A record-breaking racehorse and now Champion sire, Exceed And Excel recently joined an elite group of stallions who have sired a century of Stakes winners
Exceed And Excel is the sire of 100 individual Stakes winners
The win of Out Do in the Listed City Walls Stakes at York earlier this month saw Exceed And Excel join an elite group of stallions who have sired 100 individual Stakes winners.
At just 14 years-of-age, he has reached this milestone in a similar speedy vein to that which his progeny have become renowned for all over the world.
Bred and raised at Vinery Stud in Australia’s Hunter Valley, Exceed And Excel is by the all-conquering Danehill. Sire of a remarkable 347 Stakes winners, Danehill achieved the feat of a century of individual Stakes winners in slightly quicker time than his son as a 13-year-old back in 1999. It came through the G3 Missile Stakes victory of Commands, who would later become a barn mate to his paternal half-brother Exceed And Excel at Darley.
Exceed And Excel’s dam is the winning US-bred mare Patrona, a daughter of Lomond who arrived in Australia in August 1999, just weeks after Commands had claimed the Missile Stakes. A month later Patrona was covered by Danehill resulting in the birth of Exceed And Excel on September 5 the following year.
Exceed And Excel at Darley Kelvinside
Purchased by Nick Moraitis for $375,000 as a yearling, Exceed And Excel made a winning debut in March of his juvenile year. He went on to win the G2 Todman Stakes as a two-year-old before returning as a spring three-year-old and stringing three consecutive Group victories together, culminating in a brilliant win in the G1 Dubai Racing Club Cup in which he smashed the 1400m track record at Caulfield.
The following autumn, Exceed And Excel won the G2 Royal Sovereign Stakes first-up prior to defeating the older horses in Australia’s premier sprint race, the G1 Newmarket Handicap.
Subsequently purchased by HH Sheikh Mohammed to stand at Darley, Exceed And Excel retired to Darley’s Kelvinside Stud in 2004 where he commanded a service fee of $55,000 inc. GST.
In the spring of 2007, Exceed And Excel’s first runners hit the track and they could not have been any more impressive. His first runner was Exceedingly Good who gave his sire a dream start to his stud career with a debut win in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial at Flemington. The following week Exceed And Excel’s daughter Sugar Babe became his second runner and his second Stakes winner when she claimed the Listed Debutante Stakes at Caulfield.
Already the most exciting stallion prospect in Australia, Exceed And Excel’s stocks soared further a few months later when he sired the first two runners home in both divisions of the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude. Wilander defeated Exceedingly Good in the colts division, while Believe ‘N’ Succeed proved too good for Sugar Babe in the fillies division.
While none of the quartet were able to claim the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes that year, 12 months later Reward For Effort became Exceed And Excel’s first G1 winner with victory in the race.
At the same time Exceed And Excel was also enjoying success in northern hemisphere where he had been shuttling to Kildangan Stud in Ireland. On one of racing’s biggest stages at Royal Ascot, Exceed And Excel sired his first European Stakes winner when his first-crop son Flashmans Papers claimed the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes. In the same week Spin Cycle, another son of Exceed And Excel, finished second in the G2 Norfolk Stakes and his sire was suddenly making waves on both sides of the equator.
Exceed And Excel's triple G1-winning son Helmet
Exceed And Excel’s achievements at stud have continued to come at a spectacularly rapid rate and he has become the world’s most successful dual-hemisphere stallion. Among his 100 Stakes winners are ten G1 winners including triple G1 winner Helmet, who has also become a dual-hemisphere stallion for Darley.
A record-breaking racehorse and Champion stallion, he is admired by breeders and adored by the people who work with him on a daily basis, including Jimmy Lovatt, the incumbent Stallion Manager at Darley in America who has travelled across the world with Exceed And Excel for close to a decade.
“Exceed And Excel never says no to a carrot and has a lot of character about him but he is a true professional,” Lovatt said.
“He really is one of a kind. To have shuttled across the pond and back as many times as he has, taking it all in his stride, is a true testament of the champion he is.”
Australia’s Champion stallion in 2012-13 and the world’s leading sire of two-year-old winners and two-year-old Stakes winners since 2008, Exceed And Excel will arrive back in Australia next month where he is fully booked for the forthcoming breeding season.
