The Race to be Champion First Season Sire - By Cornelius Lysaght
The race to be champion first-season sire is as important as any during the flat racing year – for the bragging rights (of course), for the commercial implications (obviously), and for the all-important fascination factor that so captures the imagination of fans.
And as summer turns to autumn, and the latest yearling sales circuit gets underway, the 2024 championship remains very much up for grabs.
And it’s great that Opulence Thoroughbreds has plenty of skin in this game, with Bridget’s View by Sergei Prokofiev, the Kameko colt Lightening Mann and Megellan Cloud, a son of Mohaather, all representing young stallions in the hunt for top honours.
Sergei Prokofiev, the early leader, has much in his favour, and not just because he has most material to work with, some of which cost substantial six-figure sums.
He’s a son of Scat Daddy – already sire of first-crop champion No Nay Never – and was himself at his best as a speedy juvenile, when a campaign that started as early as April 11 continued with a slightly luckless third in the Coventry Stakes.
Later the colt put in a striking performance in Newmarket’s Cornwallis Stakes before being far from disgraced on the world stage in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
And there’s more: although part of the Coolmore empire when racing, he stands now at the successful, stallion-making Whitsbury Manor Stud in rural Hampshire (for £6,000 – which won’t last long), alongside the prolific Havana Grey, also a previous champion first-season stallion.
Bridget’s View, trained by Ed Walker, had what can only have been described as a highly pleasing introduction when a close fifth – you could see the penny dropping as things unfolded – at Haydock in August.
While Sergei Prokofiev has made a flying start to his stud career, his opponents are gathering fast just behind, not least Kameko, whose Opulence runner Lightening Mann, trained by Jack Channon, has shaped up nicely in two above-average seven-furlong novices’ races.
Although best known for winning the fastest 2000 Guineas ever, Kameko, based at Tweenhills Stud for £15,000, was a Group One winner as a two-year-old, rounding off a progressive year from his late-July debut with success in the Vertem Futurity, staged that year on the Tapeta at Newcastle.
His runners to date – headed by New Century, a Listed winner for Andrew Balding, and York eyecatcher Wimbledon Hawkeye – have not necessarily seemed the most precocious but have much quality. Plenty cost a few quid.
There will be many more headlines from progeny of Kameko as they come out, and the same applies to Mohaather whose Opulence colt Megallan Cloud was shown off at John and Sean Quinn’s HQ during York ahead of an imminent first racecourse appearance, with better still anticipated as a three-year-old.
Plenty of shrewdies have been on keen on purchasing the progeny of Mohaather, a stallion stationed at Shadwell’s Beech House Stud at a cost of £12,500.
Although the Marcus Tregoning-trained Mohaather, himself by Showcasing and a September debutante, won at a high level during his three seasons, had it not been for setbacks there might have been a great deal more; however, his career certainly ended with a flourish when the colt stormed home for victory in a red-hot Sussex Stakes.
So far his runners have taken their time.
Of the others, Ballyhane stallion (fee: €5,000) Sands Of Mali, the Gimcrack winner aged two, has enjoyed an excellent start, while Pinatubo (Dalham Hall: £35,000) and Earthlight (Kildangan: €15,000), both Godolphin-owned sons of super-stallion-of-stallions Shamardal which were unbeaten juveniles but not so good at three, are likely to hit impressive strides soon.
Pinatubo’s offspring averaged around a whopping 150,000 at last year’s yearling sales, and there will be plenty of blue-blooded home-breds to race too. Definitely one to watch.
The winner of all this? Not sure to be honest, but we can be quietly confident that Bridget’s View, Lightening Mann and Megellan Cloud play their parts.