This week we have joint winners of the TRC Sire of The Week award, one for the performance of his runners on the track, the other for an invitation he has received off it.
TRC SIRE OF THE WEEK
First, let’s recap Royal Ascot 2019. There were 19 Group races, which fell to 14 different stallions. Four of these produced multiple wins, three of which - #2 Galileo, #10 SeaThe Stars and #25 Shamardal – were in the top 25 of our overall Sires category heading into the meeting:
There is no doubt that SEA THE STARS (+9pts, #7 from #10) deserves top honours in this space. From seven runners, he supplied G1 winners Stradivarius (Gold Cup) and Crystal Ocean (Prince of Wales’s Stakes) plus G2 Ribblesdale heroine Star Catcher. Note that Eagles By Day also filled third in the G2 King Edward VII Stakes for him.
The 2009 Derby winner gains 9pts on the week and moves up to #7 again, which is the highest slot he has ever reached (for the 27th time this week). In total, Sea The Stars has been a top ten sire for 76 weeks and is a highly reliable progenitor of top-class middle-distance and staying stock.
We will cover the exploits of Bated Breath, Kingman and Shamardal in the TRC Owner of the Week script tomorrow, but it is worth reiterating that Juddmonte Farms are assembling some roster, given that they control both the first two plus a certain Frankel (no gain, stays #3).
This week, one could argue that the tip-top Australian sire I AM INVINCIBLE (+1pt, stays #6) received an honour that surpasses anything achieved at Royal Ascot. He was announced as the first mate for Winx!
Winx’s connections seem to us to have made a great choice in the Yarraman Park stalwart. Indeed, if our stallion ranks are filtered so that only those with Modal Country ‘Australia’ (most runs of progeny in Australia) remain, the following graphic results:
Should the union of I Am Invincible and Winx prove fruitful, the resulting foal will be a cross between the #1 and #2 ranked Australian sires according to TRC Global Rankings!
To underline that her father was a good choice for Australia’s super mare, I Am Invincible’s 6-year-old daughter Invincibella went out and won the G1 Tattersall’s Tiara at Eagle Farm.