Bloodstock expert Nancy Sexton returns with with her magisterial annual overview of the stallions who command the highest fees on the planet
For the third successive year, Britain leads the way when it comes to the world's most expensive sires as the home of Dubawi and Frankel. Both will again command £350,000 in 2026 as they enter the latter stages of their career; Dubawi is a true veteran at 24 in 2026 while Frankel turns 18.
Nancy Sexton: The world’s ten most expensive sires for 2025
Outside of the big two, Europe will keenly feel the loss of Wootton Bassett. The former Coolmore titan covered 204 mares at €300,000 in 2025 and given his achievements from the past year – 27 European stakes winners, nine of them at the top level – would have likely commanded more in 2026. As a result, the Coolmore global roster is headed by Justify in Kentucky, whose reduced fee of $200,000 places him just outside the world’s top ten.
An increased fee of €300,000 shifts Sea The Stars, the sire of Arc winner Daryz, within the top three for the first time.
There has also been a deserved increase for the British and Irish champion sire Night Of Thunder to €200,000. With an increasingly impressive body of work in the books, he appeals as a horse whose stature, and fee, will only continue to grow.
As far as the US is concerned, Into Mischief and the younger Gun Runner hold steady at $250,000. However, they have been joined by Not This Time, a young stallion who ends the year in second on the leading US sires’ list, despite not one of his runners having been bred off a fee greater than $45,000.
It begs the question what he might be capable of once his six-figure crops hit. He’s surely a champion sire in waiting.
1. DUBAWI
2002 b h Dubai Millennium - Zomaradah (Deploy)
Stands: Dalham Hall Stud, Newmarket, UK
2026 fee: £350,000 (€400,000/$470,000)
(covered 80 mares at a fee of £350,000 in 2025)
#3 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
It is to the credit of the team at Darley that Dubawi remains in service at the age of 24. The son of Dubai Millennium is due to stand his fourth successive season at a career-high of £350,000, making him the joint-most expensive sire in the world alongside Frankel.
He received a restricted book of 80 mares in 2025, the majority of which belonged to the Maktoum family and their associates. However, approximately 20 outside mares also headed his way, including G1 winners Alcohol Free (owned by Forz Europe Ltd), Inspiral (Cheveley Park Stud), Nashwa (Blue Diamond Stud), Sistercharlie (White Birch Farm) and the Coolmore-owned G1 winners Above The Curve, Joan Of Arc and Tapestry. Nashwa as well as Juddmonte’s Arc heroines Bluestocking and Enable are among the G1 winners publicly slated so far to visit him in 2026.
Dubawi heads into the twilight of his stud career with a record that consists of 315 stakes winners, 63 of them at G1 level. Those figures provide a snapshot of a story that began with a lukewarm reception to his early crops and today is underpinned by a growing legacy headed by the 2025 British and Irish champion sire Night Of Thunder.
It is almost industry folklore how the market, in its wisdom, reacted with some hesitancy towards Dubawi in his early years. Once his progeny started running, however, it didn’t take long for a ‘typical Dubawi’ to become well regarded in elite circles, with his stock quick to gain acclaim for their soundness, versatility and willingness to work.
Today, Dubawi’s stud record ranges from top-flight sprinters such as Lucky Nine and Naval Crown to the four winners of the 2,000 Guineas (Makfi, Night Of Thunder, Coroebus and Notable Speech), Oaks heroine Ezeliya and a St Leger winner in Eldar Eldarov alongside various dirt-performing stars in the UAE. Particularly striking is his record at the Breeders’ Cup, which covers four winners of the BC Mile in Space Blues, Modern Games, Master Of The Seas and Notable Speech, Rebel’s Romance’s pair of successes in the Turf and wins by Yibir (Turf) and Wuheida (Filly & Mare Turf).
Rebel’s Romance was once again a key player in Dubawi’s year in 2025 as he rattled off wins in the G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin, G1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, G2 Yorkshire Cup and G2 Hardwicke Stakes. In the process, the veteran brought his earnings to close to £12m, thereby making him Godolphin’s second highest-ever money earner.
Rebel’s Romance led the way during a year in 2025 that featured six G1 winners and 32 stakes winners, among them Sugar Island, who became Dubawi’s 200th Group/Graded winner in the G3 Silken Glider Stakes.
Notable Speech took the G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile having previously landed the G1 Woodbine Mile. Woodbine was also the scene of Silawi’s win in the G1 Canadian International while Walk Of Stars was a G1 winner on dirt in Dubai.
Closer to home, flag-bearing duties rested with leading 3yo Delacroix and G1 Lockinge Stakes winner Lead Artist.
Coolmore have made a concerted effort to utilise Dubawi in recent years and the fruits of that strategy were on show throughout the year, not just through Delacroix but via the likes of Trinity College, winner of the G3 Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot, Listed scorer Officer and Sugar Island.
