It has been a long time since the Melbourne Cup has been considered a stallion-making race.
In fact, the last time a Melbourne Cup winner, Spearfelt (1926), progressed to be a champion stallion was in 1942/43.
That double of Melbourne Cup winner and champion stallion has only happened four times, with Comedy King (1910), Grand Flaneur (1880) and Chester (1877) also members of an exclusive club.
Shocking won’t break that drought. He is currently 66th in the Australian sires’table this season although he did finish as high as 19th in 2021/22, and he is currently fourth on the New Zealand table, on track for his best-ever finish, after a Group 1 double at Te Rapa at the weekend.
The son of Street Cry and resident of Rich Hill Stud in Matamata continues to bat considerably above his NZ$12,500 service fee, having now had 25 stakes winners from 396 runners, a highly respectable 6.33 per cent stakes-winners-to-runners ratio.
His progeny have won over $42 million of prize money, an average of $106,196 per runner.
I’m Thunderstruck leads the way with over $8.3 million, while second is his most recently minted Group 1 hero Here To Shock, the winner of the BCD Sprint on Saturday, moving his career prize money to close to $2.7 million.
In becoming the first Australian-trained horse in 14 years to win a Group 1 in New Zealand, Here To Shock is the sixth Group 1 winner for his sire.
Tim Rowe
Shocking joins At Talaq and Jeune as Melbourne Cup winners to have sired six Group 1 winners. If he should get another one in the future, he would become the most successful Cup winner by that category at stud.
The Group racing system wasn’t employed back when Spearfelt’s progeny were running about, but a quick conversion of races would have given him at least eight top-flight winners under today’s calendar.
Of the past 53 editions of the Melbourne Cup, just 15 have been won by entires and just eight of those went on to stud careers in Australia or New Zealand. Accentuating that lack of influence is that there was a 15-year period between 1994 winner Jeune and Shocking’s win in 2009 without a Cup winner going to stud.
Shocking led a bit of a renaissance when Rich Hill took a chance on the son of Street Cry in 2011, and he was followed into stud duties in Australia by 2010 winner Americain and 2013 winner Fiorente. The winners of the 2011, 2012 and 2014 and 2017 Cups, Dunaden, Green Moon, Protectionist and Rekindling have all stood in the northern hemisphere, but none at what you would term a commercial level.
The 2022 winner Gold Trip debuted at stud at Lovatsville in Victoria last year. Boasting a not dissimilar race profile to Shocking, having won both a Cup and another Group 1 race over 2000 metres at Flemington, he attracted a book of 65 mares.
Interestingly, considering the Kiwis’ love for the Melbourne Cup - NZ-bred horses won 33 of 55 Cups between 1947 and 2001 – Shocking is the only Cup winner to stand at stud in New Zealand since Even Stevens in the 1960s.
Sire progeny records of Cup winners since 2000
*Rekindling and Gold Trip have yet to have runners
*Data: Arion.co.nz
Leaving aside the Cup trivia for a minute, a Group 1 double on the same day is worthy of exploring some more. Given there are only two New Zealand racedays which have multiple top-level races, it is a rare feat indeed.
You have to go back to 2007, when Sir Slick and Willy Smith, both sons of Volksraad, won the Thorndon Mile and Wellington Cup respectively at Trentham, for the last time it happened.
Savabeel, the modern standard by which all NZ-based sires are judged, has twice had a Group 1 double on the same day, In 2023, his progeny won a TJ Smith and Australian Derby on the same day at Randwick, while in October 2014, he had Group 1 winners in either side of the Tasman. But never twice in NZ.
The legendary Zabeel did not achieve it in New Zealand either, only doubling up on Group 1 on the same day once, on Golden Slipper day in 1998, through Champagne and Might And Power. He did get a NZ Group 1 double a day apart in January 2001.
Going back another generation, the legendary Sir Tristram only did it twice, again both times in Australia.
In fact, we have gone back through every champion sire in New Zealand since 1985 and cannot find one, apart from Volksraad, which completed an elite daily double on home soil. Zamazaan did it in Australia, but not in New Zealand.
A fifth Group 1 winner also draws Shocking level in fourth when it comes to the most successful sire sons of the phenomenally influential Street Cry.
Above him on that list are Street Sense (12), Street Boss (who celebrated his 10th on Saturday thanks to Another Wil in the Orr Stakes), and Per Incanto on seven.
He is now level with Pride Of Dubai, who still leads the Australian sires’ championship just over halfway through the season.
Most successful sire sons of Street Cry
*Data: Arion.co.nz
