Not quite halfway through the 2006-07 season, and with many major races still to be run, Waikato Stud's sire Pins is little more than $100,000 away from setting a fresh New Zealand stallion premiership earnings record.
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| PINS, current leader on the 2006-07 New Zealand general sires' table. PHOTO: Waikato Stud |
Windsor Park Stud's Volksraad, with $1,062,020 prizemoney from 95 starters (24 winners, 5 SW) may exceed that mark too. His progeny have also won more stakes races (8) than any other stallion's runners this season. He has won the past five New Zealand general sires' premierships.
Waikato Stud stallions, past and present, dominate the top ten spots, with O'Reilly in fourth position and the most winners, 33 from 96 runners, three of them stakeswinners. He heads the table by number of individual winners.
Former Waikato Stud resident Danasinga holds sixth place with almost $400,000 (21 winners from 72 starters, one SW), and former Cambridge Stud shuttle Cape Cross is in third position ($922,941, 25 winners from 59 starters, 3 SW).
Westbury Stud's Faltaat is fifth, with 20 winners (2 SW) from 52 starters and more than $609,287 – not far off the total that won Zabeel the New Zealand premiership in 1998-99!
These six horses are followed by Towkay, Pentire, Postponed and Danske.
Sire of ARC Newmarket H. LR winner Kay's Awake this season, Towkay is also maintaining his strong profile in Hong Kong, where he's the fifth leading sire, largely thanks to Armada.
Pentire and Postponed share the award for fewest winners in the top half of the table, with six winners each, but their small representation highlights the quality of their progeny's performance. Pentire, who has only 51 four- and five-year-olds and won the AEI premiership in 2005-06, is enjoying another good year, thanks to Pentathon (CJC New Zealand Cup G2), SW Pentane and GP Penny Florence.
And Postponed is doing well to figure so prominently with only two crops of racing age, most notably his three-year-old daughters G1 Dorabella and G3 Naturo, but he's only just leading the second season sire list with $349,275. Black Minnaloushe is breathing down his neck, with less than $5,000 spanning the gap.
Pentire and Postponed share the award for fewest winners in the top half of the table, with six winners each, but their small representation highlights the quality of their progeny's performance. Pentire, who has only 51 four- and five-year-olds and won the AEI premiership in 2005-06, is enjoying another good year, thanks to Pentathon (CJC New Zealand Cup G2), SW Pentane and GP Penny Florence.
And Postponed is doing well to figure so prominently with only two crops of racing age, most notably his three-year-old daughters G1 Dorabella and G3 Naturo, but he's only just leading the second season sire list with $349,275. Black Minnaloushe is breathing down his neck, with less than $5,000 spanning the gap.
Emerald Lodge Stud's Danske is even closer with prizemoney of $347,448 from 96 runners, 25 of them winners, but he has yet to register a New Zealand stakeswinner this term.
With leading runners distributed around all of New Zealand's principal thoroughbred markets, Zabeel's profile at home is somewhat diminished this season, but across the Tasman he currently occupies third spot on the Australian general sires' list, just ahead of Delta Blues' sire Dance in the Dark, and his old rival Danehill. Zabeel's 48 winners (144 Australian starters) include at least six SW, among them G1 Efficient, G2 Lad of the Manor & G2 Respect.
Other sires on the Australian table with predominantly (NZ) progeny are: Montjeu (14th), Pins (16th), O'Reilly (24th) and Stravinsky (26th).
- Susan Archer