Delacroix, the second and final foal out of champion Tepin, was very much the leading light of that group, his turn of foot propelling him to victories in the G1 Eclipse and G1 Irish Champion Stakes.
Aidan O’Brien consistently alluded to Delacroix’s importance as an ‘outcross’ and he is expected to be popular in his second role as a stallion for Coolmore, where he joins the operation’s other G1-winning son of Dubawi, Henry Longfellow.
The champion sire of Britain and Ireland in 2022, Dubawi ended the year with just over £4.7m in earnings in Britain and Ireland. However, he was unable to keep pace with his ascendant son Night Of Thunder, for whom an outstanding season yielded championship honours.
Night Of Thunder aside, on whom there is more below, there are no shortage of accomplished sire sons of Dubawi available. Darley’s Too Darn Hot continues to go from strength-to-strength in both hemispheres, notably as the sire of Fallen Angel and Tornado Alert during the past year in Europe and the multiple G1 winner Broadsiding in Australia, while Space Blues fired in a first-crop G1 winner courtesy of Power Blues.
Ghaiyyath has also earned fans as a young sire on the up with a collection of early performers led by the well-regarded Opera Ballo.
New Bay’s year, meanwhile, featured a new G1 winner in Bay City Roller as well as the high-class 3yo Pride Of Arras while Zarak, whose first expensive (€60,000) crop runs in 2026, continues to impress through his strong percentages.
Dubawi also ended 2025 as Europe’s leading active broodmare sire by prize-money (£6.45m) and stakes winners (22).
Who would have thought following the death of Dubai Millennium following a single season at stud that his sire line would go on to flourish to such a degree?
Dubawi has almost single-handedly kept that flame alive and with hopefully another season or two in service, nor is that story over yet.
1= FRANKEL
2008 b h Galileo - Kind (Danehill)
Stands: Banstead Manor Stud, Newmarket, UK
2026 fee: £350,000 (€400,000/$470,000)
(covered192 mares at a fee of £350,000 in 2025)
#1 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
Frankel heads into his third consecutive season at £350,000 following a year headlined by six G1 winners. While the year’s results weren’t enough to hand him a third British and Irish sires’ championship, they did ensure that Frankel retained his spot as a top five sire, a place he has held since 2021.
The fastest sire to hit 100 Group/Graded winners (achieved in 3,144 days), Frankel operates at a 17 per cent stakes winners to runners strike-rate. His collection of 171 stakes winners is a melting pot of international performers and one that also illustrates his versatility as a sire, something that was very much on show again in 2025 when his flagbearers ranged from the G1 Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Lake Victoria to top stayer Candelari.
It’s a shame that Lake Victoria was able to run only the twice last year for Aidan O’Brien. Having looked ring-rusty when sixth in the 1,000 Guineas, she appeared to be as good as ever when securing the Irish version with the same ruthless efficiency that had underpinned her unbeaten championship juvenile season. Unfortunately, that day at the Curragh was the last we saw of her.
Coolmore did, however, have another daughter of Frankel ready to take high order. Purchased for a sale-topping €1.85m at the Goffs Orby Sale, Minnie Hauk rose to become the leading middle-distance filly of her generation, rattling off wins in the Epsom, Irish and Yorkshire Oaks prior to her narrow defeat in the Arc. She stays in training for 2026.
Ballydoyle also housed the Prix Jacques le Marois winner Diego Velazquez while another former Coolmore runner, Sir Delius, wasted no time in making his presence felt in Australia for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott by winning a pair of G1s in the Underwood and Turnbull Stakes.
There was also a breakthrough G1 success for Godolphin’s El Cordobes in the Sword Dancer at Saratoga while the Aga Khan Studs’ homebred Candelari took the G1 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier at Longchamp.
If there was a weak spot to Frankel’s year, it was the presence of only one stakes-winning juvenile in Benvenuto Cellini. Frankel is well able to throw talented two-year-olds – he was, after all, a champion at two himself – and in fairness, Benvenuto Cellini looked a colt out of the top drawer for Ballydoyle when the five-length winner of the G2 Golden Fleece Stakes at Leopardstown.
Heavy ground probably didn’t aid his cause when later turned over as favourite in the G1 Futurity Stakes at Doncaster, a race in which another talented Ballydoyle son of Frankel, Action (a half-brother to Lambourn) ran second.
Overall, there were eight black-type juveniles among over 20 winners in that 2023 crop, so it’s likely that Benvenuto Cellini won’t stand by himself for very long once the 2026 season gets going.
Frankel was as popular as ever in the sale ring in 2025, especially at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale where he supplied three million guinea lots led by a 3,600,000gns colt out of Aljazzi. As with his full-sister, who had realised a record 4,400,000gns the year before, he was knocked down to Amo Racing.
