Run The Numbers – Pride of place – Lightning strikes twice

Across the 381 individual stakes winners in Australia this racing season, there has been an extraordinarily diverse range of sire and broodmare sire combinations, or nicks.

In all, there are 360 different combinations across 169 different sires and 184 individual broodmare sires. On Saturday, the Group 1 Goodwood victory of Desert Lightning saw the sire/broodmare sire combination of Pride Of Dubai and High Chaparral become just the 16th different nick to have multiple stakes winners in the 2025/26 season.

Leading the way is the combination of Street Boss with the daughters of Exceed And Excel, with four stakes winners. The two notable representatives of that genetic set are Group 1-winning three-year-olds Tentyris and Tempted. Added to that pair are black-type winners Motorsport and Calamari Ring.

There are 15 nicks which have had two stakes winners, with another Darley shuttle stallion, Too Darn Hot, represented twice, with mares by both Fastnet Rock and Exceed And Excel, including Oakleigh Plate winner Tropicus.

I Am Invincible also features twice, with dual stakes winners from daughters of both Snitzel and his sire Redoute’s Choice.

In terms of repeat representatives from the same broodmare sire, Street Cry has three instances of multiple stakes-winning nicks. They are with emerging sire Alabama Express – including Group 1 winner Treasurethe Moment, the late Lonhro – including Group 1 winner Attica – and another Darley resident, Brazen Beau.

Also on the list is the famous Savabeel/O’Reilly nick, Written Tycoon/Redoute’s Choice, Extreme Choice/Medaglia D’Oro (featuring the siblings Apocalyptic and Hidrix), Harry Angel/Sepoy, So You Think/Zabeel and two others with a distinct local influence.

In Western Australia, there have been two stakes winners out of local star Playing God out of Oratorio mares, while in Tasmania, there have been two black-type victors by Needs Further out of Not A Single Doubt mares, the brothers Durazzo and Mazzini.

What is also interesting is that among all those combinations, there are just two that are represented both ways. Zoustar has a stakes winner out of a Magnus mare, while Magnus’ Group 1-winning filly Streisand is out of a Zoustar mare.

I Am Invincible has two stakes winners out of Snitzel mares, while Sniitzel has one out of a mare by I Am Invincible.

Separately, Snitzel, who has clearly the most stakes winners of any sire in Australia this season, has had those winners from 16 different broodmare sires. 

Many of the abovementioned successful nicks won’t surprise anyone with an eye for breeding stats. 

Street Boss’ best nick is with Exceed And Excel, with nine stakes winners in total from 62 runners while Savabeel/O’Reilly is now up to 37 stakes winners in total from 257 runners. Too Darn Hot’s combination with Fastnet Rock (three SW from 19), and Exceed and Excel (3 SW from 15), are among his strongest.

The I Am Invincible cross with Snitzel mares is tracking at 11 per cent stakes-winners-to-runners, while Alabama Express/Street Cry (18 per cent), Lonhro/Street Cry (13), Brazen Beau/Street Cry (22), Extreme Choice/Medaglia D’Oro (40), Harry Angel/Sepoy (40) and So You Think/Zabeel (15) are all tracking well north of the 10 per cent mark which defines a highly successful nick.

The same is true for Pride Of Dubai out of High Chaparral combination which was to the fore in The Goodwood. Desert Lightning joined Buckets Ridge as an Australian stakes winner this season, while there are two other previous stakes winners with this nick, WA Oaks winner She’s Fit and BRC Premier’s Cup victrix Splendiferous.

Those four winners come from only 21 runners, meaning a high SW/R of 19 per cent for the progeny of Pride Of Dubai out of High Chaparral mares. These two Coolmore sires never stood at Jerrys Plains together with two years between High Chaparral’s last Australian breeding season and Pride Of Dubai’s first.   

Desert Lightning, who was already a Group 1 winner in New Zealand, is one of five elite winners for his sire, with the other four, Pride Of Jenni (O’Reilly), Dubai Honour (Montjeu), Bella Nipotina (Star Witness) and Deny Knowledge (Manduro) all from different broodmare sires.

However, the combination of the blood of Pride Of Dubai’s sire Street Cry and High Chaparral has produced three Group 1 winners in total, with recent Queen of the Turf winner Idle Flyer also featuring those two sires on the second line of her pedigree, albeit inverted.