WHETHER it be the transition to Manchester City becoming the leading outfit in English football, or Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott surging to the top in National Hunt racing, cycles of prominence are always present and evolving in the world of sport.

The same is true to a certain extent when it comes to the fashion of stallions, a factor that has the potential to make or break a pinhooker’s fortunes in the time between buying and reselling their stock. The fickle nature of sales-ring popularity is especially true in terms of National Hunt sires when foals and yearlings are being sold.

Bloodstock Agent of 2023 award winner Anthony Bromley shared his own interesting insights on this dynamic in last week’s Big Interview in The Irish Field, explaining how he believes foal buyers are much more selective at the sales than is the case with trainers buying three-year-olds at National Hunt auctions. He described the current landscape as “very polarised”, and he is far from the only prominent figure in the bloodstock world to express such views.

Recent foal results at the Tattersalls November National Hunt Sale back up Bromley’s view that there is not the same flexibility among pinhookers at the top table of prices, compared with end users purchasing racing stock at three.

In total, 40 of the 68 highest-priced foals at this sale were by either Blue Bresil or Walk In The Park - including 18 of the top 25 lots (72%). It will be fascinating to see whether the same continues at next week’s Goffs December National Hunt Sale 2023, with plenty more sons and daughters of the same stallions being offered.

Such selectiveness towards the head of the market makes life even tougher for those in the middle and lower tiers. There have certainly been challenging results for these breeders and consignors in recent times.

The ultimate metric for success when it comes to a sire, however, is the racecourse - and the results sing a very different tune to the one heard in the sales ring in terms of the diversity of stallions delivering big-race winners.

If making assumptions about the supremacy of certain sires on the basis of the top-priced sales of young National Hunt horses, you would be in for an eye-opener when seeing the vast spread of stallions producing talented jumpers.

Top-rated runners

There are many ways of gauging this, one of which is analysing the list of the top 200 horses last season in Britain and Ireland (according to Racing Post Ratings) - and, crucially, who they are by.

Overall, there were a whopping 105 individual stallions responsible for the top 200 horses in training for the 2022/23 season. Additionally, only one sire had more than five horses in the rankings and 83 of the 105 (79%) just had one or two runners make the top 200.

Top of the charts with an unparalleled nine horses in the list is Saint Des Saints, whose latest stud fee at Haras de la Tuilerie in France is €15,000. His primary flagbearers on Racing Post Ratings (RPR) are recent John Durkan Memorial Chase hero Fastorslow, last year’s Betfair Chase star Protektorat and Dublin Racing Festival scorer Gentleman De Mee.

In a six-way share of second on five horses each are Doctor Dino (top-rated performer last season was State Man), Fame And Glory (Home By The Lee), Jeremy (Corach Rambler), Kapgarde (Fakir D’oudairies), Stowaway (Stattler) and Yeats (Conflated/Noble Yeats).

The aforementioned Blue Bresil (Constitution Hill) is next in the standings alongside Coastal Path (Franco De Port), Mahler (The Real Whacker), Milan (Marie’s Rock) and Westerner (Amarillo Sky) on four representatives apiece.

There are still 93 other stallions we have not touched on, illustrating just how diverse the pool of effective sires can be.

Champion’s class

The same point can also be made by looking at the best horses in Willie Mullins’ yard. Having crunched the numbers on the champion trainer’s top performers in a different light for this column last weekend, I also found that there is a major spread of stallions behind his success.

Of Mullins’ 88 horses who achieved a Racing Post Rating of 140 or higher last season in Britain/Ireland, these were supplied by no fewer than 58 different sires.

Again, the stallion with the greatest number of horses in this list is Saint Des Saints, who has six Closutton residents meeting the 140 or higher mark on RPRs for 2022/23 - Gaillard Du Mesnil, Gentleman De Mee, Haut En Couleurs, Saint Sam, Instit and Dolcita.

Coastal Path also features prominently with five candidates (Franco De Port, Asterion Forlonge, Saint Roi, Bacardys and Glengouly), followed by Authorized on four (I Am Maximus, Echoes In Rain, Authorized Art and Ciel De Neige).

Doctor Dino, Jeremy, Stowaway and Well Chosen make up a quartet of sires with three horses in the standings each, while 10 stallions had two representatives in this echelon with Mullins: Fame And Glory, Flemensfirth, Malinas, Maxios, No Risk At All, Shantou, Soldier Hollow, Voix Du Nord, Walk In The Park and Westerner.

It could be argued that Cheltenham Festival and Grade 1 winners are the ultimate currency for judging a National Hunt sire’s top-level ability, and the theme of many stallions taking home a slice of the cake is repeated on both fronts.

Across the last 10 Cheltenham Festivals, there have been 118 different sires who have registered winners at the meeting.

Festival focus

The top dozen are headed by Stowaway with nine races won, followed by Milan, Yeats, Robin Des Champs, Poliglote, King’s Theatre, Kayf Tara, Jeremy (seven each), Shantou, Westerner, Authorized and Oscar (six each). A total of 108 different sires are responsible for the winners of the remaining 196 races at the meeting over the last decade.

As for National Hunt Grade 1 contests across Britain and Ireland since January 1st 2014, 147 different sires have got on the scoresheet during this period.

In 2023 so far, there have been 42 different horses who have won Grade 1 races in Britain or Ireland - representing 35 individual stallions.

To their credit, Blue Bresil and Walk In The Park are the only sires with three different sons each to have won at the highest level during the year. Still, Saint Des Saints, Fame And Glory and Authorized have each seen two of their progeny win Grade 1s in 2023, and the overall picture on the racecourse is one that encompasses many more sires at the top level than the sales ring indicates should be the case.

Value to be found

On the whole, the racecourse evidence offers encouragement that sires who may arguably be perceived as unfashionable at the sales can still deliver proper racehorses.

If there is a positive to emerge from the apparent heavy emphasis on fashion at the sales, Bromley has suggested that it could in fact play to the strengths of smaller outfits in National Hunt racing.

“I think one thing that will open up is that we will see more famous cheaply-bought horses coming to the fore over jumps,” he said.

“It gives syndicates and smaller purchasers a chance. I think there are opportunities out there at the moment.”

How good for the game that would be in the current climate of powerhouse stables heavily populating the country’s top races.

The more chances for smaller yards to stumble on a flagbearer at small money, the healthier the game is for everyone.