Frankel was also responsible for the sale’s most expensive filly, a daughter of the high-class racemare Ville De Grace bought by Juddmonte Farms for 1,500,000gns. When all was done and dusted, his yearlings returned an average of 739,444gns and median of 500,000gns – a figure that matches his previous high set in 2016.
Frankel’s reputation as a sire of sires received an early tick when his first son to stud, the former Darley sire Cracksman, threw unbeaten Arc hero Ace Impact in his first crop. Matters have not been straightforward for Cracksman since then – he has since switched to a dual-purpose role at Yorton Farm – but there are a slew of young sons of Frankel ready to take up the challenge.
Incidentally, all of the Flat-based representatives are based in the Newmarket area and hold court in the £9,000-£20,000 bracket. The G1-winning miler Without Parole doesn’t possess the numbers of several of his contemporaries but he is more than holding his own at Newsells Park Stud, with the G1 National Stakes winner Zavateri emerging out of a second crop of 43.
Fellow G1 winners Chaldean, Mostahdaf, Onesto and Triple Time will each compete for attention among those with first yearlings in 2026 – all were well received at the foal sales – while Diego Velazquez is new to the National Stud.
All the while, Frankel’s reputation as a broodmare sire continues to grow. Consistent access to elite broodmares has undoubtedly aided his cause but it is still to his credit that in terms of stakes winners, he ranks third among Europe’s active broodmare sires on 13, a list that is headed by the frustrating Classic winner Zarigana (by Siyouni) and G1 Lockinge Stakes hero Lead Artist (by Dubawi).
3. SEA THE STARS
2006 b h Cape Cross - Urban Sea (Miswaki)
Stands: Gilltown Stud, Ireland
2026 fee: €300,000 (£265,000/$350,000)
(covered 140 mares at a fee of €250,000 in 2025)
#6 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
Long established as a fixture among Europe’s elite, Sea The Stars turns 20 having received a sizeable fee increase to €300,000.
It’s a career-high figure for the Gilltown Stud veteran, who has steadily crept up the ladder from an opening of €85,000 in 2010. Since then, Sea The Stars has developed a reputation as one of Europe’s most consistent sources of middle-distance talent.
They tend to come into their own as 3yos and older, particularly when unleashed over middle distances and beyond. Results from 2025 stayed true to the playbook, with Daryz going from a Longchamp maiden win in April to Arc glory in October and the older horses Sosie and Aventure adding further G1s to their record. Another older flagbearer, Sweet William, again took high order within the staying division.
The Arc, won by Daryz on only his seventh start with the subsequent Hong Kong Vase winner Sosie running a fine race in third, was instrumental in Sea The Stars ending 2025 with an European total of around £8.75m, second to only the late Wootton Bassett among Europe’s leading sires.
Given Daryz’s rapid rate of progression – he was still unraced this time last year – he looks certain to play a similarly vital role in Sea The Stars’s fortunes in 2026, especially once the improvement of his sire’s progeny over time is taken into account.
As it is, his Arc win added to a significant body of work for Sea The Stars that already featured the winners of the Derby (Harzand), Oaks (Taghrooda), King George (Taghrooda and Hukum), Ascot Gold Cup (Stradivarius), Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (Crystal Ocean) and Deutsches Derby (Sea The Moon) alongside the champion Baaeed.
As such, it’s a shame that his legacy as a sire of sires on the Flat remains weighted on a handful of representatives, notably Sea The Moon and Zelzal; Sea The Moon is a proven G1 sire at Lanwades Stud while Zelzal more than holds his own in France at Haras de Bouquetot, but neither will stand for career-high fees in 2026.
A primary cause is Sea The Stars’s ongoing appeal within the jumps market aided by that profile of producing sound, later-maturing and mentally tough stock. Indeed, Harzand has found a new lease of life as a jumps sire at Kilbarry Lodge Stud while Crystal Ocean – a horse who surely deserved a shot in the Flat market – has made a bright start with his early jumpers and the ever-popular Affinisea covered 301 mares in 2025.
With any luck, champion Baaeed will prove capable of helping to redress the balance. Shadwell’s six-time G1 winner certainly hasn’t lacked for opportunity, with a sizeable crop of well-bred 2yos with which to go to war with in 2026.
It is also the year that sees the first crop of Stradivarius hit the track. His stock are likely to take more time but there was a noticeable momentum behind them at the sales, and a number of his representatives have made their way into good hands.
One aspect to Sea The Stars that is not in doubt is his ability as a broodmare sire. Between them, his daughters supplied 17 stakes winners in Europe in 2025, among them G1 winners El Cordobes, Quisisana and Sibayan.
