GalopSport often publishes stallion statistics on the sires in Europe that show who breeds the best racehorses. But if you would rather dig into which stallions breed on to the next generation, you need to look at the best sires of sires.
There is no official statistic in Europe, but here on GalopSport.dk I have taken the temperature of the best sires of sires over the past two years.
I take the current standings in the European Top 100 as my starting point: number one is awarded 100 points, number two 99 points – and so on down to number 100, which receives 1 point.
In my view, that adds up to a credible overview of the leading names in Europe right now. With the natural turnover of generations, the statistic will favour stallions born around the turn of the millennium, such as Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) in 1998 and Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) in 2002.
Two of the greatest sires of sires of all time, Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) and Danehill (Danzig), have moved further back in the pedigree to the third, fourth and fifth generations.
There are several big surprises on the list, I think. Among them, Kodiac (Danehill) is well up the order, and a younger sire of sires such as Showcasing (Oasis Dream) has three sons on it.
It remains a mystery to me why perhaps the best racehorse of this century, Frankel (Galileo), has yet to deliver a real star stallion at stud. Frankel has also been one of the leading sires and a top candidate for this year’s European championship.
As a damsire, though, he has already shown his quality, and a curious aside is that it also took quite some time for both Galileo and Sadler’s Wells before they themselves managed to produce lasting legends.
Galileo himself was not born until Sadler’s Wells was 17 years old, and Sadler’s Wells was born when Northern Dancer was 20. On that basis, Frankel still has plenty of time on his side.
