UP to and including racing on Wednesday this week, the number of stallions with their first runners in 2021 off the mark in Europe and the USA has now passed the 20 mark.

The competition will start to really build now, with stallion owners keen to learn if there might possibly be a Royal Ascot contender or two in this cohort. Those already out of the blocks have thrown up a number of possible candidates.

Continuing to nose ahead is Overbury Stud’s Ardad (Kodiac), and he is responsible for five individual winners in Britain and another in France. His son Vintage Clarets is a dual winner, and it is worth remembering that Ardad won the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot before adding the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes. All his wins were as a juvenile and over five furlongs.

Tally-Ho Stud’s Cotai Glory (Exceed And Excel) was also a speedster, all his wins coming over the minimum trip. He won the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes at two, adding another at four when he was also runner-up to fellow first-season sire Profitable in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes. He has four individual winners in Britain and one in France.

Caravaggio moved to stand in Ashford Stud after three seasons at Coolmore. Their gain is our loss judged by the early results. Three Irish winners and another in France comprise his tally of successes to date, and he looks to have a couple of especially smart types trained, not surprisingly, by Aidan O’Brien. A Royal Ascot win – or two – would be no surprise.

Invincible Spirit

The aforementioned Profitable is one of a pair of sons of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) on this particular list. Winner of one of his six starts at two, it was not until he was four that Profitable won a group race. He raced until he was five, but the Kildangan Stud sire is quick off the mark with his runners, his unbeaten dual winner Thunder Love looking to be very smart.

National Defense joined his sire Invincible Spirit at the Irish National Stud, and he has a smaller first crop than many of his peers. What he has done is to make a spectacular start though, his first couple of runners both winning in the USA and Italy. The Wesley Ward-trained Twilight Gleaming, bred by Pier House Stud and a £75,000 Goffs Orby yearling purchase by Ben McElroy, is set to be part of that trainer’s Royal Ascot team. National Defense is a sire worth watching.

Ribchester (Iffraaj) stands alongside Profitable at Kildangan and he too has a winning juvenile in the USA. His recent British winner Flaming Rib, however, caught the eye and could well be a stakes horse.

American sire

Just one stallion in the USA has sired more than a single winner in his first crop at the time of writing, Gormley (Malibu Moon). A Grade 1 winner at two and of the Santa Anita Derby at three, his son and daughter, Headline Report and Guajira, both won on their debuts.

Other sires with winners in their first crops are Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) and Wings Of Eagles (Pour Moi) with their only runners, the Irish National Stud’s Decorated Knight (Galileo) with his first runner in Britain, El Kabeir (Scat Daddy), Zelzal (Sea The Stars), Mondialiste (Galileo), Spill The Beans (Snitzel), Attendu (Acclamation), Birchwood (Dark Angel) and Smokem Kitten (Kitten’s Joy).

Copano Rickey (Gold Allure) is the first of the Japanese stallions off the mark with his first runners, while the American first-season stallions to have notched up their first winner include Gun Runner (Candy Ride), Classic Empire (Pioneerof The Nile), American Freedom (Pulpit), Keen Ice (Curlin) and Stanford (Malibu Moon).