4. GUN RUNNER
2013 ch h Candy Ride - Quiet Giant (Giant’s Causeway)
Stands: Three Chimneys Farm, Kentucky, USA
2026 fee: $250,000 (£185,000/€210,000)
(covered 218 mares at a fee of $250,000 in 2025)
#5 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
$250,000 is the ceiling for those elite North American sires, covering the perennial champion sire Into Mischief alongside the young pretenders Gun Runner and Not This Time.
For Gun Runner, it is a third successive season at such a lofty level off the back of his explosive start at stud. Granted, he hasn’t lacked for opportunity, with his first four crops each numbering three figures and bred off fees ranging from $50,000 to $125,000. He was, after all, a multiple G1 winner himself who banked nearly $16m in a 19-race career highlighted by 12 wins.
But what the son of Candy Ride has achieved with those early crops fully justifies the status that he currently commands.
Out of a first crop of 126 foaled in 2019 emerged 18 stakes winners, among them champion Echo Zulu alongside fellow G1 winners Cyberknife, Early Voting, Gunite, Society and Taiba. It’s a list of outstanding dirt talent and indeed that crop has earned over $30.1m between them.
G1 winners Vahva and Gun Pilot are the highlights of his second crop while champion Sierra Leone and last year’s G1 Santa Anita Handicap winner Locked headline his third crop.
And what of the 2yo crop of 2025? That crop has already thrown eight stakes winners – five of them Graded – including two leading lights in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ heroine Super Corredora and Brant, successful in the G1 Del Mar Futurity. Paladin is also the unbeaten winner of the G2 Remsen Stakes and Further Ado signed off his year by taking the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.
Gun Runner will end the year in third on the North American leading sires’ list behind Into Mischief and Not This Time, his total of $21.6m comfortably ahead of Twirling Candy – another son of Candy Ride – in fourth.
He also fills third on the 2yo sires’ list although his tally of five Graded stakes winners can’t be matched. Overall, 2025 consisted of 14 Graded stakes winners.
What makes Gun Runner so good? It has to help that he tends to impart some level of durability into his stock. As an example, Gunite retired as the winner of nine of his 21 starts while Vahva signed off her 20-race career with a second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint prior to selling for $3.1m. G2 scorer Red Route One is the winner of six of his 28 starts. The list goes on.
The American market can’t get enough of Gun Runner, as illustrated by his $921,321 yearling average, or the plethora of sons now available at stud, between them responsible for approximately 140 weanlings in the Keeneland November Sale. It will certainly be crunch time in 2026 for that area for Gun Runner as the first 2yos by early sons Cyberknife and Early Voting head to the track.
There are no fewer than nine sons at stud in Kentucky including the nation’s most expensive new stallion for 2026, Sierra Leone. The G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner has been installed at $75,000 at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, which is also home to Gunite.
The Coolmore partners are well established as enthusiastic supporters of Gun Runner, and little wonder when you consider that their yearling purchases by the stallion are headlined by Sierra Leone ($2.3m yearling) and Paladin ($1.9m). We’ll find out soon enough whether their punt on Gun Runner as an effective outlet for their numerous high-flying turf mares comes to fruition.
Gun Runner is first and foremost a dirt-orientated stallion – just two of his 22 stakes winners in the US in 2025 came on turf – but he received a number of good turf mares from Coolmore just as he was taking off, among them champion and G1 producer Minding, top sprinter Campanelle, Churchill’s G1-winning full-sister Clemmie, G1 Prix de Diane heroine Fancy Blue, G1 globetrotter Magic Wand and Giant’s Causeway’s Galileo half-sister Butterflies. The resulting foals turn two in 2026.
4= INTO MISCHIEF
2005 b h Harlan’s Holiday - Leslie’s Lady (Tricky Creek)
Stands: Spendthrift Farm, Kentucky, USA
2026 fee: $250,000 (£185,000/€210,000)
(covered 176 mares at a fee of $250,000 in 2025)
#2 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
A seventh straight title as North America’s champion sire takes Into Mischief back to the era of Bold Ruler, the titan of the 1960s whose championship streak ran from 1963 to 1969.
Kentucky has hosted numerous heavyweights of the breed in the intervening years, ranging from Northern Dancer to Mr Prospector to Danzig to Storm Cat, but none were able to threaten Bold Ruler’s record septet of titles. There in itself lies a snapshot of the extent of Into Mischief’s domination.
What makes the story of Into Mischief so remarkable is the lack of interest that Spendthrift Farm battled against in the beginning. Not one of his first four crops numbered more than 45 foals – and that was despite his fee dropping to $7,500. When early performers Goldencents, Vyjack and Miss Mischief advertised him to such good effect at the top level, the floodgates duly opened.
