ENGLISH TEXTS
1.2 % stakes winners. The filly Godspeed won a Group 2 race but she was his only three year old stakes winner. His second crop is smaller than his first but there were 15 two year old winners with a percentage of stakes winners and stakes horses better than had been the case a year ago. These winners include stakes winners Dostoievsky and Valasara as well as the unbeaten British maiden winners Extremely Zain and Lady Youmzain. The son of Kodiac’ s fee is down to € 25,000 but he could easily bounce back this year. Persian King is in a similar position with his fee dropping from € 30,000 to € 15,000 for 2026 and he covered only 81 mares in 2025. His first three year olds performed creditably, 38 winners, 43 % of his runners, 5.6 % stakes horses and 4.5 % stakes winners including the Classic placed Cankoura, and a total of four horses rated 110 or higher, but a stallion needs a top horse or two from its early crops to maintain a fee of € 30,000. Persian King has some promising three year olds, the excellent maiden winning fillies Concorde Agreement and Evita and the colt Pearled Majesty among others. A top three year old in 2026 would see his position transformed. Despite being a Group 1 winning son of super sire Wootton Bassett Wooded was already falling out of fashion before his first three year old began to race having had only 12 two year old winners in his first crop and no stakes horses. However, two year old racing in France is not as important as it is in England or Ireland, only 12 % of races are for two year olds, and Wooded is the only one of these sires to have a Group 1 winner in Woodshauna and another top class Group 1 sprinter in Jawwal. He was certainly unlucky as one of his promising three year olds Hohenschwangan died in the spring and with only 58 foals on the ground losing a possible stakes horse is a big blow to a stallion’ s reputation. Wooded stands at 7,000 this year down from the € 15,000 at which he started. His three year olds include the Jean Claude Rouget trained Texas Wood, a promising dual winner already. Romanised is another whose record might have looked better if Curragh Camp had been able to race after the Jockey-Club joining his Group winning filly Zia Agnese. The son of Holy Roman Emperor’ s second crop looks as if it may well be better as he had the same number of two year old winners but they included the Listed winner Cielo di Roma and Dalyan, who ran well against some of the best two year olds in Germany. Golden Horde was never really in fashion but after having only seven two year old winners from his first crop he covered only a handful of mares in 2025. The results of his three year old’ s were not bad at all, 14 winners, 41 % of his runners and the Group 1 placed filly Rabbit’ s Foot and 8.9 % stakes horses to runners. Few of his second crop ran at two but those who did include Talmas, a colt who was one of the best looking maiden winners at Deauville’ s winter season winning by 5.5 lengths over 1,500 metres in December. Of the six the one who is unequivocally in a better position now then when they first went to stud five years ago is Chachnak, a son of Kingman and top racemare Tamazirte who was placed in the Poule d’ Essai and the Diane. Chachnak covered 75 mares in 2025, up from only 37 the year before. He had only 16 three year old runners last year but they included 12 winners, 62 %, and the Group performer Ginalyah who was sold to race on the in the US for € 800,000. Nine of his twenty three year olds have run so far, and they already include 6 winners, so more 60 % winners to runners again, and several who look as if they could be high class like Pink Panthera and Testify. Variables do, of course, tend to revert towards the mean. So those sires whose first crop did less well than expected are very likely to do better with their second, and those who performed above expectations will do less well, unless the sires in question are either very good, or very ordinary. For this generation, who retired to stud in 2021 this year is the moment their destiny will be revealed.
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