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Juvenile title to the wire 2024
It has been a head-to-head between Mehmas and Wootton Bassett all season for two-year-old sires’ championship honours, writes Amy Bennett
PERHAPS we have been spoilt in recent years when it comes to first-season sires, but the freshman class of 2024 was subdued throughout the year in comparison to some of their older peers, with a report card that can be deemed solid rather than sensational.
That said, the table of leading sires of twoyear-olds in Europe this year has seen plenty of intrigue, with Mehmas and Wootton Bassett fighting it out between them for much of the season.
Topping the table
Mehmas is no stranger to breaking records – his first crop included 56 individual winners, headed by the Middle Park Stakes (G1) winner and sire Supremacy in 2020, smashing that of his studmate Kodiac.
Fast forward four years and the Tally-Ho Stud resident has enjoyed yet another stellar season and has already beaten the record for the number of individual two-year-old winners in a season, with 62 on the board in Europe by the middle of November.
His current juvenile crop was conceived off the back of his record-breaking start to his second career when he received no fewer than 292 mares in 2021 at an advertised fee of €25,000.
Of those, 170 were winners themselves, of which 28 had struck in black-type company.
The son of Acclamation has seen his fee skyrocket from an initial mark of €12,500 to a high of €70,000 in 2025.
Mehmas did not race beyond two himself, when his record Group 2 successes in the July and Richmond Stakes, as well as placed spots on two occasions in Group 1 company. However, while he might have ticked all the boxes as a source of speed and precocity, the fact that his progeny also train on so well stamped him as a valuable commodity at all levels of the market.
To the end of October, he is sire of 22 Group winners in all, with a tally of 71 stakes performers on the Flat.
This year has seen him take his Group 1 tally to seven, courtesy of Vertical Blue in the Prix Marcel Boussac and Scorthy Champ in the National Stakes. He also bagged a first US Grade 1 winner with the victory by the Ger Lyons-trained Magnum Force in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Mehmas is also sire of six other Group/ Graded winners in 2024, including the star sprinting filly Believing, who has now been Group 1-placed on so many occasions it is hard to remember that she has not yet moved out of the bridesmaid position in that company.
Unsurprisingly, the young sire has also been a hit in the sale ring again this year, in Britain, Ireland and France.
During the red-hot trade at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale his yearling average was at 343,125gns for 16 lots sold – a fine return on their conception stud fee of €50,000. In total this season, Mehmas’s yearlings have averaged €145,037 in the sales ring, the first time his average has risen to six figures.
They were headed by a half-brother to the multiple Group 1 winner and sire Perfect Power (Ardad) out of Sagely (Frozen Power) bred by Tally-Ho Stud from the further family of the great producer Saganeca. The colt will carry the Godolpin blue, having been snapped up by the team for 1,000,000gns.
Anthony Stroud also led the bidding on the colt out of the mare Halla Na Saoire, the dam of the Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Mac Swiney, buying the Jim Bolger-bred colt from Boherguy Stud for 800,000gns.
The breadth of buyers who added a Mehmas to their haul during Book 1 is also noteworthy, with the likes of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Amo Racing, WinStar Farm and David Ingordo all on his scoresheet.
Mehmas’s closet rival in the juvenile sire table this year has been Wootton Bassett.
A Group 1 winner at two, the son of Iffraaj entered stud at Haras d’Etreham for €6,000 in 2012 – a mark that fell to just €4,000 in 2014 and 2015.
Contrast that fee with his 2024 mark of €200,000, that has been increased to €300,000 for 2025, and it is easy to see that the sire’s rise up the rankings has been meteoric.
This season was also something of a weighted year for Wootton Bassett as it saw the debut of his first Irish-conceived crop, following their sire’s high-profile transfer to Coolmore in the summer of 2020.
The sire covered 244 mares in 2021 at fee of €100,000, a book that included 128 black-type mares, of which 90 had scored in black-type company, including such stars as Alexandrova, Immortal Verse, Mabs Cross, Peeping Fawn and The Fugue.
It should come as no surprise that a stallion who did so well with average mares at the start of his career would shine when his consorts were upgraded.
Camille Pissarro, a half-brother to the Group 1 winner and sire Golden Horde (Lethal Force) became his sire’s juvenile flagbearer when triumphing in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (G1) on Arc day.
Even better was to come in late October, when Tennessee Stud triumphed in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud (G1), followed a little over an hour later by Twain, who scored in the Criterium International (G1).
That pair followed hard on the heels of Whirl, who landed the Staffordstown Stud Stakes (G3) five days earlier, to give their sire a tally of ten Group-winning juveniles for the season – a record in Europe.
At the beginning of November, like Magnum Force, Henri Mattisse also gave his sire a first Breeders’ Cup winner with his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1). Wootton Bassett now the sire of 13 top level winners
And it is not just on the racecourse where Wootton Bassett’s progeny are shining.
His son out of Park Bloom (Galileo), from the Burns’ family’s mighty Park Express family, set a new European record for a yearling colt at auction when Amo Racing went to 4,300,000gns, while William Haggas signed for a filly out My Titania at 1,700,000gns.
In total, the sire returned a Book 1 average of 600,000gns and a rock-solid median price of 350,000gns.
