With only two Group I races in Sydney to come this season on Saturday, the Australian General Sires List has become a fascinating affair with three sires all tied on $15million and change, so a look at the distance sire tables sheds light on the strengths of each sire.
So You Think (Coolmore), I Am Invincible (Yarraman Park) and Nicconi (Widden Stud Victoria) share the spoils and are all doing a great job in their own way and all will be available to breeders this spring.
All have multiple Group I winners:
So You Think - Think It Over, Nimalee, Knight’s Order
I Am Invincible – Home Affairs, Marabi, also Imperatriz in New Zealand
Nicconi – Nature Strip, Graceful Girl
I Am Invincible and Nicconi dominate the sprinting tables with So You Think coming into his own in the middle distance and staying tables, but his presence in the Top 10 of the 1200 to 1600m division is a pivotal fact in his success.
So You Think gets a lot of horses that are not stayers, so find their forte around the 1600m mark and when fresh these horses are frequently effective over short trips adding an important string to his bow as a sire.
Rosemont Stud’s Shamus Award is the front runner on the staying sires list which is no accident as he was up there last year as well.
This Cox Plate winning son of Snitzel is a top class Australian bred sire of stayers, now there’s a rarity, and how our breeders make the best use of him going forward will be interesting to see.
If you want to breed a serious horse for serious races – So You Think and Shamus Award offer a very real alternative rather than the tried European horse route that has proven so popular in the past.
