We all know that statistical anomalies can occur, but when the same horses dominate the sires’ tables both numerically and financially, one knows the impression of their success is based on solid evidence rather than fluke. It is thus very pleasing for Darley to see that the trifecta for Australia’s second-season sires’ premiership (based on progeny earnings) reads ‘Exceed And Excel – Lonhro – Reset’ while the numerical table shows exactly the same result.
Exceed And Excel, with 55 winners and progeny earnings this season of over $3 million to his name, needs no introduction: the unbeaten multiple Group One winner has made an explosive start to his stud career, and is about to add the second-season title to the first-season crown which he won last term. Of his numerous good horses, Blue Diamond winner Reward For Effort springs most immediately to mind.
In fact, the biggest compliment one could pay to the outstanding season enjoyed by Exceed And Excel is to point out that he has been able to keep Lonhro off the top spot: Lonhro has enjoyed an excellent campaign, posting figures which, in many seasons, would be enough to see him crowed champion of this category. His current tally of individual winners (51) is only just behind that posted by Exceed And Excel, while his progeny earnings for the season of over $2.1 million are extremely creditable for a stallion with only two crops representing him.
Lonhro’s progeny have been running well all term, and they are certainly finishing the campaign with a bang. Last Saturday saw him post the impressive achievement of siring three metropolitan winners in the same afternoon. In Sydney, Skytrain led home a Lonhro quinella by winning over 1200m at Rosehill, lumping 58kg to victory over his paternal half-brother Sainthood to take his career record to two wins from only three starts. In Melbourne the same afternoon, the very exciting two-year-old Denman won his second consecutive race with an extremely impressive victory over 1100m at Flemington. Denman, a son of the Vain mare Peach and thus a half-brother to the Canny Lad-sired Stakes winners Preserve and Rio Osa, is clearly a very exciting prospect, and after the race his jockey Peter Mertens showed his high opinion by reporting that “he just put himself into the race and then sprinted away very quickly”. Later on the same Flemington programme, Lonhro’s treble was completed by the victory of the three-year-old Rain In Spain.
Lonhro’s quinella in Sydney on Saturday turned out to be setting a trend because he recorded another one three days later at Randwick, when the Chris Waller-trained juvenile Deer Valley came home ahead of Counterpane over 1200m. Both fillies look set for bigger things, with Waller suggesting that Deer Valley will be set for Stakes races over the spring carnival, while Kerrin McEvoy expressed himself more than happy with Counterpane’s strong-finishing debut effort.
While Lonhro is enjoying a tremendous season, Reset is snapping at his heels. Third to his fellow Darley sires in both numerical and financial tables, his progeny earnings for the season, at just over $2 million, are only just short of Lonhro’s total. Dual Derby winner Rebel Raider has naturally been his star, but his Stakes-winning three-year-old daughter Moulin Lady (winner of the Princess Stakes over 1600m at Eagle Farm in April), his Group Two-placed son Cassini and his Stakes-placed two-year-old Musigny have all done enough to be mentioned in dispatches.
What price the same trifectas in next season’s third-season sires’ tables?
