Jet Master
The 2014-2015 season could see champion sire Jet Master’s final crop of 3yos take centre stage. Champion Sire of South Africa seven times to date, Jet Master’s last crop of sophomores look like adding further glory to a stud career which has seen Jet Master represented by over 60 stakes winners – 21 of which are Grade 1 winners.
To date, Jet Master has been represented by an impressive 44 Gr1 performers and judging by some of the more promising performers in his final crop, this tally could yet grow further.
His final crop of 64 foals has seen just 19 race, and eight have won. However, of Jet Master’s 3yos to have raced, no fewer than four have gained black type –with the promise of more to come.
Amongst his top performers of this crop, to date, are unbeaten filly Jet Set Go, who impressed with a fluent victory at Durbanville on Saturday, and the Gr1 colts Jayyed and ML Jet. All three look like potential classic contenders at this point in time.
Jet Master’s progeny have won the majority of South Africa’s top flight Gr1 contests. Ironically, though, considering he himself won the race back in 1998, no son or daughter of Jet Master has prevailed in the Gr1 Cape Guineas. How fitting would it be then for a son (or daughter) of this mighty stallion to prevail in the 2015 Grand Parade Cape Guineas?
The Brave Effect
Dancing Brave (pic: Racing Post)
Dancing Brave was one of the greatest racehorses ever to set foot on a racetrack. A winner of eight of his ten outings, Dancing Brave was unlucky not to make it nine from ten, having been a desperately unlucky loser of the 1986 Epsom Derby.
An ordinary individual, with imperfect front legs and a marked parrot mouth, Dancing Brave nonetheless reigned supreme in Europe in 1986 winning all of the 2000 Guineas, Eclipse Stakes, King George and Prix de L’Arc deTriomphe. In the latter race, Dancing Brave accounted for a field which included no fewer than nine Gr1 winners – including his erstwhile Derby conqueror Shahrastani.
Despite being exported to Japan after a slow start to his stud career, Dancing Brave (unlike many sons of Lyphard) left a permanent mark on the modern day thoroughbred. He left behind one truly outstanding crop of foals – Dancing Brave’s 1990 crop included 39 foals of which no fewer than 8 (21%) were pattern race winners. This crop included Epsom Derby winner Commander In Chief, as well as fellow Group 1 winners Wemyss Bight and White Muzzle while the next crop produced the Gr1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup winner Cherokee Rose.
Dancing Brave, who died prematurely at the age of 16, left behind over 30 stakes winners, in a rather erratic stud career.
Dancing Brave’s real contribution to the breed, however, comes through his broodmare daughters. Broodmare sire of 68 stakes winners, Dancing Brave’s daughters have produced such major Gr1 winners as Millenary (St Leger), Beat Hollow (Grand Prix de Paris), Esoterique (Prix Rothschild), Military Attack (Horse Of The Year), Meisho Samson (Tenno Sho) and Zomaradah.
Dubawi (Dubai Millennium – Zomaradah)
Italian Oaks winner Zomaradah (Deploy) is one of her sire’s best broodmare daughters producing three stakes winners – including triple Gr1 winner Dubawi. The latter, today one of the world’s elite stallions, became the fastest stallion in history to be represented by 50 pattern race winners. Dubawi is the sire of 16 Gr1 winners to date (a tally which includes the 2014 2000 Guineas hero Night of Thunder), and is also the sire of promising young sire Makfi. The latter won the 2000 Guineas in 2009.
Hope is another daughter of Dancing Brave to have made her mark at stud. Not only is she the dam of world leading sire and champion sprinter Oasis Dream, but her classic winning daughter Zenda (who won the French 1000 Guineas) is the dam of 2014’s outstanding miler, Kingman. A son of Invincible Spirit, Kingman has won seven of eight starts, and has reeled off four successive group 1 victories. One can only wonder what his stud value could reach!
Oasis Dream, sire of over 80 stakes winners to date, is also making a name for himself as a sire of sires. His Group 2 Gimcrack winning son Showcasing has made a fine start to his stud career, with his first crop of juveniles this year including the Group winners Toocoolforschool (G2 Mill Reef Stakes) and Cappella Sansevero (G3 Round Tower Stakes). At the time of writing, two sons of Oasis Dream featured in the top leading first crop sires in GB/Ireland.
Top sprinter Cherokee Rose also did well at stud – and is the second dam of Group 1 winners Kirklees and Mastery and third dam of 2014 G1 Eclipse Stakes winner Mukhadram. While Dancing Brave may not have achieved greatness as a stallion, he more than made his mark on the thoroughbred of today, and the likes of Kingman and Mukhadram could yet keep this great horse’s name alive in modern day pedigrees.
Street Cry death further depletes US sire ranks
Street Cry
The death last week of Darley stallion, Street Cry, was a huge loss to the North American stallion ranks. At the time of his death, Street Cry was one of just seven stallions standing for a fee of $100 000 plus.
This is a far cry when stallions like Storm Cat stood for $500 000, and, further back in time, when the likes of Seattle Slew and Northern Dancer commanded even more outrageous fees. Currently just two sires (Tapit and War Front) sport stud fees of $150 000, with both vying for market dominance.
In terms of statistics, North America’s current leading active sire by AEI is War Front, whose AEI is 2.59. The Danzig horse certainly upgrades his mates (with his CI just 2.0), but War Front’s index is a long way off such former great North American sires as Northern Dancer (5.10), Alydar (5.11), Nijinsky II (4.71) and Danzig (4.36). Tapit’s own ancestor, Bold Ruler, sported a stunning Average Earnings Index of 7.74!
Interestingly, Tapit (who currently heads the US sires log on earnings) has an AEI of 2.24 – behind such sires as Smart Strike (2.29), and former Horse Of The Year Ghostzapper (2.28).
With the world’s current outstanding stallion being the Irish based Galileo (who also has a plethora of promising sire sons scattered about in Ireland and Britain), one can only wonder when the wheel will turn back in favour of North America.
The loss of an exceptional stallion like Street Cry does nothing to help the cause!
