Find out the winners and losers in the annual game of stallion snakes and ladders

Good Morning Bloodstock is the Racing Post's daily morning email and presented online as a sample.

Here, Martin Stevens looks at the stallions whose books took a turn for better or worse in 2024 – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

All you need do is click on the link above, sign up and then read at your leisure each weekday morning from 7am.

Hopefully you will have read my summary of five talking points in the recently published Weatherbys Return of Mares by now. If not, you can find out the identity of the busiest sires in Britain and Ireland this year, details of Frankel’s first book covered at a fee as high as £350,000 and the famous mare who foaled her first colt at the 11th attempt.

The article also features news of a significant surge in business for Irish National Stud resident Phoenix Of Spain after he made such an encouraging start with his debut two-year-olds in 2023. The son of Lope De Vega was sent 217 mares, up from 90.

The increase of 127 mares was the largest, in strictly numerical terms, of any sire on these shores this year. But he wasn’t the only one who found himself suddenly more popular in 2024.

The steepest rise in activity in percentage terms belonged to brilliant middle-distance performer Postponed, who benefited from a change of scenery. The son of Dubawi went from 29 mares at Dalham Hall Stud last year to 95 mares at Yorton Farm this season, for a huge increase of 228 per cent.

Jumps breeders were no doubt enticed by the promising results of Postponed’s early Flat-bred converts to National Hunt racing, who included Grade 3 bumper winner Familiar Dreams and black-type hurdlers Majestic Jameela and Zestful.

Among the best mares he served were talented runners Colla Pier, Hollies Pearl, Midnights’ Gift, Oscar Rose and Rons Dream, and the dams of useful sorts Inthepocket, Only By Night, Redemption Day and Thomas Campbell.

Feel Like Dancing, a Group 3-winning son of Galileo recruited by Whytemount Stud from France in 2020, enjoyed a 127 per cent year-on-year increase in business, going from 30 mares to 68 mares on the back of his French-bred son Dancing City winning Grade 1 novice hurdles at Leopardstown, Aintree and Punchestown.

The book included at least one outstanding producer in Supreme Dreamer, the dam of black type-winning hurdlers Doctor Harper and Highway One O Two.

Telescope: sire of Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Slade SteelCredit: Joanna Prestwich

Another National Hunt-orientated son of Galileo whose standing was enhanced thanks to a flagship horse on the track was Shade Oak Stud sire Telescope, whose son Slade Steel landed the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. 

He received 24 mares, 118 per cent up from 11 last year, although those figures are a world away from the six-figure books he was granted at the outset of his stud career.

Frontiersman, the Listed-winning and Group 1-placed Dubawi half-brother to Australia, gained more of a following this year, with breeders taking advantage of his basement advertised price of £2,000 and sending him 93 mares at Overbury Stud, up 98 per cent from 47 in the preceding season.

Interestingly, his book featured a decent selection of proven National Hunt broodmares – including the dam of Grade 1-winning chaser Millers Bank – but also an ace Flat producer in Overbury’s own Hawaafez, who has bred Duke of Cambridge Stakes victress Rogue Millennium and Group 3-placed Naomi Lapaglia.

Positive vibes ahead of a couple of this year’s first-season sires ensured they were in stronger demand than last year, too.

Sands Of Mali covered 110 mares at Ballyhane Stud, up 96 per cent from 56 last year. The son of Panis’s supporters, who sent him the dams of smart performers Ardenode, Mia Tesoro and Safety Check among others, should be more than satisfied with his exploits this year, as he has delivered the Windsor Castle first and third Ain’t Nobody and Aviation Time plus Rockfel Stakes runner-up Time For Sandals.

King Of Change was sent 131 mares at Starfield Stud, an increase of 87 per cent from 70 in 2023, fuelled no doubt by a strong set of results at the breeze-ups, where he had lots sell for £280,000, 180,000gns and 120,000gns. The son of Farhh notched a first stakes winner when Lady Of The Lamp sprang a surprise in the Legacy Stakes this month.

King Of Change’s book received a big upgrade in recent weeks when Deny Knowledge, a daughter of one of his 2024 dates The Paris Shrug, won the Group 1 Might And Power Stakes and finished an honourable fifth in the Caulfield Cup on consecutive Saturdays.

King Of Change: sire of recent stakes winner Lady With The Lamp from his first cropCredit: Starfield Stud

Awtaad, Bungle Inthejungle and Study Of Man were all the subject of richly deserved book increases, too.

Awtaad was widely recognised as one of the best bargains in breeding this year, having supplied Group/Grade 1 victors Anisette and Anmaat, Group 2 winner Al Qareem and Group 3 scorers Create Belief and Diamil from relatively modest chances, and yet still standing at Derrinstown Stud at a fee of €5,000.

