and he’s one of the few sires who’s had more than 200 individual horses to have run for him this season. On top of that, Dark Angel’s title bid has been boosted by two very valuable Group 1 winners at Royal Ascot, Khaadem (120) winning the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes for the second year running and Charyn (125) winning the Queen Anne Stakes. Subsequently successful in the Prix Jacques Le Marois, Charyn is very much on course for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day which might therefore prove to be the race which decides who becomes the season’s leading sire.

KINGMAN £3.04m Leading earner: Elmalka

Rather than Frankel, it’s his studmate Kingman who is Juddmonte’s main challenger for leading sire honours this year. He’s finished seventh in the table in the last two seasons but is well on the way to a higher placing this time thanks to a very successful year. Only Dark Angel has had more runners than Kingman among the leading sires but Kingman has had one more win than Dark Angel at the time of writing. But while Kingman’s leading earner is the 1000 Guineas winner Elmalka (112), her rating is low for a Group 1 winner. Kingman has had numerous other smart performers represent him this season, headed by Group 2 Summer Mile winner Quddwah (119), but the lack of any high-class performers looks like handicapping him in the autumn’s most valuable races. Kinross might be his best hope, in the Champions Sprint which he won in 2022.

JUSTIFY £3.03m Leading earner: City of Troy

If the sires’ championship was decided by win prize money only, rather than total earnings, Justify would be leading the way. It’s still some achievement for Kentucky-based Justify to be fourth in the table given that his 28 individual runners in Britain and Ireland, ten of whom have won, is only a fraction of the number of runners his rivals have to represent them. Justify’s lofty position is, of course, largely down to the exploits of City of Troy (130) and his wins in three of the season’s most valuable races, the Derby, Eclipse and Juddmonte International. But with City of Troy seemingly heading straight for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, it could fall to Ballydoyle stablemate and Nassau Stakes winner Opera Singer (118p) to add to her sire’s domestic earnings. Brother and sister London City (108) and Falling Snow (94p) are prominent in the betting for the Irish Cesarewitch and Fillies’ Mile respectively, two more of the most valuable races still to be run.

CAMELOT £2.92m Leading earner: Los Angeles

Camelot is another sire who doesn’t have the numbers on his side – he’s had less than half the number of wins and winners than Dark Angel and Kingman, for example – but he’s the only sire with two horses among the season’s top ten leading earners. They are Los Angeles (121p), who recently added the Great Voltigeur to his Irish Derby win, and Pretty Polly Stakes winner Bluestocking (120), also runner-up in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Coronation Cup winner Luxembourg (124) is Camelot’s third Group 1 winner this year. Los Angeles looks like heading for the Arc, so that could leave Bluestocking as her sire’s best chance of landing another big prize this autumn in the Fillies & Mares Stakes on Champions Day.

SEA THE STARS £2.90m Leading earner: See The Fire

Sea The Stars isn’t known for his two-year-olds but he has a particularly exciting one in Aidan O’Brien’s recent Acomb Stakes winner The Lion In Winter (115p). He’s reportedly going for next month’s Goffs Million (worth €500,000 to the winner) at the Curragh where victory in that sales race would see his sire leapfrog some of those above him in the current table. While Emily Upjohn has only managed to pick up place money this year, Sea The Stars’ leading earner to date this season is three-year-old filly See The Fire (118), winner of the valuable Group 3 Strensall Stakes at York last time but who earned even more from finishing runner-up in the Nassau Stakes. Smart stayer Sweet William (118) is another of his sire’s highest-rated winners this year but, like Kingman, Sea The Stars lacks a 120+ horse for the big autumn races.

GALILEO £2.80m Leading earner: Kyprios

Galileo won the last of his dozen sire titles in Britain and Ireland in 2020, the year before his death. Winning his title back posthumously would be a remarkable feat but he’s in the chasing pack going into the autumn where his chances of winning at least one major prize are looking very good. The return of his high-class stayer Kyprios (128), his leading earner after wins in the Gold Cup and Goodwood Cup, and his highest-rated horse this year, has played a large part in Galileo’s success this season and he’s odds on for next month’s Irish St Leger, another race which he won two years ago. Meanwhile, younger Ballydoyle stablemates Illinois (119), Jan Brueghel (116p) and Grosvenor Square (118) give Galileo a potentially very strong hand in the St Leger at Doncaster the same weekend. Content (118) became her sire’s long-awaited hundredth Group 1 winner in the Yorkshire Oaks which makes her a leading contender for the Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot.

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