Only a few weeks into the new flat racing season and only a couple of months effectively left to choose your sire for a mare in the current breeding season but one or two interesting developments in the performance of the 2022 First Season Sires judging by what their 2nd crop offspring has been doing as 3yos.
Havana Grey is undoubtedly the leading sire of this 2022 cohort and his 2nd crop now has 6 black type winners to go with the 10 he achieved with his 1st crop in their initial two years as runners. The average runner rating of his 2nd crop, achieved off below average mares, has almost reached 75 some 3.4lbs ahead of his nearest rival in Sioux Nation. I am not stating anything new or unknown here as HG now costs £55k a cover versus the £6.5k he cost when this 2nd crop was created back in 2020. Whatever, he's been impressive to date and if you can afford him then go for it!
Whilst as good as Havana Grey until now, Sioux Nation has also produced plenty of good runners from sub-80 rated mares and this 2nd crop can boast 3 black type offspring to add to his 9 from his 1st crop. Again, his fee reflects the recognition of his very good achievements having risen from €12.5k in his first two crops to €27.5k for a cover in 2024.
I highlighted these two performers when analysing their 1st crop but their are a few others who attract attention that are consistently outperforming the others. Saxon Warrior, Harry Angel and Kessaar were all comfortably above the trend line with their 1st crop after two years and they are repeating the performance with their 2nd crop. Indeed, Harry Angel had a new G3 winner with A Lilac Rolla at Leopardstown on Sunday and Vicious Harry won his 2nd Listed race in France today. At £10k he is very good value. Saxon Warrior had 13 black type performers in his 1st crop as 2 & 3yos off mares rated around 90 and, whilst his 2nd crop is from mares rated only 83, his runners are already averaging almost 71 and I would expect that number to improve as the year goes on given that he was best himself around 8 to 10 furlongs. The Italian breeding industry, through Allevamenti Della Berardenga, appears to have made a good catch in getting Kessaar from Tally Ho Stud. His 1st crop was bred from the 2nd lowest level of mare yet still achieved three black type placed runners and overall his offspring averaged 71.1 which was 9th highest of the 18 sires in this cohort. His 2nd crop is repeating that effort showing it to be no fluke and his runners currently lie 8th highest of the 17 sires (sadly, no Roaring Lion in year 2) so if I was a breeder in Italy looking for a value sprint sire he would certainly be on the radar.
The sire who has improved the most with this 2nd crop is undoubtedly Cloth Of Stars. His 1st crop was moderate with only one black type performer in Birr Castle who won a Listed race at Chantilly. Overall, from the 8th best mare level his offspring only achieved 13th best after two years on the track. Whilst he is only one of two sires in this cohort who did best on the track themselves at between 10 and 12 furlongs (the other being Cracksman) and his offspring could possibly improve more than most at 4yo I would say that the 1st crop's results have only been moderate to date. Having said that, on Sunday Birr Castle stepped up on his Listed win when a close 3rd in the Group 2 Prix D'Harcourt at Longchamp and perhaps his fellow 1st crop relations will follow suit. Let's see.
Cloth Of Stars 2nd crop, from a similar level of mare, is much better with runners averaging 70 whereas they averaged around 63 at this stage in his 1st crop. That makes them 4th best from the 5th best group of mares and, given the strong likelihood that they will improve as 3yos, that indicates a very strong performance. He has had 14 of his 22 winners from this crop since the start of the year and on Sunday Dallas Star won a Group 3 at Leopardstown by 3 lengths. Apart from Dallas Star, there are a number of promising 3yo types including French winners Savannenstern (won on debut), Suchet and Bubble Gum as well as Toussaint in Italy and Brioni in the UK to name a few. The other encouraging aspect is that 59% of his potential 99 runners have hit the track already which compares well with the other mid distance sire Cracksman at 47% and with the whole cohort of sires which has had 58% of it's potential runners race to date. Considering that most of them are sprint types, the CoS starting % is very good. At €5k he looks exceptional value for breeders looking for value but also not obsessed with speed sires.