Fastnet Rock is having a record-breaking season as a broodmare sire in Australia, while at Royal Ascot the progeny of his daughters continue to achieve what their damsire was never given the chance to do.
Fastnet Rock never got his chance down the famous Ascot straight, the scene of so many Australian-bred successes over the past 20 years, including Asfoora just last week.
Travel sickness cost the Danehill colt and his trainer Paul Perry their opportunity in 2005, with Fastnet Rock retired and sent to stud after a three-year-old campaign that earned him victories in the Lightning Stakes and the Oakleigh Plate.
Thirteen years later, his star sprinting son, Merchant Navy, did what his sire couldn’t when claiming the Diamond Jubilee Stakes in the Magnier family colours. It has, until this point, proven the only Royal Ascot stakes victory for Fastnet Rock as a sire.
However, as a damsire, his influence at the carnival has been more profound. On Thursday, Port Fairy, a daughter of Australia out of Fastnet’s Irish-bred daughter Fabulae, became the fourth winner of a stakes race at Royal Ascot for Fastnet Rock as a broodmare sire in the Ribblesdale Stakes.
It completed a geographical circle, given Fastnet Rock is an Australian-bred stallion named after Ireland’s southernmost and windswept point, and his Irish-bred granddaughter is named after a famously exposed southern coastal point of mainland Australia. Both have famous lighthouses.
Is it the second Ribblesdale Stakes win in as many years for Fastnet Rock as broodmare sire after Warm Heart, a daughter of Galileo, won the race for the same connections last year.
Previous Royal Ascot winners out of daughters of Fastnet Rock have been Russian Emperor in the 2020 Hampton Court Stakes and Age Of Kings in the 2023 Jersey Stakes. All four winners were trained by Aidan O’Brien.
Anyone who has glanced at a broodmare sires table in Australia and recent times will be well-versed in Fastnet Rock’s attributes as a broodmare sire.
In the same year the son of Danehill was retired from stud duties at Coolmore Australia, and 12 years since he was crowned champion sire of Australia, Fastnet Rock will claim honours as Australia’s champion broodmare sire of 2023/24.
Not only will he become the sire to end a nine-year dual dominance from Encosta De Lago and Redoute’s Choice, but he will also set a new mark for earning by the progeny of his daughters in a single Australia season.
With five weeks remaining, they have already banked $35.3 million in prize money, easily eclipsing the previous mark for a broodmare sire of $32.5 million, set by Redoute’s Choice last year.
It would be easy to characterise that achievement as reflecting the boosted prize money of recent years, but Fastnet Rock’s damsire dominance is also backed up when it comes to stakes winners, with 19 this season.
Only Redoute’s Choice, with 20 in 2019/20, and their prodigious sire, Danehill, who had 20 in 2010/11, have had more stakes winners in an Australian season as a broodmare sire this century. There are still a few stakes races to be run this season, so it is conceivable that Fastnet Rock could also break that record.
The Group 1 winners among those 19 stakes successes are Golden Slipper winner Lady Of Camelot, multiple Group 1 winner Zougotcha, George Ryder Stakes winner Veight and Robert Sangster Stakes victrix Climbing Star.
Australian Broodmare Sires Table 2023/24 (source: Arion.co.nz)
In the past few days, Fastnet Rock marked his 300th winner as an Australian broodmare sire this season. That 300-winner mark in a single season has only previously been surpassed by two stallions as damsires, Encosta De Lago (six times) and Redoute’s Choice (once).
The baton has firmly been passed from that pair to Fastnet Rock, and the statistics indicate that he is set to enjoy a similar period of dominance at the top.
His number of seasonal runners as a broodmare sire has built from 389 five years ago to 673 to date this season. This is set to be the first Australian season since 2014/15 that Encosta De Lago will not have the most individual runners as a damsire.
The commercial market is well-versed on Fastnet Rock’s value of a broodmare sire. This season, yearlings out of his daughters averaged $183,924, while last year that figure stood at $199,485.
The sale toppers at the past two editions of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale were out of Fastnet Rock mares, while there two seven-figure colts with him in that damsire role at Inglis Easter Yearling Sale this year.
Significantly, more of his daughter’s progeny sold through those two main sales - 84 - than any other damsire. Snitzel was the next best on 61. Collectively, the progeny of Fastnet Rock’s daughter sold for $23.6 million, over $5 million more than any other sire.
Fastnet Rock as broodmare sire in Australia - season by season (source: Arion.co.nz)
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