Into Mischief is due to stand his fifth season in 2026 at a career high of $250,000. He ends 2025 with a prize-money total of around $31.8m, an astronomical figure yet one that falls behind last year’s best of $34.62m. Each of his seven titles has been achieved with a figure in excess of $18.8m, and not since 2020 has it dropped below $22m.
As ever, the stallion dominated in nearly every other category. He was represented by the most runners (approximately 450) but in turn, he led all sires by number of winners (220 at the time of writing), black-type horses (67), Graded stakes winners (17) and G1 winners (five).
Only Not This Time prevented him from a sweep of the major categories as the sire of 29 stakes winners compared to 27 for Into Mischief. It was also Not This Time who denied him a sixth title as champion 2yo sire, although it was a close run race with Into Mischief coming within $150,000 of his rival’s $5.55m total.
As those figures illustrate, Into Mischief was never far from the headlines in 2025. He supplied one of the year’s stars in Sovereignty, who became his third winner of the Kentucky Derby prior to capturing the Belmont and Travers Stakes.
Sovereignty met his only defeat of the year when second to another Into Mischief colt, Tappan Street, in the G1 Florida Derby. Tappan Street was sidelined by injury during the run-up to the Kentucky Derby but recently made a winning return to action that boded well for a successful 4yo campaign.
While his absence was undoubtedly disappointing for his connections, which included trainer Brad Cox and owners WinStar Farm and the China Horse Club, they did have another high-flying Into Mischief colt to run for them in Patch Adams, who went on to land the G1 H Allen Jerkens Memoral and G1 Woody Stephens Stakes.
There is once again ample ammunition among the 2yo crop led by the unbeaten Ted Noffey, the likely champion of his division following his commanding wins in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity.
Among the fillies, Spendthrift homebred Tommy Jo boasts wins in the G1 Alcibiades and Spinaway Stakes.
Understandably, no shortage of sire sons have been given their chance. Some have been more successful than others and if there is currently a viable heir, then it is Ashford Stud’s Practical Joke, a top six leading sire of 2025 and the sire of 12 G1 winners across both hemispheres. He stands for a career high of $75,000 in 2026 while the ever-reliable Goldencents – the sire of 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan – has been priced at $10,000 by Spendthrift Farm.
Champion Life Is Good and Mandaloun, who was awarded the 2021 Kentucky Derby, are among those sons with first runners in 2026.
Into Mischief’s daughters are also starting to kick in at stud. Between them, they are responsible for over 40 stakes winners including three G1 winners of the past year in Shisospicy, the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner, $7.1m earner White Abarrio and Troubleshooting.
Lexington’s record of 16 champion sires’ titles, earned between 1861 and 1878, is safe but it will take a brave person to back against Into Mischief surpassing Bold Ruler as a great of the past 100 years with an eighth successive title.
However, Sovereignty, Tappan Street and Ted Noffey among others will need to be at the top of their game if they are to aid their veteran sire in fighting off the attention of the younger ascendant pair Gun Runner and Not This Time.
4= NOT THIS TIME
2014 bb h Giant’s Causeway - Miss Macy Sue (Trippi)
Stands: Taylor Made Stallions, Kentucky, USA
2026 fee: $250,000 (£185,000/€210,000)
(covered 214 mares at a fee of $175,000 in 2025)
#9 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
For all the achievements of Into Mischief, Gun Runner et al, there really is no hotter name in the US right now than Not This Time.
Armed with his coveted ability to upgrade mares, Not This Time sired over 40 stakes winners from his time standing for $15,000 and under. The group included seven G1 scorers, ranging from a flagship first-crop dirt two-year-old in Princess Noor to top turf sprinters Cogburn and Sibelius, champion turf horse Up To The Mark and Travers Stakes winner Epicenter.
That group provides a snapshot of Not This Time’s versatility. It doesn’t seem to matter if short or long, turf or dirt, 2yo or older – he boasts major winners in nearly every category.
That much was certainly on display in 2025 when he fired in 29 stakes winners – more than any other sire – led by the G1 winners Troubleshooting (won Franklin-Simpson Stakes), Rhetorical (Coolmore Turf Mile), Cy Fair (Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint) and Goal Oriented, whose win in the G1 Malibu Stakes in late December gilded his sire's outstanding season.
As a result, Not This Time ended the year with approximately $23.9m in earnings, second to only Into Mischief. Approximately $12.8m of that was achieved on turf, making him the nation’s leading grass sire.
Meanwhile, the 2yo crop won over $5.55m between them to hand him a first 2yo sires’ title. The group included no fewer than nine stakes winners amid 16 black-type 2yos led by the aforementioned Breeders’ Cup heroine Cy Fair.
