First-Season Sires: Key Contenders Worth Watching A successful first season can make or break a stallion’s career and it’ll be interesting to see if any of this year’s contenders will go on to compete with the likes of Frankel, Wootton Bassett and current title leader Night Of Thunder. Here we take a closer look at some of the first-season sires that have already made a splash and could be worth keeping an eye on. Starman This horse stands at Tally-Ho Stud for a fee of €10,000 and was a very smart sprinter in his racing days, winning the July Cup and finishing second by a narrow margin in the Sprint Cup. He has made a very good start to his new career and his progeny have pulled in £630,000 in prize money so far. He has produced a couple of very smart fillies in his first crop, including Royal Ascot winner Venetian Sun and potential Nunthorpe Contender Lady Iman. Joseph O’Brien’s North Coast was also an impressive winner of a Group 3 and you could hardly ask for a better start. Space Blues A 7f specialist in his racing days, he won the Prix de la Foret as a five-year-old and went on to follow up in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. He earned just shy of £2,000,000 and has made a good start with his first crop. A Group 1 winner with your first crop is always a statement and Power Blue got the better of the big favourite True Love when winning the Phoenix Stakes. Do Or Do Not is his second highest earner, despite the fact that he remains a maiden. Supremacy Supremacy was a very talented juvenile for Clive Cox and he bolted up in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes, before following up in the Middle Park Stakes (Group 1). He has already produced five individual winners from a relatively small pool of runners and Sandown Listed scorer Anthelia is the most successful of them so far, earning over £170,000 in prize money. The bulk of that comes from her victory in the Super Sprint. Palace Pier This John & Thady Gosden-trained horse was a five-time Group 1 winner in his day, including the St. James’s Palace Stakes and the Queen Anne. Standing at Dalham Hall Stud for a fee of £32,000, he has already produced seven winners. Morris Dancer is probably the most significant so far, as he was narrowly denied in the Vintage Stakes but went one better in very impressive fashion when upped to a mile in a Salisbury Listed contest recently. You would imagine there’s loads more to come from his progeny over the next few years St Mark’s Basilica This ex-Ballydoyle inmate really came into his own as a three-year-old and it’s possible that his progeny will do the same. He won the French Guineas and Derby before claiming further Group 1 successes in the Eclipse and the Irish Champion Stakes. He has produced eight winners thus far, one of which was runner-up in the Chesham Stakes and went on to score in a Tipperary Listed race. Diamond Necklace won her maiden in very good style and she looks like a Group horse in the making.
