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The gender bender stallions
I was at a yearling sale last year, standing with a well-known trainer and agent, when a vendor walked a tough-looking yearling from between the barns to stand in front of the group for pre-sale inspection. “What’s this?” was the question … “Al Maher colt,” the handler chirped.
“No thanks,” said the trainer without looking up from his catalogue to even take one study of the colt. The handler looked a little confused, for this was the star of the draft. After hesitation, the trainer barked, “Next please”.
“Al Maher colts, I won’t bother to even look at them. If it is a filly, it’s a different story. He’s a good sire of fillies, can’t get a colt,” he said.
At the time, Al Maher (b h 2001, Danehill (USA)-Show Dancing (NZ), by Don’t Say Halo (USA)), a Group 1 winning three-quarter brother to Redoute’s Choice, was enjoying a terrific run with his fillies, and even now, nearly 12 months later, his reputation as a “filly sire” is further enhanced. Five of Al Maher’s seven stakes winners from his 77 winners (to February 1) are fillies – his two Listed-winning males are Bigelow and Epic Dragon – and five of his eight stakes-placed offspring are fillies.
The top-class Majestic Music, a four-time Group winner, is the headline act for Al Maher, but he also is the sire of the quality Group 2 winners Speedy Natalie and Marheta, as well as the Listed-winning fillies M’Lady Pedrille and Becerra.
Despite the fact that Epic Dragon and, particularly, Bigalow, who ran a terrific third behind Pressday in the Group 2 Sandown Guineas (1600m), are young horses with loads of potential, the odds are stacking against Al Maher, with his oldest progeny now four-year-olds, being an all-rounder.
However, it can turn around and it doesn’t take much, just one cracking Group 1 class colt can sway the mindset. I remember something similar with Danehill, the sire of Al Maher, when he first started as a stallion – “can’t get a filly” was the cry after his first couple of crops were dominated by colts such as Golden Slipper winners Danzero (1994) and Flying Spur (1995) and the Victoria Derby hero Nothin Leica Dane (1995). A year later his star filly Merlene won the Slipper to help balance the ledger. In fact, Danehill fillies dominated the stallion’s big-race wins for the stallion in the next few years before his son Arena won the 1998 Victoria Derby.
Years ago, my brother and I marked the New Zealand stallion Beaufort Sea (b h 1970, Nashua (USA)-Homeward Bound (GB), by Alycidon (GB)) as a one-sex wonder – a champion sire of fillies, and we followed his daughters on the racetrack with zeal. His 16 Stakes winners included the wonderful racetrack female stars Canterbury Belle, Seamist, Peat, Beaufort Lass, Kiwi Bride and Sea Princess (also the dam of the VRC Oaks winner Richfield Lady), and a host of other good racemares that didn’t win at Stakes level.
There are other twists in the gender game. Encosta De Lago’s fillies are speedier and more precocious than his colts, who, apart from a couple of exceptions such as Northern Meteor and Manhattan Rain, tend to want to get over ground. The same seems to go for Rock Of Gibraltar.
Which brings me to another recent gender trend with the latest superstar High Chaparral (b h 1999, Sadler’s Wells (USA)-Kasora (IRE), by Darshaan (GB)). Back in the spring, top New Zealand trainer Murray Baker said he was concerned that the stallion was a “colt sire”. Baker had trained quite a few fillies by High Chaparral and he was far from impressed with them, and he cited the stallion’s record. Baker thought High Chaparral might be similar to his predecessor at Windsor Park (Cambridge, NZ), Montjeu (also by Sadler’s Wells), who really struggled to leave a good filly – only two of his southern hemisphere Stakes winners are fillies.
High Chaparral’s five international Group 1 winners are all colts or geldings, four of those are from his southern hemisphere 2006 crop – So You Think, Monaco Consul, Descarado and Shoot Out. He has two Group 2 winning fillies, Joanna (France and Italy) and The Miniver Rose (Great Britain) – the latter is now trained by Lee Freedman.
At this stage, Fairy Oak, winner of the 2010 Group 3 Auraria Stakes at Morphettville, is his only Stakes winning filly from his two SH crops.
Others have also cottoned on to the trend as it’s no coincidence that at the recent New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Premier Yearling Sale the six High Chaparral yearlings (of 32 sold) that didn’t make $NZ100,000 were all fillies. You needed a wheelbarrow full of cash to buy a colt.
Maybe it is because High Chaparral is quite a refined, feminine looking stallion that his fillies don’t have that masculinity to compete at the highest level. Last spring he covered 234 mares – the most by any Australian stallion – at his new Coolmore Stud home in the Hunter Valley, and many of those are heavier boned, muscular mares with speedy Australian pedigrees. It will be interesting to see if his “Aussie” girls can match it with the boys.
Photo: High Chaparral at Coolmore Stud.
Note: This story appeared in the March issue of Inside Racing.
Fascinating subject Danny. I can think of a few others whose ledger of M/F pattern winners balanced out as their careers went on. It took O’Reilly a while and Stravinsky too, although his record is still female biased.
Marju has an interesting record. I recall his progeny have something like ten group one wins to their credit and all have been won by the fairer sex.
It would be interesting to hear from some trainers and their thoughts on the temprament/attitude of the respective sex of these types of sires.
Over here Keeper is our Al Maher and some – his NZ Oaks winner on Saturday was his 6th individual group one winner and they are all females!
John,
Sometimes it is temperament based. I am sure that’s the case with highly strung Stravinsky colts – many left as colts for too long; and maybe the same with Al Maher – I think they can be a bit hard to handle, although a few a starting to show up lately. Freedman as a promising 2YO colt by Al Maher that won well last week.
Keeper definitely fits the bill as a sire of fillies – he’s done a terrific job. It might be because his New Zealand colts/geldings were/and still are trialled up and sold to Asia; and a lot of Aussies weren’t interested in him in his early days, so not many of his colts got over here to give him some balance. Certainly he has nicked well with Cambridge Stud’s terrific female families.
That Asian story also fits with O’Reilly.