Run The Numbers – Diamond days – Magnus’ legacy rolls on

Blue Diamond Stakes day may have been an occasion of near misses for Magnus as a racehorse, but the Caulfield feature meeting has developed into a great showcase for the late stallion.

It is another example of how a sire’s legacy can continue long after he dies. It was September 27, 2023 when news came through from Widden Stud that Magnus was humanely euthanised at age 21.

A Group 1 winner on the racetrack and the forerunner of a family who would become the most influential in the Australian thoroughbred industry in the 21st century, he now has 34 stakes winners, including Saturday’s Blue Diamond heroine Streisand, his fifth elite victor.

Added to that, Magnaspin won the Listed Victoria Gold Cup on a day which in history has had some significant moments for the late stallion and his progeny.

Magnus was twice edged out in the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate on Blue Diamond day, finishing second in 2008 and third in a blanket feature the previous year. The sprint race has also narrowly eluded his progeny, with Rey Magnerio third last year and Kemalpasa third, beaten a short margin, in 2021.

Magnus’ progeny have enjoyed more luck in the other feature races on the day. In 2020, his son Streets Of Avalon won the Futurity Stakes, a race which Malaguerra had finished second in the previous year.

In another Futurity connection to the family, All Too Hard, who is out of Magnus’ highly influential half-sister Helsinge, won the 2013 edition of the Futurity, and his son Alligator Blood won the race 10 years later.

Until Saturday, only three of Magnus’ sons or daughters had contested the Blue Diamond itself. Enbihaar defeated all but Written By in 2018, while Malaguerra finished 10th in 2014 and Miss Celine was 12^th last year.

He has never been really considered a two-year-old sire with only seven juvenile stakes winners from 204 starters. In comparison, he has six three-year-old stakes winners from 682 runners, while his progeny aged four and older have featured 24 stakes winners from 739 runners.

Streisand, his first two-year-old Group 1 winner, is the only one of 52 foals from Magnus’ penultimate crop who has, to this point of the season, started in a race.

The Clinton McDonald-trained filly carried a strong reputation when narrowly beaten at her two stakes contests in the spring.

She returned in the autumn with a slightly underwhelming fifth in the Blue Diamond Preview but then won the Blue Diamond Fillies Prelude before an impressive success in the main race at Caulfield on Saturday, becoming just the second filly to do so in the past seven editions of the race.

Back to Magnus, his consistency across the past decade is quite remarkable. He has been top 30 in the Australian sires’ table for the past 12 seasons.

His progeny, in all, have now earned more than $106 million, with 605 winners from 844 runners, a 71.7 per cent runners-to-winners strike rate.

Before this season, he had one juvenile stakes winner in the past six crops (Miss Celine). He is unlikely to add to that two-year-old record with his final crop, which features just two foals, a colt and a filly.

Also significant for Widden, Streisand is the first Group 1 winner for Zoustar as a broodmare sire, something which points the way to the future for the current Australian champion sire.

While Zoustar is still much in the middle of a brilliant breeding career, the fact he has produced a Group 1 winner as a broodmare sire with just four crops from his daughters on the track gives plenty of faith to his enduring influence.

If you look at the top seven stallions on the Australian broodmare sires table, six of them were champion sires of Australia at some point.

The Magnus-Zoustar combination has already produced a Group 1 winner, with Mizzy being by Zoustar out of a Magnus mare. She is one of six winners for Magnus as a broodmare sire.

Magnus’ progeny record by age   

Age	Rnrs	Wnrs	SW	G1w
2	209	39	7	1
3	687	334	6	0
4 and older	738	505	24	4
Overall	844	605	34	5

Source: arion.co.nz