TBA Statistical Awards for 2019
The Queen’s Silver Cup – Godolphin
Leading British-based Flat breeders (Flat earnings)
Darley/Godolphin extended its domination of the British and Irish breeders’ championship in 2019 for a seventh consecutive year.
Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock operation is the biggest in the history of the sport. It has 2,000 racehorses stabled in Britain, Ireland, the United States, Japan, Australia and Dubai, and a bloodstock operation with 2,500 breeding stock and about 80 stallions on four continents.
That global reach was highlighted on the March 30 when British-bred horses sporting Godolphin’s royal blue colours captured a brace of Group 1 races on two continents.
The Australian domiciled Avilius, who began his career in France, landed the second of three 2019 top-level wins in the Tancred Stakes at Randwick and later that day the Charlie Appleby-trained Old Persian achieved his Group 1 breakthrough in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan.
Godolphin starts 2020 with an enviably strong hand for the Classics, especially the 2,000 Guineas in which they have the first two favourites.
BBA Silver Cigar Box and Barleythorpe Stud Silver Cup – Dubawi
Leading British-based stallion (Flat earnings) & Leading British-based stallion (individual Flat winners)
In a very close finish, Dubawi held off the persistent challenge of Frankel to record his seventh consecutive title as the leading British-based sire by prize money.
Less than £14,000 separated the two Newmarket stallions at the end of the year. Ultimately, weight of numbers and place money tilted the balance in favour of Dubawi. He was represented by 68 more runners in Britain and Ireland than his Banstead Manor-based rival.
Dubawi’s chief flagbearer in 2019 was his new stud companion Too Darn Hot. The previous season’s champion juvenile added two more Group 1 races to his record, including the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood in what was to be his final race before retirement.
That was, in fact, Dubawi’s only domestic Group 1 victory compared with four recorded by Frankel, whose roll of honour included winners of the Oaks and St Leger.
Both horses belong to an elite group of stallions judged by their international success at the highest level. In that respect, 2019 was another good year for Dubawi with Coronet, Ghaiyyath and Old Persian all contributing to a current tally of 41 Group 1 winners worldwide.
Closer to home, he also retained his title as the leading British sire by individual winners for a third consecutive year and extended the domination of Dalham Hall-based stallions to five years.
The consistent quality of his runners is what sets him apart, though. With more than 100 foals in nine of his 11 northern hemisphere-bred crops, it is a remarkable achievement to maintain ratios of 16 per cent black type winners to runners and ten per cent Group winners to runners over such a long period. Indeed, one in every five of his foals has earned black type and nine per cent have become Group winners.
Tattersalls’ Silver Salver – Cable Bay
Leading British-based first season sire (Flat earnings)
Prize money in Britain and Ireland decides the award for the first-season sire and the Highclere Stud-based Cable Bay ran out a clear-cut winner.
The son of Invincible Spirit, also sire of last year’s winner Kingman, topped the domestic list with almost £600,000 in prize money and for good measure added another £100,000 with his overseas runners.
A first-crop conceived at a fee of just £6,500 produced seven black type horses led by the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes winner Liberty Beach and the four-time Group-placed Ropey Guest.
Cable Bay demonstrated high-class form in a 20-race career spanning three seasons. His finest hour came in the last of those races when he won the Group 2 Challenge Stakes at Newmarket.
After such a promising start with his first runners, there was very strong demand for his second crop of yearlings and five of them realised six-figure sums at the autumn sales. This has seen his stud fee for the 2020 breeding season increase to £15,000.
Highclere Stud has been home to a number of good stallions over the years including, from the mid 1990s, Efisio, a two-time winner of the Barleythorpe Stud Silver Cup.
Flat awards apply to racing in Great Britain and Ireland, with statistics relating to the calendar year.