In a crowded stallion market that has often felt saturated with the blood of Galileo and sons in recent years, it is good to see two stallions dominating the juvenile proceedings who both offer an outcross.
As a son of Acclamation out of a Machiavellian mare, we must go back to the fifth generation to find Northern Dancer in Mehmas’s pedigree, while Wootton Bassett, by Iffraaj out of a daughter of Primo Dominie, features Northern Dancer no closer than the fourth generation.
While both sires are somewhat inevitably priced out of the reach of many smaller breeders, the trickledown effect that we will see as their sons enter the stallion market can only be boon to those searching for an outcross.
Outstanding results
The two busiest sires in 2021 in Europe were Mehmas (292) and Wootton Bassett (244), so it fits in nicely that the third busiest, Kodiac (239) should follow that pair in terms of the number of individual winners.
To the end of October, Kodiac had put 37 individual winners on the board, and also amassed enough prize-money to sit fourth in the two-year-old sires’ table by that metric as well. His flagbearer this season has been the Phoenix Stakes (G1) heroine Babouche.
Wootton Bassett and Mehmas are the only two sires to have broken through the £2m barrier with their juvenile earnings this year, but Kodiac is one of a quartet to have earned over £1m.
To the end of October, he is only slightly behind No Nay Never, whose stellar son Whistlejacket landed the Prix Morny (G1) and the July Stakes (G1) and was runner-up in both the Middle Park and the Phoenix.
He looks to hold a strong hand for the forthcoming Classic season with his daughters as well, with Bubbling bagging the Rockfel Stakes (G2) and Merrily taking the Oh So Sharp (G3), while Truly Enchanting scooped the Airlie Stud Stakes (G2) in June.
Lope De Vega enjoyed an outstanding season with six individual Group 1 winners, including the Prix du Jockey Club victor Look De Vega and the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine Rouhiya.
Flying the flag for his current juvenile crop is Shadow Of Light, who scored a notable autumn Group 1 double in the Middle Park and Dewhurst Stakes, having also been runner-up in the Gimcrack Stakes (G2).
Godolphin’s homebred is a three-parts brother to the leading juvenile and successful first-crop sire Earthlight (Shamardal)
Shadow Of Light was the only two-time Group 1-winning juvenile colt in Europe in 2024, and was his sire’s sole juvenile Group winner this season (among a tally of 28 stakes winners in 2024), although the Ballylinch Stud resident was also represented by Madero, who won a Listed contest over 1600m in France in September.
The other sire to earn over £1m with his juveniles in Europe is Frankel, whose leading juveniles are headed by the unbeaten Lake Victoria.
A winner on debut in June, the filly quickly progressed through the ranks, winning the Sweet Solera (G3) second time out before scoring a Group 1 double in the Moyglare Stud Stakes and the Cheveley Park Stakes.
She again proved her talent in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) with a dominant display at Del Mar. Soundly beaten behind Lake Victoria in the Moyglare was Bedtime Story, who put the seal on four unbeaten runs, including success by over 9l in the Chesham Stakes, by triumphing in Debutante Stakes (G2) in August.
Her paternal half-sister Exactly was runner-up in that contest and went on to earn her own black-type success in the Killavullan Stakes (G3), having been Group 1-placed on both her previous starts.
Too Darn Hot and Dark Angel: numbers up
When viewed by number of individual winners in Europe, Too Darn Hot and Dark Angel dead-heated on 28 winners to the end of October.
Considering the outstanding season he has enjoyed overall, it is surprising to note that Dark Angel, and his profile as a juvenile sire, was not represented by a juvenile black-type winner in 2024, with Gray Chance’s Listed-placing in Italy his only juvenile stakes placing.
By contrast, Too Darn Hot signed off his season with the success of Hotazhell in the Futurity Trophy (G1), while Simmering flew the flag for her sire’s juvenile daughters when landing the Prix du Calvados (G2) and taking second in the Moyglare.
First-season sires
To the end of October, Darley’s Pinatubo led the way numerically among the class of 2024 with 19 individual first-crop winners. As we went to press he picked up a Listed winner in France, but earlier in the season had been represented by the Group-placed duo Wolf Of Badenoch and Cavallo Bay (the latter in the US), as well as the Listed-placed pair Basalt and Qilin Queen.
Mohaather and Sergei Prokofiev tied on 18 individual winners each to October 31, with Hello Youmzain and Sands Of Mali just behind with 17 each, and Earthlight on 16.
By prize-money, Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Sergei Prokofiev fared best of all, banking over £615,000 with his Marble Hill Stakes (G3) winner Arizona Blaze donating the most to the coffers, courtesy of a trio of thirds in Group company, including the Phoenix Stakes.
Mohaather was responsible for the most stakes winners among his peers with the Molecomb Stakes (G3) winner Big Mojo his standardbearer, while Haras d’Etreham’s Hello Youmzain was represented by the most Group winners, with the Prix Eclipse (G3) winner Electrolyte and Misunderstood, successful in the Prix des Chenes (G3).
The Tweenhills resident Kameko was the only first-crop sire to produce a top-level scorer this year, with New Century landing the Summer Stakes (G1) at the highest level in Canada.
