Kodiac hits 20 two-year-old winners - but can he break his own record?

Kodiac, a superlative source of precocity, supplied his 20th individual two-year-old winner of the year when daughter Thriving recorded a clear-cut success in a 5f maiden at Beverley on Saturday.

The Roger Varian-trained filly – a 30,000gns Tattersalls October Book 2 yearling purchase – had finished second on debut at Sandown last month.

Thoughts now turn to whether Kodiac has a chance of beating his own world record of fielding a staggering 61 juvenile winners from a single crop, set in 2017 when he eclipsed the previous best belonging to Sunday Silence by a margin of ten.

The Tally-Ho Stud resident is around a week behind the scorching pace he set last year, as Etefaaq became his 20th two-year-old winner of that campaign with victory at Newmarket on June 29.

However, there has to be hope that Kodiac can make up the lost ground as the Flat season in Britain and Ireland was slow to come to life with several meetings abandoned due to inclement weather.

He also has a slightly larger crop of two-year-olds to go to war with in 2018 – 195 compared with 190 in the preceding year.

His current two-year-olds are also theoretically of a better quality than the year-older crop, as his stud fee was increased from €10,000 to €25,000 in 2015, the year they were conceived.

Consequently the book he covered that season contained 42 mares who were black-type performers and 21 who were black-type winners, compared with figures of 33 and 16 for those categories in 2014.

Besides those 20 winners in Kodiac's 2018 two-year-old crop there are 33 who have not scored but have finished in the first four, suggesting there could be many more winners to come.

There are also lots of well-bred youngsters who have yet to have the wraps taken off them.

They include Kodiak Attack, a brother to Ardad with Sylvester Kirk; Marhaba Milliar, a half-brother to Queen Kindly with John Gosden; Qatar Queen, a half-sister to Barney Roy with Richard Hannon; and Raheeb, a half-brother to Extortionist with Owen Burrows.

Perhaps the most mouthwatering pedigree among Kodiac's unraced two-year-olds belongs to Baraajeel, a half-brother to Commonwealth Cup hero Eqtidaar and 2,000 Guineas runner-up Massaat. He is also trained by Burrows.

Kodiac is, as ever, also injecting quality into many of his two-year-olds, with four of his winners having black type already.

They are led by Fairyland, an impressive winner of the Listed Marble Hill Stakes in May and a close third in the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot last month, and Shades Of Blue, beaten just two short heads when third in the Queen Mary Stakes at the same meeting.

A Danehill half-brother to Invincible Spirit – who himself set a record for number of two-year-old winners from a debut crop in 2006 – Kodiac stood at Tally-Ho Stud this year at a fee of €50,000.

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