Dr Statz
John Boyce cracks the code
History repeating itself in Cotai Glory’s fast start
58 THE OWNER BREEDER
TALLY-HO STUD/AMY LANIGAN
I
t looks as though we might yet again be in for a record-breaking attempt at the number of individual winners sired by a first-season stallion. Only last year we witnessed Tally-Ho Stud’s Mehmas shatter a record held by Iffraaj for the previous ten years. By the end of play last year Mehmas had sired a remarkable 56 individual winning youngsters, 18 more than Iffraaj’s total of 38. Well, this year Tally-Ho has another freshman sire setting a scorching pace in Cotai Glory – a son of Exceed And Excel and the Elusive Quality mare Continua. With the world’s most prolific source of juvenile stakes winners since he retired to stud as his sire, Cotai Glory was always going to interest stud masters as a potential recruit. Moreover, he represented the very successful union between Exceed And Excel and daughters of Elusive Quality. In the northern hemisphere, this pairing has a 14% strike-rate of stakes winners to runners, and also includes Group winners Yalta and Sound And Silence. The combination has performed even better in Australia with 21% stakes winners and features the brilliant filly Guelph, a four-time Group 1 winner who won both the Sires’ Produce and Champagne Stakes as a two-year-old. Typically, Cotai Glory got going early, posting two victories from his seven outings as a two-year-old for Charlie Hills. After he broke his maiden, he ran second to Limato in the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes and then won the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes in performances that earned him an annual Timeform mark of 109. Better form was to follow over the next three seasons, his most notable achievements being a second to fellow freshman sire Profitable in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes, his win in the Group 3 World Trophy and an excellent third to Marsha in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes. Unlike his record-setting stud companion Mehmas, Cotai Glory wasn’t quite as accomplished at two and therefore started out at a lower fee. Predictably, from an organisation with the knack for producing quick-starting sires, Cotai Glory proved very popular, attracting 177 mares that went on to produce 129 foals. And with just 46 starters on the board by the third week in
Cotai Glory: setting a fierce pace at the head of this year’s first-crop sires’ list
July, there should be many more winners to come. So far Cotai Glory has amassed 21 individual winners at a rate of 46%. His current tally of winning youngsters puts him ahead of every first-season sire not just this year but also every other year. His closest pursuer among this latest batch of freshman sires is Overbury Stud’s Ardad, whose 14 winners is more than produced by any another British sire at the same stage of the year, the one exception being former Overbury stallion Bertolini, who had 15 at this stage back in 2005. You may have already noticed that Mehmas is nowhere to be seen on our all-time leading sires of two-year-old winners list. With a two-month delay to the season last year, the Tally-Ho stallion had only nine winners by July 20 and it
took him another full month to reach the point where Cotai Glory is today. There is no question whatsoever that such is the extent of the commercial broodmare population in Ireland that it hands a huge tactical advantage to Irish-based first-season sires. The top ten on our current-year list all started out in Ireland and only Dubawi (36) and Dutch Art (33) get among the top 20 all-time best freshman sires by winners. However, an appearance on a leading first-season sire table certainly does not preclude a long and successful career. The likes of Dubawi, Invincible Spirit, Iffraaj and Dark Angel prove that point. Moreover, last year’s champion Mehmas has already come up with three second-crop stakeswinning juveniles, including Group winners Lusail and Beauty Inspire. Whether Cotai Glory can follow suit is open to question, not least because he has 50 fewer foals in his second crop and fewer still in his third. But what is not in dispute is the fact that Cotai Glory has come up with a fine juvenile in the shape of Atomic Force, who recently added the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin to his earlier success in the Group 3 Prix du Bois. There’s a lot to like about his dominant racing style and at the time of writing he is Timeform’s choice as Europe’s top-rated two-year-old on a mark of 112p, already more accomplished than his sire was at the same age.
Leading first-season sires by winners to July 20 of their respective year Stallion
YOB
Sire
Rnrs
Wnrs
%WR
COTAI GLORY
2012
Exceed And Excel IRE
Stood
2018
To Stud
46
21
46
INVINCIBLE SPIRIT
1997
Green Desert
IRE
2003
46
18
39
IFFRAAJ
2001
Zafonic
IRE
2007
44
17
39
KHELEYF
2001
Green Desert
IRE
2005
42
17
40
ACCLAMATION
1999
Royal Applause
IRE
2004
40
16
40 48
BUNGLE INTHEJUNGLE
2010
Exceed And Excel IRE
2015
33
16
FASLIYEV
1997
Nureyev
IRE
2000
47
16
34
ORPEN
1996
Lure
IRE
2000
40
16
40 29
ZEBEDEE
2008
Invincible Spirit
IRE
2011
56
16
BERTOLINI
1996
Danzig
GB
2002
47
15
32
CHOISIR
1999
Danehill Dancer
IRE
2004
45
15
33
DARK ANGEL
2005
Acclamation
IRE
2008
46
15
33
FAST COMPANY
2005
Danehill Dancer
IRE
2011
44
15
34
GUTAIFAN
2013
Dark Angel
IRE
2016
48
15
31
ARDAD
2014
Kodiac
GB
2018
31
14
45