That was reflected in the son of Cape Cross’s book of 128 mares, up 62 per cent from 79 last year. Among the highlights were the dams of South African top-flight winner Queen Supreme, high-class handicapper Bless Him and the smart Zaffy’s Pride.

Rathasker Stud-based Bungle Inthejungle gets his fair share of useful two-year-olds and sprinters every year, and has often been a good friend to breeders on a budget. He was sent 103 mares this year, up 61 per cent from 64.

The son of Exceed And Excel once again covered the dam of his magnum opus, the Nunthorpe heroine Winter Power, and he received a number of nice mares from his most ardent fan outside of Rathasker Stud, Con Marnane, including the dam of Commonwealth Cup runner-up Forever In Dreams.

Study Of Man was the sleeper hit in last year’s freshman table, providing nine winners from 29 runners at a clip of 31 per cent, including Beresford Stakes scorer Deepone; an excellent showing when it was always obvious that his progeny would come into their own as three-year-olds.

The son of Deep Impact covered 123 mares at Lanwades Stud this year, up 58 per cent from 78 last year. He continued to receive strong home support, covering Arc queen Alpinista, fellow Group 1 winner Lady Jane Digby and the dam of Australian superstar Zaaki, but was also widely used by other breeders, including Juddmonte, who bred from him Saturday’s British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes winner Kalpana.

Kalpana is one of four black-type winners from 68 runners for Study Of Man in Europe this year, giving the sire a laudable strike-rate of around six per cent. He deserves a fee rise and another strong book of mares in 2025, especially as he looks just the type to produce Classic performers and horses who accrue value for international resale.

Kalpana: Group 1 winner crowned an excellent 2024 for her sire Study Of ManCredit: Edward Whitaker

Unfortunately, not every sire can be on an upward trajectory, and covering numbers in this year’s Return of Mares demonstrate just how brutal last year’s first-season sire race was, with the obvious choices and always expensive Blue Point and Too Darn Hot pulling clear of their rivals early in the season and maintaining their supremacy all the way to the end, and Phoenix Of Spain, Study Of Man and Calyx being among the few others who received any credit.

The six stallions in Britain and Ireland whose books between 2023 and 2024 suffered the largest percentages drops all figured lower on that unusually ruthless freshman table: Magna Grecia (from 128 mares to four); Invincible Army (120 to five); Inns Of Court (164 to ten); Advertise (41 to three); Land Force (130 to ten); and Masar (113 to ten).

Subsequent events have shown that some of those sires deserved more than those minuscule amounts of mares – Advertise, for example, put a wriggle on this season by coming up with three black-type winners including Gimcrack Stakes scorer Cool Hoof Luke – but that is the rollercoaster nature of the modern-day stallion market.

With that in mind, this year’s much more equitable first-season sire table, which features no runaway leaders and more than a handful of names who have distinguished themselves in one way or another, is probably a much healthier situation.

There have been no rags-to-riches tales that have seen breeders hit the jackpot with inexpensively bred second-crop yearlings, in the manner of Havana Grey or Mehmas in recent seasons, and none so far who have merited a huge increase in fee next year.

But equally, none have done anything to deserve crashing and burning like last year’s also-rans in the first-season sire race. Mind you, does any freshman ever deserve that fate when no-one knows how their progeny will progress at three and beyond? Almost certainly not.

Whatever the ethics of it all, the game of stallion snakes and ladders is a key reason for the Return of Mares making such compelling reading for bloodstock aficionados each year.

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Must-read story

“My horse knows the track like the back of his hand but he's not the bravest, while the other horses all have very little experience,” says Felix de Giles after pulling off an unlikely success at Compiegne.

Pedigree pick

The seven-furlong novice stakes at Newmarket today (2.20) often goes the way of a good one, and this year’s field is jam-packed with well bred and/or expensive newcomers. Two colts stand out, though, being priceless siblings to top-level winners.

Shadwell homebred Mudbir is a Kingman three-parts brother to Falmouth Stakes and Sun Chariot heroine Nazeef and a half-brother to Prince of Wales’s Stakes and Juddmonte International winner Mostahdaf, out of the Listed-winning Dubawi mare Handassa. He is in the care of his siblings’ trainers John and Thady Gosden.

Pinhole, trained by Sir Michael Stoute for owner-breeder Juddmonte, is meanwhile a Frankel full-brother to Fillies’ Mile scorer and 1,000 Guineas third Quadrilateral, out of Nimble Thimble, a winning Mizzen Mast half-sister to top-notcher Three Valleys.

A Group 1 winner-sibling Tote Swinger calls, methinks!

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