With any new season comes the anticipation of who might succeed on the track, in the National Hunt sphere this is usually with horses we’ve followed for years and supported like our local football team. In the world of Flat racing, however, it’s usually a question of following your favourite stallions and their offspring, but every year new stallions are taken to stud and with that new talent emerges. It’s important to keep up to date with who might cause shockwaves in the bloodstock realm this season.
Sioux Nation
Widely fancied to be this seasons Champion first season sire, Sioux Nation needs little introduction. Winner of the Phoenix Stakes and Norfolk Stakes as a juvenile this Coolmore stallion has had a huge first crop of 142 reported foals which is about 40% more than the other sires with the largest first crops. Standing his first season at a fee of €12,500, there was plenty of quality in his first crop, among his notable yearlings to go through the ring was a half-sister to 1000 Guineas winner Mother Earth and a son of useful Irish sprinter Knock Stars who were bought for €230,000 and 215,000 guineas respectively. There’ll be hopes in Coolmore that the speedy two-year-old will have passed on a lot of his profile to those youngsters in particular.
Havana Grey
Havana Grey is another widely touted sire for first season success in 2022 and having covered a large book resulting in a reported 103 foals, he should be close on the tail of Sioux Nation in the race to be Champion. This is ironic given that when these two met on the track, in the Flying Five Stakes at Goodwood, it was Sioux Nation that was doing the chasing in that Group 1 contest, with Havana Grey taking the glory while Sioux Nation settled for third. Havana Grey has been standing at Whitsbury Manor Stud in Hampshire for an £8,000 fee, and connections of his offspring will be hopeful of similar success to the four-times two-year-old which included the Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood.
Saxon Warrior
The next of note is Saxon Warrior, who has a reported 100 foals from his book. He is notably of interest for being the first son of Japan’s outstanding stallion Deep Impact to have a sizable crop of two-year-olds in Europe. It will be hoped that the profile he can offer his offspring will be just a fraction of his fathers. Saxon Warrior’s most memorable victory on the track came at Newmarket when landing the 2000 Guineas with Roaring Lion in behind.
Roaring Lion
The late Roaring Lion has 90 foals to his name this season, and while he couldn’t get the beating of Saxon Warrior in the 2000 Guineas, he came back a different horse in his three-year-old season, getting ahead of Saxon Warrior on three occasions, all of which Group Ones, including tight finishes in the Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes. There’s a sense of sadness that their rivalry as stallions will only be continued with this crop as Roaring Lion sadly succumbed to colic.
