Is This Your Price Point? $80,000 to $99,000

The next price bracket in our series of Price Point stories is an interesting one showcasing an intriguing selection of proven sires priced just below the top bracket we looked at last week, but are they worth the money?

Click here to see stallions priced $110,000 and above.



Seven very different stallions and in some cases it’s like comparing apples and oranges, but what they have in common is the price bracket, so you need to be confident in your selection to justify what is a very substantial fee.

So You Think (High Chaparral (IRE) is the oldest in the group and is having his best ever season on the track leading the Australian General Sires List with winners of over $17million and his stakes-winners include three Group I winners.

There’s no guesswork with him, you know exactly what you are getting in terms of type and performance of his progeny.

Another Cox Plate winning sire, Shamus Award (Snitzel) has had a meteoric rise over the past few seasons as the prowess of his progeny as elite stayers has come to light, illustrated clearly this season with three Group I winners in Incentivise, Duais and El Patroness.

Currently running fifth on the Australian General Sires List, Shamus Award stood for just $11,000 in 2018 and 2019, so his arrival at this point in the market is in many ways astonishing, but there is clearly an appetite for his progeny with his three Inglis Easter yearlings conceived off that $11,000 fee selling for $400,000, $300,000 and $220,000.
 

Capitalist (Written Tycoon) and Maurice (Screen Hero) are the youngest in the group and are the leading sires in the Second Crop sires tables this season, Capitalist leading by winners and Maurice by earnings.

Capitalist has had four SW’s this season, three of them 2YO SW’s, which is seemingly his forte, while Maurice has had only two Aussie SW’s but they are Group I winning star 3YO’s Hitotsu and Mazu.

While the marketing machines of the big studs tell us relentlessly it’s all about juvenile speed and precocity, the sale ring told a different story this year with Maurice outselling Capitalist at both Magic Millions and Inglis Easter, so that’s a fact to keep in mind.

Deep Field (Northern Meteor) and Toronado (IRE) (High Chaparral) are the same age and both went to stud in 2015, one in NSW and one in Victoria, and now seven years on have arrived at a point where they are priced the same, but are they the same?

Both started their careers at a fee of $22,000 for their first four seasons, before gradually moving upwards and both have covered plenty of mares although Deep Field has the edge having covered 1484 mares over Toronado’s 1160.

Toronado has always shuttled from the UK, but for the purposes of comparison of lifetime stats, we’ll look just at his Australian statistics.

Deep Field has 68.3% winner to runner and has left 14 SW’s headed by two Group I winners Sky Field (in HK) and Portland Sky. His SW to runner strike rate is 3.7%.

Toronado has 68.6% winner to runner and has left 11 SW’s headed by two Group I winner Masked Crusader and Shelby Sixtysix. His SW to runner strike rate for Southern Hemisphere is 4.8%.

Pierro (Lonhro) is the only sire in the group coming back in fee, so appeals as value this year given he has a big crop of 2YO’s bred from an $88,000 fee that already includes his brilliant Group II winning filly Paris Dior and we’ve barely scratched the surface of them.

He also had the highest Magic Millions average (16 sold) of all sires in this group indicating he has some great types coming through for next season.

His lifetime 68% winner to runner strike rate and 6.8% SW to runner tell only part of the story as his six Group I winners include five that earned over $1million in prizemoney headed by Pierata ($5.8milion), Regal Power ($4.6million), Arcadia Queen ($3.9million), Shadow Hero ($1.8 million) and Levendi ($1.7million), when Pierro gets a good one, he gets a really good one!

Below is a ready reckoner of some pertinent facts on these top class stallions - the stakes-winners are worldwide and date from August 1, 2021.