A bumper Saturday for All Too Hard drew a resurgence of interest in the rivalry between two great colts and now successful sires.
On the racetrack there was never a great deal between superstar colts Pierro and All Too Hard and that bitter rivalry extended to the breeding barn when they both retired to stud in 2013, the former to Coolmore and the latter to Vinery, so seven years on it’s time to take a look and see just where these great adversaries are at.
The fluctuating fortune of any sire is often a story best told by the Australian Studbook with mare numbers and changes in service fee dictated by racetrack success or in some cases, lack thereof.
As champion colts that retired to elite commercial farms, Pierro and All Too Hard are entitled to be successful and both of them are, although until the arrival of Alligator Blood and a stakes treble last Saturday (read about his red letter day here), All Too Hard was seen very much as the lesser of the two as their stories have unfolded.
Below are the Australian Studbook statistics for both sires that paint the picture.
Pierro standing at a fee of $88,000 in 2019 and covering 217 mares appears to be a long way ahead of All Too Hard, who covered 107 mares at a fee of $27,500, but is there really that much between them.
On the score of winners, All Too Hard has more with his 201 ahead of Pierro’s 193, but Pierro’s winners come at a better strike rate of 66.5% as opposed to 61.4%.
On the score of stakes-winners, Pierro has more with 21 stakes-winners coming at a 7.2% strike rate, while All Too Hard has had 15 at 4.5% strike rate.
Of those stakes-winners, Pierro’s are clearly of an overall better quality with six Group I winners to all Too Hard’s one and 15 Group winners for Pierro against nine for All Too Hard.
To my mind, the really big difference between these two stallions lies in Pierro’s Danzig free pedigree which has allowed him to get the very best from the hundreds of Danhill line mares and in particular those with Redoute’s Choice blood.
Of his 21 stakes-winners, 18 of them carry Danehill blood and all six of his Group I winners are bred this way. His stakes-winner to runner rate goes up when you look at his statistics with mares carrying Danehill, rising to 9.4%. stakes-winners to runners
All Too Hard on the other hand has just four stakes-winners bred this way, two Listed and two Group III winners and his stakes-winner to runner strike rate falls back to 3.5% with Danehill line mares.
What this means is that Pierro has a tremendous advantage over his rival as he can use the superior Danehill mares to leverage his own success, while All Too Hard struggles with it.
Alligator Blood has proven All Too Hard can get ‘the big horse’ but he needs the right mare to do it and Lake Superior (she died in 2017) was that mare.
A blueblood from the Princess Tracy family, she combined the blood of champion sires Encosta de Lago, Red Ransom (USA) and Last Tycoon (IRE), but no Danzig blood and I suspect therein lies a reason in part as to why Alligator Blood has soared a lot higher than any other All Too Hard before him.
