established nh stallions
Upward trajectory for Yeats We run through the leading active NH sires at stud in Britain and Ireland
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HIS HAS BEEN written before the running of the Aintree Grand National, a decision that we made so that a one-off race with its massive prize-money won’t significantly affect our analysis of the NH sires’ table for 2020-21. It was difficult to find the perfect timing for this review – we did not want to publish at the end of the NH season so too late to be of use to NH breeders, or too early so that it did not accurately reflect the season the NH sires have had. So hence this post-Cheltenham publication – we might not have the final tables but, aside from the National, the Punchestown Festival and the Sandown end-of-season finale – the framework for the final NH stallion standings are pretty much in place. First, we go through the season enjoyed by the older active NH stallions standing in Britain and Ireland before we run through profiles of younger sires – those with runners and those yet to be represented on the track – and we analyse the French-based stallion scene. Sadly, generally British and Irish NH stallions have to get so old before they are able to start challenging for top honours – for many, their moments of glory don’t arrive until they are either pensioned or dead – the fantastic year enjoyed by the deceased Stowaway a prime example. The late Whytemount Stud stallion has been challenging for his first-ever NH sire championship – he led the table for much of the season and regained the top spot after The Festival, courtesy of two Grade 1 success and four winners. His main protagonist is the previous champion Flemensfirth, now retired from the breeding shed. Coolmore’s Yeats has been in close attendance to the pair throughout the season and is enjoying his best-ever results in terms of the NH sires’ table. He has already beaten his best-ever prize-money earnings and winner numbers, and he also matched Stowaway’s four Festival winners. Progeny by the son of Sadler’s Wells were the first by an active NH stallion to break the seven-figure prize-money earnings this season, tipping the million in February. He has achieved his seasonal success courtesy of 72 winners and six NH stakes
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winners (the leading active NH stallion on that statistic), headed by Flooring Porter, winner of the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle and then the Stayers’ Hurdle for trainer Gavin Cromwell. Yeats’s highest earning son is actually running in France – Figuero, trained by François Nicolle and bred by the Cypres family out of the Saint Des Saints mare Annaland, was a Grade 1 winner in 2019. He won the Prix Ingre (G3) in September and then finished second and third in last autumn’s Grand Steeple Chase de Paris (G1) and Prix la Haye Jousselin (G1). His most expensive sales ring progeny Chantry House, who fetched £295,000 sold as a winning point-to-pointer at the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham Sale in 2018, finished third in the 2020 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and built on that performance taking this year’s Marsh Novices Chase (G1). The sire has had one store horse sale over €200,000 back in 2014 with a second-best price of €185,000 given for an as-yetunraced gelding sold by Rathmore Stud at the 2019 Goffs Land Rover Sale. At the same year’s Derby Sale, Highflyer Bloodstock spent €150,000 on a gelding from Springhill
Stud out of the Presenting mare Gaye Preskina. Yeats’s average at last year’s store horse sales was 14,871gns, and at the foal sales 10,092gns. He stands at Castle Hyde at an affordable fee of €5,000. Yeats has not had the most winners of any living stallion this year, that honour goes to Getaway, his big books and support from NH breeders, purchasers and from his stud owners beginning to reap dividends. The son of Monsun is two years younger than Yeats and has enjoyed a breakthrough season – Sporting John became his first Grade 1-winning chaser when taking the Scilly Isle Novices Chase in February for trainer Philip Hobbs. He has had seven six-year-old winners over fences this season behind only Yeats as an active NH sire. Getaway’s stock has always been highly regarded at the sales, and the sire has benefited from the flurry of point-to-point sales that have emerged over the past few years – he has had 12 horses who have fetched over €/£200,000 sold at the various NH horses in training sales with a top price
