The Hong Kong racing season is over for another year, so a look at their sire tables by earnings and winners is always interesting and there is no surprise at the top with now pensioned Deep Field claiming his fourth consecutive champion sire title, but given he is now out of the picture the big question is what sires will replace him?
Deep Field not only took the Champion Sire title, he did it with a personal best posting more winners and prizemoney that he ever has before.
His 27 winners was nearly double that of the next best sire by winners in Starspangledbanner and his seasonal prizemoney total of $111million and change was also light years ahead of the next best sire Shamexpress, whose prizemoney has come largely from one horse Ka Ying Rising.
That said, Windsor Park Stud based Shamexpress has only had five runners this season and four have won, so his progeny will continue to spark interest from Hong Kong buyers.
Swettenham Stud’s Toronado (IRE) and Newgate Farm’s Capitalist are the two active sires both standing in Australia this spring that are proving most effective in Hong Kong.
Toronado has lifetime Hong Kong stats of 27 winners from 49 starters with his progeny proving versatile and including sprinters like Group I winner Victor the Winner, Group winning sprinter miler Helios Express and Group winning stayer Senor Toba.
Capitalist has lifetime HK stats of 17 winners from 37 starters with stakes-placed Sunlight Power his best to date although he lacks the versatility of Toronado with few of his progeny excelling at 1600m or further.
Given that the stallion syndicates are not targeting colts by these sires it does open the door for the best of them to go to Hong Kong as happened with Deep Field in the latter years of his stud career.
The list below of top sellers for Toronado this year clearly demonstrates that the cream of his crop is on it’s way to Hong Kong.
Looking outside of the obvious in Toronado and Capitalist, one stallion that has really come right on to the radar for Hong Kong is Vinery Stud’s Star Turn.
This season Star Turn has had six winners in Hong Kong from 11 starters and his lifetime stats for the region are 10 winners from 15 starters headed by Group winning sprinter Cordyceps Six.
The list below of the top sellers for Star Turn this year highlights his popularity for Hong Kong with leading trainer Ricky Yiu purchasing three of his top four, while the others have all been bought with HK in mind (in some cases via breeze up).
