Australia’s Busiest First Season Sires 2023

Anamoe might have retired to stud as Australian Horse of the Year with nine Group I wins on his glittering CV, but in the breeding barn in terms of popularity in numbers he has not finished first.

The most successful G1 winner Godolphin have ever produced anywhere worldwide, Anamoe covered 148 mares at a fee of $121,000 which in Darley terms is a full book.

Quality was at a premium with 10 Group I mares in his debut book, a number that was equal to that covered by Justify and Alabama Express and less than only I Am Invincible, Snitzel and Zoustar. Of those 10 G1 winning mares covered by Anamoe only Guelph and Kiamichi were owned by Godolphin so he attracted plenty of outside support.

In terms of the quality of mare covered, Yulong based Diatonic (Jpn) will have no excuse for failure.

He had a little practice run early in 2023 covering 32 mares at the start of the year with those foals born this year to Northern Hemisphere time and then covered 131 to Southern Hemisphere time including seven Group I winners all owned by Yulong – Melody Belle, In Her Time, Samantha Miss, Coventina Bay, Snapdragon, Winning Ways and Viddora.

So for those of us not up to speed on the key stats of Diatonic, he is a Japanese bred sprinter that won 10 races and placed six times from 26 starts competing and winning from age two up until age seven, so tough and consistent, albeit without a G1 win on the resume.

The most popular first season sire by the numbers was Newgate Farm’s flashy chestnut Snitzel son In The Congo, who sold himself at the stallion parades with a nice mix of swagger and the fact he is a G1 Golden Rose winning son of champion sire Snitzel.

He covered 169 mares, but interestingly his polar opposite Hitotsu up the road at Arrowfield Stud was nearly as popular covering 162 mares.

Hitotsu was a fast, clean winded stayer that won four of five races at three including the Group I VRC Derby, Australian Derby and Australian Guineas.

Arrowfield have had a lot of success with another Derby winning sire in Dundeel and will be hoping Hitotsu can achieve similar.

First Season Sires that covered 60 or more mares.