Not This Time was particularly dominant during Keeneland’s prestigious Fall meet in Kentucky, where he supplied the first four home in the G3 Bryan Station Stakes (won by Troubleshooting), the first three in the G2 Jessamine Stakes for 2yo fillies (won by Imaginationthelady) and the first two in the G2 Franklin Stakes (won by Time To Dazzle). Rhetorical also landed the G1 Coolmore Turf Mile while 2yo Final Score won the G2 Bourbon Stakes.
It is worth remembering that not one of his crops of racing age to date has been produced off a fee greater than $45,000. That changes in 2026, when his first $135,000 crop kicks in.
The market has understandably reacted. The 74 yearlings that went through the ring this year averaged around $670,000 for a median of $575,000. Mares in foal to him averaged $1.985m at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale and close to a million at the following Keeneland November Sale. The group included the sale-topping mares at both sales, namely the $6.2m topper Streak Of Luck at Fasig-Tipton and the $2.3m offering Buchu at Keeneland.
At the same time, a share in Not This Time sold for $3m to John Sikura of Hill ’n’ Dale at Xalapa at the Keeneland Championship Sale ahead of the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar. The transaction technically valued the horse at $150m.
2026 promises to be a particularly important year since not only does it provide an insight into his first six-figure crop but also that belonging to his first son to stud, Epicenter – the Ashford Stud sire has a sizeable crop of 203 2yos to run for him.
Not This Time is also off to a swift start as a broodmare sire; his oldest daughters might still be young but they already include a stakes producer in Hopeful Princess, dam of Listed-winning 2yo Oscar’s Hope.
All of which has placed Not This Time into rarefied air at $250,000. By all accounts, however, his book was extremely quick to fill.
7. LOPE DE VEGA
2007 ch h Shamardal - Lady Vettori (Vettori)
Stands: Ballylinch Stud, Ireland
2026 fee: €200,000 (£175,000/$235,000)
(covered 144 mares at a fee of €175,000 in 2025)
#11 on TRC Global Rankings in 2025
Having commanded six figures since 2020, Lope De Vega hits €200,000 for the first time in 2026.
He was a top six sire in terms of both Britain and Ireland and Europe in 2025, with a group of 20 European stakes winners headed by the G1 Prix de Royallieu heroine Consent, a highly progressive filly for Sir Mark Prescott who is likely to be an even greater force as a 4yo in 2026 with a winter on her back.
A 3yo crop of 152 also included the Classic-placed trio Jonquil, beaten only a head in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, Cualificar, runner-up in the Prix du Jockey Club, and 2,000 Guineas third Shadow Of Light.
Well regarded as an accomplished 2yo sire since the days of Belardo and Newspaperofrecord, there was also plenty of promise among the current crop of youngsters; its 23 winners are led by Godolphin’s talented pair Beckford’s Folly and Words Of Truth. In the ring, yearlings sold for up €1m.
One of Lope De Vega’s most potent strengths as a stallion is his ability to work globally. His record is an international one, with his collection of 25 G1 winners including those in Australasia and the US in addition to Europe. And 2025 provided more of the same as veteran Arapaho landed the G1 Sydney Cup in Australia and Carl Spackler won the G1 Maker’s Mark Mile in the US prior to an unproductive spell in Europe.
Currently responsible for 157 stakes winners overall, Lope De Vega is by far the most important representative of Shamardal at stud. Sire sons Belardo and Phoenix Of Spain each sired G1 winners in 2025 and Lucky Vega made a bright start with his first 2yos. There are plenty of sons waiting in the pipeline, notably the 2024 Prix du Jockey Club winner Look De Vega, the chosen one to stand alongside his sire at Ballylinch Stud, and 2024 Middle Park and Dewhurst Stakes victor Shadow Of Light, who is new to Darley. Carl Spackler adds an international flavour to the Kentucky scene at Lane’s End Farm.
Lope De Vega also has the makings of an important broodmare sire. While a G1 winner is yet to feature among his 25 stakes winners in that department, it shouldn’t be too long forthcoming given the list includes such names as The Lion In Winter and Benvenuto Cellini.
7= NIGHT OF THUNDER
2011 ch h Dubawi - Forest Storm (Galileo)
Stands: Kildangan Stud, Ireland
2026 fee: €200,000 (£175,000/$235,000)
(covered 169 mares at a fee of €150,000 in 2025)
#12 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
It wasn’t that long ago that Night Of Thunder was available to breeders at just £15,000. He had been a G1-winning miler for Richard Hannon, talented enough to win a vintage 2,000 Guineas (as a 40-1 shocker) but not of the championship calibre of some of his contemporaries.
With less than perfect conformation also coming into play, Night Of Thunder wasn’t the easiest sell for Darley as his stud career headed into its third and fourth seasons.
