Are You in the Market for a Cracking Colt?

As the breeding season winds down, the focus in the bloodstock world is fast switching to the yearling sales of 2025 and for the big colts syndicate investors it’s time to take stock and see maybe what has worked well and what hasn’t so we’re looking at all of the stakes-winning colts from last season and where they sit after the spring carnival.

It’s a who’s who in the zoo of colts and the interesting things to consider are those colts that remain in the top bracket, those who put their hand up from nowhere and those that disappear without a trace.

Some may have done enough at two to remain viable as stallion prospects even if they do not train on, but others will be gelded and / or sold offshore with a couple on the list below already having met that fate in Linebacker (gelded) and Holmes a Court (exported to Hong Kong).

Below are all the stakes-winning 2YO colts in Australasia last season (2023/2024) sorted by prizemoney.

Below are all the stakes-winning 3YO colts so far this spring in Australasia and they are sorted by lifetime prizemoney, so cumulative from their juvenile season.

Despite being perceived as having had a disappointing spring, Storm Boy remains at the head of the list by earnings and interestingly has left Australia to be trained in Ireland by Aidan O’Brien, so how that experiment plays out is going to captivate a lot of racing and bloodstock people in 2025.

Broadsiding improved his standing winning the G1 Golden Rose and placing in the Cox Plate, while Growing Empire is arguably the most desirable of all the colts, but is still only a G3 winner despite his G1 placings in the Everest, Manikato Stakes and Coolmore Stud Stakes.

Private Life is one of the colts to come from nowhere to win the G1 Caulfield Guineas, but followed up with a terrific close up fifth in the G1 Champions Sprint Classic, which for mine is a flashing light for better things to come in the autumn.

Switzerland went into the spring with work to do and is building an impressive strike rate with five wins from seven starts and if he was retired tomorrow would be overrun with mares.

Anyone that has been following the Black Type circus in Australia will look at this list and pedantically say, ‘but Anode isn’t a SW’ , that may be true, but take a look at his form. He’s had 10 starts for two wins and five placings, four of them in Group races and the fifth in a Listed race.

His win in a $500,000 race called the ATC Tapp Craig (advertised as Listed, but not official recognized) was sandwiched between a head second to Traffic Warden in the G2 Run to the Rose (when he beat home both Storm Boy and Switzerland) and a third in the $1million G2 Callander Presnell at 1600m to Prost. He has only ever missed a place three times and all on wet tracks which he hates.

Hopefully Anode can win a recognized stakes race in the autumn.