A one-horse race? Taking an early look at the freshman sires this year
James Thomas assesses the class of 2022 and their performances so far
Before the 2022 season kicked off all the chatter suggested this year’s first-season sire contest was a one-horse race. Now, with the opening stages of the campaign in the rearview mirror, that is precisely how it looks, albeit the horse in question was not the one being hotly tipped just a couple of months ago.
Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Havana Grey certainly had his fans at last year’s yearling sales, as evidenced by an average price of £28,720 and a high of £110,000, which are highly creditable returns for yearlings bred at a fee of just £8,000.
His stock looked a consistent bunch of strong and precocious types, and those attributes have been well and truly borne out during the early stages of the season as he has stolen a march on his rivals by siring 15 winners across Europe.
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