Run The Numbers – Fastnet Rock hunts a rare double

It has been 19 years since a champion Australia broodmare sire finished top five in the general sires’ title. Fastnet Rock, destined for back-to-back damsire titles and currently sixth on the general table, is seeking to emulate his own sire Danehill as his tremendous legacy continues to build.

Fastnet Rock’s pursuit of a record total of seasonal stakes winners as a broodmare sire took another step forward with the upset victory of Imperialist in the Rough Habit Plate at Doomben.

The Coolmore champion, the reigning champion broodmare sire of Australia and well on his way to back-to-back titles, now has 18 individual Australian stakes winners from his daughters this season.

With 71 stakes races remaining this season, he is now within one victory off his own best mark of 19 set in 2023/24 and two off the Australian broodmare sires record for stakes winners set jointly by Redoute’s Choice in 2019/20 and Danehill in 2010/11.

The stakes breakthrough of Imperialist, a Kiwi-bred son of Churchill, comes a week after Reserve Bank (Capitalist) delivered Fastnet Rock, a 16th Group 1 winner as a damsire in the Goodwood.

Three of those Group 1 winners have won at the elite level in Australia this season, with Reserve Bank joining Joliestar (Zoustar) and El Castello (Castelvecchio). Separately, Magnum Force (Mehmas) won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar last November.

In a rush of results, four of Fastnet Rock’s Australian stakes winners as a broodmare sire came in the space of eight days in May, with Floozie and Cleo Cat having also won black-type races on May 10.

He holds a vice-like grip at the top of the broodmare sires table, with over $31.5 million in earnings from the progeny of his daughters, over $8 million more than second-placed Redoute’s Choice, whose two-year reign as champion damsire he ended last season.

He is unlikely to eclipse his record of over $37 million set last season but is on track for the second richest season in terms of earnings by an Australian broodmare sire.

Prize money records are problematic when it comes to historic comparison, given the enormous leap in returns to owners over the past decade, and the distortive impacts of The Everest.

To give that some context, the highest earners of four of the top five sires on the general table this season all contested The Everest.

In terms of the broodmare sire table, four of the top 10 stallions’ largest earners are horses which contested The Everest, Lady Of Camelot for Fastnet Rock, Growing Empire for third-placed Snitzel, Overpass for seventh-placed Exceed And Excel and Bella Nipotina for ninth-placed Star Witness.

Adding to that further, Lady Of Camelot, a daughter of Written Tycoon, has failed to win a race this season but is Fastnet Rock’s leading seasonal earner as a broodmare sire on $2.4 million.

She is the 19th highest earner of all horses in Australia this season, while Joliestar (23rd– $2.2 million) and El Castello (41st – $1.6 million) are his only three runners as a damsire in the top 50.

Melbourne Cup placegetter Okita Soushi (66th – $1.07 million) is the other horse out of one of Fastnet Rock’s daughters to earn more than $1 million this season.

There have been 72 horses who have won seven figures or more in Australia this season, which is four fewer than the total last season, but with two and half months remaining.

While the stakes calendar has expanded, it has grown at nowhere near the rate as prize money, so provides a more reasonable historical comparison.

The average number of seasonal stakes winners for an Australian champion broodmare sire this century has been 14.3, so Fastnet Rock’s 18 (to date) and 19 last season are historically high.

What is also remarkable is that as well as leading the broodmare sires title, Fastnet Rock is currently sixth in the general title. His progeny have earned close to $16 million, with his champion Irish-bred daughter Via Sistina ($10.2 million) doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

His sire Danehill was a seven-time champion broodmare sire, and in 2005/06, two years after his premature death, he also finished fifth in the general sires’ title.

Since then, there has only been three occasions when a champion broodmare sire has finished top 10 as well on the general table. Danehill was sixth in general sires in 2006/07, Encosta De Lago was sixth in 2015/16 and Redoute’s Choice was ninth in 2018/19.

Champion broodmare sire in Australia (since 2000)

Season	Damsire	SW	Swins	Sires table
2024/25	Fastnet Rock	18	23	6
2023/24	Fastnet Rock	19	32	29
2022/23	Redoute’s Choice	12	21	92
2021/22	Redoute’s Choice	16	27	70
2020/21	Encosta De Lago	12	13	364
2019/20	Redoute’s Choice	20	32	18
2018/19	Redoute’s Choice	19	33	9
2017/18	Encosta De Lago	10	16	53
2016/17	Encosta De Lago	15	19	14
2015/16	Encosta De Lago	15	19	6
2014/15	Danehill	17	24	–
2013/14	Zabeel	18	27	33
2012/13	Zabeel	13	25	20
2011/12	Zabeel	14	21	14
2010/11	Danehill	20	35	80
2009/10	Danehill	14	17	72
2008/09	Danehill	13	17	60
2007/08	Danehill	18	24	23
2006/07	Danehill	10	15	6
2005/06	Danehill	12	14	5
2004/05	Marscay	7	12	214
2003/04	Marscay	11	18	55
2002/03	Sir Tristram	8	9	446
2001/02	Sir Tristram	14	21	243
2000/01	Marscay	13	20	8

Fastnet Rock looks destined to add his name to that list. He is only $1.4 million behind fifth-placed Written Tycoon in the general title, while he has a $3.7 million buffer back to seventh-placed Harry Angel.

Given further context to where he sits in terms of influence in 21st century Australian breeding, bloodstock and racing, Fastnet Rock is one of only five horses to win a broodmare sires’ title in the past 20 years.

He has just surpassed a combined total of 200 Australian stakes winners, 206 to be exact, in his role as either a sire or a broodmare sire. Only Encosta De Lago (227), Redoute’s Choice (285), Zabeel (286) and Danehill (307) sit above him.

When you consider that his final crop is still only foals, there is so much more upside to come when it comes to his already sizable influence.