At this current point, two-thirds of the way through the campaign, it is very interesting to note the extent to which Darley sires dominate the Australian second-season sires’ tables. Financially, three of the four second-season sires to have cracked the million-dollar barrier are Darley sires (the clear leader Exceed And Excel, plus Reset and Lonhro), while the numerical table is even more one-sided: Darley sires occupy the first five places.
Exceed And Excel, who has been such a hit in both hemispheres with his early runners, is the clear leader in both tables. The fact that he is more than a million dollars clear in the financial table is partially attributable to the G1 Blue Diamond success of his son Reward For Effort, which means that Exceed And Excel is one of only two second-season sires to have been represented by a Group One winner in Australia this season – and the other is Reset, responsible for Victoria Derby winner Rebel Raider.
Numerically, Exceed And Excel is a clear leader with 42 individual winners, with fellow Darley sire Lonhro occupying second place with 32. Another one-time multiple G1 winner is in third place because Reset is next in the table with 24 individual winners, his most recent success having come via the promising young stayer Big Col, a winner over 2000m at Caulfield on Saturday whose record now reads two wins and one minor placing from only five starts.
Fourth place in the numerical table is held by Dubai Destination, the dual European Group One winner whose first European crop included the Group One-winning juvenile Ibn Khaldun and who has been responsible for 22 individual winners in Australia this season. Next in line is the former high-class juvenile Untouchable (he finished second, beaten a short neck, to Exceed And Excel in the 2003 G2 Todman Stakes); this son of Danehill and Canny Miss (a Marscay half-sister to Canny Lad, the 1990 Golden Slipper winner who is now one of the doyen’s of Darley’s Australian stallion roster) has been responsible for 20 individual winners in Australia so far this season.
With this bunch of young stallions so clearly dominant over their peers, it is no wonder that Darley’s worldwide future looks so bright.