Today as the British and Irish champion sire of 2025, all of that is very much a distant memory. The breeze-up community was the first to latch on, with murmurs of an abundance of talent as his first breezers came under the hammer in 2019.
They weren’t wrong; that crop came to include 22 stakes winners led by champion sprinter Highfield Princess and the G1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Thundering Nights.
By 2021, Night Of Thunder was priced at €75,000 and two years later had joined the six-figure club on a fee of €100,000.
That’s not to say his ascent has been straightforward. His second and third crops failed to match the exploits of his first, yielding five and two stakes winners respectively, while his early results showed a distinct bias towards his fillies.
It didn’t take long, however, for him to become regarded as following the Dubawi example of throwing tough, sound stock who thrive with racing, and that has duly continued to stand him in good stead, notably as a popular go-to option for trainers and agents alike.
The 2025 season brought his growing importance as a sire into sharper focus. Worldwide he was responsible for five G1 winners, while there were the 26 stakes winners across Europe, which was only one off the leaders Dubawi and Wootton Bassett.
Just over £6.85m was banked in Britain and Ireland to hand him a first sires’ championship while his progeny earned approximately £8m in Europe, second to only Sea The Stars among the active sires.
Ombudsman, a member of the final €25,000 crop bred in 2020, was a chief driver as winner of a pair of major G1s, the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and Juddmonte International. Further afield, the older fillies and mares Choisya and Dynamic Pricing were G1 winners in the US and Estrange took the G2 Lancashire Oaks.
The first of those €75,000 crops turned three in 2025 and as anticipated also played a key role, notably as the source of the 1,000 Guineas heroine Desert Flower and progressive G2 winner Zeus Olympios.
While nine stakes winners have so far emerged out of that 2022 crop, the 2023 group already contains five such animals including the Dewhurst Stakes first and third, Gewan and Distant Storm. They deservedly assume high order in the betting for next year’s Classics while there seems to be plenty of confidence behind George Boughey’s unbeaten Bow Echo, who signed off his year with a victory in the G2 Royal Lodge Stakes.
From 31,000gns yearling and stud fee low of £15,000, Night Of Thunder is today the name that everyone wants. Headed by the €3m filly out of Prudenzia, the Arqana August sale-topper who sold to Amo Racing, he supplied a septet of seven-figure yearlings in 2025. Amo Racing also signed at 1,700,000gns for a colt out of Model Guest (a full-brother to the G1-placed 2yo Evolutionist) at Tattersalls and at €1m for filly out of No Speak Alexander at Goffs.
Juddmonte came away with a pair of seven-figure youngsters in colts out of Quschi and Express Way who cost 1,050,000gns and 1,000,000gns. In all, his 69 yearlings sold averaged 458,200gns.
Thus, it’s a deserved increase from €150,000 to €200,000 – and according to industry chat he was full in the blink of an eye.
9. CURLIN
2004 ch h Smart Strike - Sherriff’s Deputy (Deputy Minister)
Stands: Hill ’n’ Dale Farm, Kentucky, USA
2026 fee: $225,000 (£166,000/€190,000)
(covered 105 mares at a fee of $225,000 in 2025)
#7 on TRC Global Rankings for sires
The linchpin of Hill 'n' Dale Farm’s roster turns 22 priced at $225,000 for the second year running and for the fourth year in excess of $200,000.
Curlin’s long held standing as an elite Kentucky sire is borne out of a record that consists of 116 stakes winners capped by 25 at the highest level, plenty of them champions.
That has been particularly true in recent years courtesy of Cody’s Wish, America’s 2023 Horse of the Year, Elite Power, Idiomatic, Malathaat and Nest; in a measure of just how sound and reliable Curlin’s stock can be, those champions won 22 G1 races between them over the course of 2021 to 2024. Indeed, he is the only sire in history to sire three Breeders’ Cup winners on the same day.
Curlin again wielded an influence over the 3yo division in 2025, this time as the sire of Journalism, one of the leading lights of the year who won the Preakness and Haskell and ran second in the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont.
A typically tough Curlin product, he was joined on the 2025 G1 roll of honour by another hardy customer in the 5yo mare Raging Sea, winner of the G1 La Troienne in May. She has never finished out of the top four in 18 starts.
Other highlights of 2025 included G2 winner Ocean Club, G3-winning 2yo Himika and G3 winner Cornishman. With a prize-money total of $14.4m, Curlin wound up in seventh on the leading North American sires’ list.
The success of various early sire sons has lent a confidence that has resulted in the presence of ten sons at stud in Kentucky. Hill ’n’ Dale’s Good Magic is currently the heir apparent, with a rapid start at stud consisting of 21 stakes winners headlined by the Classic-winning siblings Mage and Dornoch.
While he stands for $125,000, an outlay of $7,500 gains access to another Classic-producing son in Keen Ice, sire of the 2022 G1 Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike.
