Exceed And Excel has quickly proved his worth at stud with a rash of first-crop winners on both sides of the equator followed up by leading second-crop sire honours in Australia. In the northern hemisphere, he is currently the leading sire of two-year-olds with nine individual winners at less than halfway through the turf season.
His winners this week include the Chris Wall-trained debutante Drift And Dream, a homebred for Lady Juliet Tadgell out of the Warning mare Sea Drift, who won a five-furlong (1000m) maiden at Yarmouth. Another filly, Six Diamonds, bred by Mrs S Dibben, saluted at the third attempt at Bath over the same distance on 13 June.
At Royal Ascot, dual winner Ceedwell added some valuable black type to her CV with a third place in the G2 Queen Mary Stakes. The performance of the speedy filly will have given great pleasure to one member of the BBC's commentary team at the Royal Meeting as she was bred by Willie Carson's Minster Stud in partnership with Bickerton Racing and is out of Muja Farewell (Mujtahid).
Also at Ascot, Exceed And Excel three-year-old Secret Society lost out by a head in the ultra-competitive Britannia Stakes. The Darley-bred son of Shady Point (Unfuwain) has won twice already this season over seven furlongs (1400m).
Exceed And Excel has another two juvenile fillies to represent him in this afternoon's G3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot. Eternal Instinct, who is co-owned, trained and bred by Scottish trainer Jim Goldie, scored on debut at Haydock in April and Above Limits landed a competitive Sandown maiden on her last start in May for the Findlay & Bloom partnership.
In Europe, Exceed And Excel's contemporary - and the only first-season stallion last year to sire more winners than he did - is Kheleyf, who shuttles to Australia for the first time in 2009. His winners keep coming thick and fast, too, with his successful runners this week including the two-year-old Danzoe, the Jeremy Gask-trained three-year-old New Leyf and the highly impressive first-time-out winner Crimea, who won a five-furlong (1000m) Thirsk maiden by two-and-a-half lengths on 16 June.
Kheleyf has also had two Group race runners-up at Royal Ascot this week. Deposer, who has run placed in three Stakes races in the run up to the G3 Jersey Stakes, battled home to finish just half a length behind the winner Ouqba. On the juvenile front, Kheleyf looks to have another classy contender in Reignier, who was second in the G2 Norfolk Stakes yesterday. Out of Komena (Komaite), the Sean Gollogly-bred colt won in May before finishing second to the highly-regarded Capercaillie (Elusive Quality) at Musselburgh on 6 June.
