With the two-year-olds in training sales just around the corner and juvenile racing coming up in a few months, there is always plenty of debate on which stallions, with their first crops racing in the new year, will have instant success.
This is not an exact science although traditionally, stallions with large numbers of foals from the first crop will get many winners and some stakes winners. Stallions with higher stud fees also tend to be among the leaders each season.
Last year’s leading first crop sire in North America, Nyquist (a son of Uncle Mo) with 86 foals, 45 runners and 17 winners, led his rivals by progeny earnings thanks to the exploits of his daughter Vequist who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and accounted for more than half of her sire’s earnings total.