Nor is there any shortage of young sons coming through. The first foals by Cody’s Wish and Elite Power were the talk of the 2025 winter sales – particularly the former, whose first foals averaged over $270,000 and sold for up to $550,000.
Meanwhile in Japan, Belmont winner Palace Malice has found a new lease of life as the sire of history maker Jantar Mantar, the first horse to sweep all the Japan Racing Association’s open G1 races at a mile. As a result, Palace Malice is one of the busiest stallions on the Darley Japan roster, a contrast to his days in Kentucky when his book size fell to six.
Curlin’s roster of sire sons will be bolstered in due course by Journalism, who is slated to join Ashford Stud. Just the fact that he stays in training as a 4yo, however, presents the prospect of another big year for his sire in 2026.
10. EXTREME CHOICE
2013 ch h Not A Single Doubt - Extremely (Hussonet)
Stands: Newgate Stud, Australia
2025 fee: A$330,000 (£163,000/€186,000/US$220,000)
It cost breeders A$330,000 to access Extreme Choice during the 2025 southern hemisphere season at Newgate Stud.
The son of Not A Single Doubt, winner of the G1 Blue Diamond and G1 A J Moir Stakes himself, is a statistical freak. Fertility problems have blighted his stud career throughout but if a breeder is lucky enough to breed a foal, then rewards are likely to be plentiful.
A near 12 per cent black-type winners-to-runners ratio is fuelled by 17 stakes winners ranging from Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside to the Melbourne Cup hero Knight’s Choice.
It takes a stallion with a special ability to pull off such a double and indeed Extreme Choice is only the second stallion in history to do just that. In addition, he is the only stallion to sire a Blue Diamond Stakes and Melbourne Cup winner in the same season, courtesy of Devil Night and Knight’s Choice in 2024-25.
Overall there have been six G1 winners in six crops, which range numerically from 26 to 45 foals. Again that yields its own record, since Extreme Choice is the fastest Australasian stallion this century to reach that tally.
And while it’s very early days, two of his first sons to stud, Extreme Warrior and Stay Inside, sit within the top three on the leading Australian first-crop sires list. Both have already produced stakes winners from a handful of runners.
Meanwhile in Japan …
In Japan, the title of most expensive sire is held jointly by Kitasan Black and his champion son Equinox, who command ¥25,000,000 (£120,000/€135,000/$160,000) apiece at the Shadai Stallion Station. Both stood for ¥20,000,000 (£95,000/€110,000/$126,000) in 2025.
Kitasan Black might descend from the ubiquitous Sunday Silence, whom he closely resembles physically, but it’s as a son of Deep Impact’s lesser heralded full-brother Black Tide.
He was a typically tough Japanese product who thrived with time and distance, packing in 12 wins in 20 starts over three seasons. He was particularly brilliant as a 5yo when his five G1 wins included the Arima Kinen and a second Tenno Sho (Spring), the latter run over two miles – imagine commercial breeders outside of Japan trying to get their heads around that profile!
Today, Kitasan Black is the hottest proven name in Japan thanks to a slew of high-profile performers led by Equinox, the headline act of his first crop, and Croix Du Nord, the champion 2yo of 2024 who returned to win the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby).
Crucially, both colts have developed international profiles – Croix Du Nord was well fancied for the Arc following his win in the G2 Prix du Prince d’Orange – which has allowed Kitasan Black to gain vital exposure outside of his native country.
In turn, while he’s not quite Deep Impact just yet, he has become the go-to Japanese stallion among international breeders – expect to see more young stock by him born outside Japan in due course.
Meanwhile, Equinox was the subject of an explosive auction debut at the JRHA Select Sale in Japan in July, something that likely influenced his rise in fee. Not since the days of Deep Impact were a group of first foals so strongly anticipated – and buyers wasted no time in grasping the opportunity.
Of the 24 Equinox foals through the ring, 23 sold for an average of ¥155,000,000 (£780,000). Ten sold for the equivalent of a million dollars or more headed by a colt out of champion Midnight Bisou whose sale to Nebraska Racing for ¥580,000,000 (£2.92 million) made him the most expensive colt foal to sell in JRHA history.
Such belief stems from a race record that set Equinox apart as a world #1 racehorse according to TRC Global Rankings, where he spent a total of 53 weeks at the head of affairs in 2023-24.
He was a champion at three when he emulated his sire by taking the G1 Arima Kinen and again at four when an unbeaten 4yo campaign consisted of G1 wins in the Dubai Sheema Classic, Japan Cup, Tenno Sho and Takarazuka Kinen.
He has covered over 200 mares in each of his first two seasons to date, and despite that 25 per cent hike in fee to ¥25,000,000, is likely to be just as popular in 2026.
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