breednet.com.au

Toughness and Trainability

Tara Madgwick - Thursday August 8
An email from one of our readers highlighting the need to look past the traditional sire tables got us thinking.


We all know that the ability to sire winners and in particular stakes-winners is what makes a successful stallion, but from the point of view of a racehorse owner, they want not just a horse that can win a race, but a horse that can front up and compete successfully all season, so we've had a closer look at our leading sires for 2018/2019 to find those that deliver toughness and trainability as well as winners.

Winx had toughness and trainability as well as speed!The world's best racehorse Winx only just retired at the end of her seven year-old season and she raced consistently from age two until retirement competing in usually eight races a year with the exception of her busy three year-old season which included 10 starts and her juvenile season when she started twice for two wins.

It's not unreasonable to expect even a horse of lesser ability to also race at least eight times a year with periods of competition interspersed with downtime.

Horses that are sound enough to achieve a minimum of eight starts in the past season and have won at least twice are the horses we've been looking for, prizemoney and Black Type aside.

These are the horses that brought a lot of entertainment and fun into the lives of their owners and whether they won stakes races, metro races or country races, I'm pretty sure their owners would be well pleased with the result, whatever their base level.

All you can ask a racehorse to do is his best and these horses have given it a red-hot go, so who are their sires?

Below is a list of sires from the last season that produced 15 or more of what we call target winners, those horses that competed at least eight times in the past season and won at least two of those starts.

Sire TargetWinners AllWinners AllRunners StrikeRate Target Winners to Runners StrikeRate Target Winners to Winners
I Am Invincible 52 184 336 15.5 28.3
Written Tycoon 48 150 294 16.3 32
Sebring 41 154 327 12.5 26.6
Smart Missile 38 132 254 15 28.8
Snitzel 38 180 346 11 21.1
Casino Prince 38 80 169 22.5 47.5
Choisir 36 100 201 17.9 36
So You Think 35 114 217 16.1 30.7
Star Witness 35 125 269 13 28
All Too Hard 34 107 210 16.2 31.8
Magnus 32 94 203 15.8 34
Blackfriars 31 96 210 14.8 32.3
Medaglia D'Oro 31 84 185 16.8 36.9
Savabeel 30 74 170 17.6 40.5
Reward For Effort 29 113 236 12.3 25.7
Not A Single Doubt 29 97 229 12.7 29.9
Denman 29 98 200 14.5 29.6
Hard Spun 28 60 130 21.5 46.7
Helmet 28 93 180 15.6 30.1
Exceed And Excel 28 101 218 12.8 27.7
Pierro 28 107 211 13.3 26.2
High Chaparral 27 120 238 11.3 22.5
Lope De Vega 27 88 160 16.9 30.7
Bel Esprit 27 103 202 13.4 26.2
Foxwedge 26 97 196 13.3 26.8
Myboycharlie 26 54 131 19.8 48.1
Nicconi 25 90 212 11.8 27.8
Stratum 24 76 150 16 31.6
Street Cry 24 67 121 19.8 35.8
Wanted 23 57 123 18.7 40.4
Rothesay 23 86 183 12.6 26.7
Hinchinbrook 23 91 213 10.8 25.3
Artie Schiller 23 69 147 15.6 33.3
Commands 23 48 102 22.5 47.9
Fastnet Rock 22 114 276 8 19.3
Equiano 22 68 132 16.7 32.4
Your Song 22 67 123 17.9 32.8
Snippetson 22 75 169 13 29.3
Magic Albert 21 66 151 13.9 31.8
Bon Hoffa 21 51 123 17.1 41.2
Statue Of Liberty 20 53 107 18.7 37.7
Redoute's Choice 20 86 177 11.3 23.3
Poet's Voice 20 57 135 14.8 35.1
Real Saga 19 57 131 14.5 33.3
Bernardini 19 55 132 14.4 34.5
Lonhro 19 90 183 10.4 21.1
Duporth 19 49 109 17.4 38.8
Husson 18 51 123 14.6 35.3
Americain 18 43 132 13.6 41.9
Show A Heart 18 43 102 17.6 41.9
Manhattan Rain 18 46 94 19.1 39.1
Zariz 18 52 114 15.8 34.6
More Than Ready 17 76 177 9.6 22.4
Moshe 17 62 143 11.9 27.4
Captain Sonador 17 35 82 20.7 48.6
Dash For Cash 17 30 74 23 56.7
Love Conquers All 17 70 158 10.8 24.3
Patronize 16 41 67 23.9 39
Spirit Of Boom 15 62 129 11.6 24.2
Toorak Toff 15 63 121 12.4 23.8
Hidden Dragon 15 50 103 14.6 30
Dane Shadow 15 41 101 14.9 36.6
Delago Deluxe 15 44 89 16.9 34.1
Domesday 15 53 124 12.1 28.3



Footnote: First and second season sires are less likely to figure prominently on the list given they really only have one crop of three year-olds capable of reaching the criteria of our search as very few juveniles start eight times in a season.

Also it should be noted established sires that no longer have a volume of progeny coming through can be flattered on the strike rate as they have no new stock coming through and the horses still racing for them are obviously the ones that are successful at their level.


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