Exceed And Excel colt steps up

Exceed And Excel produced his 67th Stakes winner and another Golden Slipper contender when two-year-old colt Sidestep scored a dominant win in the G2 Pago Pago Stakes over 1200m at Rosehill, March 30.

Coming off a slight setback a week earlier when he lost his jockey after stumbling out of the barriers in the G2 Todman Stakes, Sidestep started a short-priced favourite and bounced back with a dominant win.

Sidestep could now possibly join fellow Exceed And Excel two-year-old Stakes winners Overreach, Guelph and Kuroshio in next Saturday’s G1 Golden Slipper, for which Overreach is one of the shortest priced favourites in history.

A homebred for Darley, Sidestep is a three-quarter brother to G1 Champagne Stakes winner and Darley Northwood Park stallion Skilled, who covered 115 mares in his debut season at stud last year. Out of G2 Sandown Guineas winning Quest For Fame mare Dextrous, the colt is also a three-quarter brother to G1 performer Ambidexter.

Exceed And Excel has now sired 11 individual Stakes winners worldwide in 2013, more than any other stallion. The sire of 67 Stakes winners including G1 winners Reward For Effort, Excelebration, Margot Did and Darley’s three-time G1- winning stallion Helmet, Exceed And Excel is standing at Dalham Hall Stud at a fee of £35,000 October 1st SLF, while Helmet stands at Kildangan Stud at a fee of €10,000.