We ran a story in the Breednet Weekly Newsletter last week on The 100 Club and following a busy weekend of racing we have a new member that has cracked the ton for the season.

Danehill Dancer (IRE) passed the milestone, so there are now five in the club this year – Encosta de Lago, Redoute’s Choice, Commands, Sequalo and now Danehill Dancer (IRE) – with Catbird and General Nediym knocking on the door.

Reigning champion sire Encosta de Lago remains on 133 winners for the season and has opened up a gap on his rivals with Redoute’s Choice in second place on 106 winners and if you thought this was in part a numbers game you’d be right as with 292 winners Encosta has the most of them as well.

Top 10 Sires by Winners 2008/2009 (up to May 31)

Encosta de Lago	133	293	45%
Redoute’s Choice	106	220	48%
Commands	103	240	42%
Sequalo	101	253	40%
Danehill Dancer (IRE)	100	242	41%
Catbird	99	239	41%
General Nediym	97	240	41%
Beautiful Crown (USA)	92	195	47%
More Than Ready (USA)	91	189	48%
Testa Rossa	87	200	43%

Encosta de Lago has already surpassed his tally of 132 winners last season and still has two months of the racing season to run so is on track to break all records for individual Australian winners in a season.

Interestingly the Top Five sires by winners last year are all right in the thick of things again this year, with Redoute’s Choice the notable improver up from just 73 winners last year, although it must be noted this was the EI year, so the total numbers were comparatively way down due to the cancellation of so many meetings.

Top Five Sires by Winners 2007/2008

Sire	Winners
Encosta de Lago	132
Commands	109
Danehil Dancer (IRE)	97
Catbird	97
General Nediym	93

Going back another season and this category was led by the dynamic Queenslander Lion Hunter with 133 winners and a winner to runner ratio of 48% indicating a stallion of undeniable quality. He died prematurely in 2004 and never stood at a fee of more than $15,000, leaving us all to wonder what might have been.

The 100 Club 2006/2007

Sire	Winners
Lion Hunter	133
Flying Spur	128
Encosta de Lago	126
Strategic	122
Sequalo	103
Redoute’s Choice	101

The 100 Club 2005/2006

Sire	Winners
Flying Spur	131
Lion Hunter	130
Encosta de Lago	128
Zabeel	113
Strategic	108
Sequalo	104
Snippets	100

Flying Spur led the tally in 2005/2006 with a winner to runner ratio of an impressive 51%, but spare a thought for Snippets, who at 56% winner to runner ratio must rank as one of the most reliable sources of winners ever sent to stud.