Press release, 27 October 2014

The Darley stallions in Europe have sired 18 G1 winners in eight different countries in the last twelve months, including Dubawi’s 2,000 Guineas winner Night Of Thunder and Shamardal’s Mukhadram in the Eclipse.

Dubawi (pictured) will once again head the roster having enjoyed another landmark year that saw him reach 50 Group winners faster than any stallion ever. With five individual G1 winners worldwide in 2014, his progeny remain in high demand with yearling colts fetching top prices of 1.6m and 1.4m guineas at the recent Tattersalls October sales. Dubawi’s 2015 fee has been set at £125,000.

Shamardal leads the roster at Darley’s Kildangan Stud in Ireland, where his fee has been set at €70,000. Shamardal ends 2014 as one of the top sires in Britain and the US by earnings, with his growing number of top-level winners now also including the battling filly Baltic Baroness who triumphed in the G1 Prix Vermeille.

Joining the roster in Ireland in 2015 is the northern hemisphere’s best sprinter Slade Power. Slade Power stormed to victory in both the G1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and the G1 Darley July Cup, and will bring down the curtain on his brilliant career in the Darley-sponsored G1 VRC Sprint Classic at Flemington on November 8th. His fee for 2015 has been set at €20,000.

There will be four stallions moving between Dalham Hall and Kildangan in 2015. Iffraaj, whose representatives this year have included Group 1 scorers Rizeena and Benvenue, plus classy sprinter Hot Streak, will stand at Dalham Hall Stud in Britain for the first time. Iffraaj will be available for £22,500.

Exceed And Excel will return once again to Kildangan where his fee will be €40,000. Consistently the world’s leading sire of two-year-old stakes winners since his first crop ran in 2008, Exceed And Excel’s last stint at stud in Ireland saw him produce the multiple G1 winner Excelebration and leading sprinter and fellow G1 winner Margot Did.

Exceed And Excel’s son Helmet, whose first crop of foals have earned great reviews from breeders in both hemispheres, will join his sire at Kildangan, standing at €10,000. Trading places with Helmet is his handsome three-quarter-brother, Epaulette - a leading sprinter/miler in his native Australia - who will stand at Dalham Hall in 2015 at a fee of £7,000.

For a full list of fees and locations for next year, please click here.