At more than halfway through the Flat turf season, Iffraaj has been the runaway success of the first-season sires’ race. Figures published up to 8 August show that he is the leading freshman stallion in Europe by individual winners: from 48 runners he had sired 21 winners of 27 races, giving him a more than healthy winners to runners strike rate of 44 per cent. His nearest pursuer, Holy Roman Emperor, who was the red-hot favourite to be leading freshman at the start of the season, has sired 15 winners.
But Iffraaj is chalking up winners at such a rate of knots that these tables compiled on Sunday are already out of date. Since then he has sired three new winners to bring his tally to 23.
And Iffraaj not only leads his peers, he is also beating his elder rivals as the leading sire of two-year-olds in Europe by both individual winners and number of wins. Right behind him in the table is Exceed And Excel, with 20 winners of 25 races to 8 August, again providing the third-crop sire with a decent 41 per cent winners to runners strike rate. His total has also increased since the table was published, with two-year-old Major Muscari saluting at Thirsk on Monday, 9 August.
Exceed And Excel may have to yield to Iffraaj by number of winners but he does however top the two-year-old table for number of Stakes horses this season with five black-type performers to his name, including G3 Albany Stakes runner-up Margot Did and another Royal Ascot Group-placed juvenile, Excel Bolt, who was third in the Norfolk Stakes.
The leading sire of two-year-olds by prize-money at this stage in the season is none other than last year’s champion first-season sire, Dubawi. That first crop has continued to excel, with Makfi becoming his sire’s first Group One winner when landing the 2,000 Guineas while Worthadd is a dual Classic winner in Italy. This year’s two-year-olds have not disappointed either, with Dubawi having sired 14 juvenile winners of 18 races for a prize-money tally of £291,201 up to 8 August. Once again these totals have been added to by the victory of Big Issue on Wednesday. As you can see, it’s hard to keep up with the Darley sires.
