Run The Numbers – The mistruths about non-Group 1-winning sires
After Wordsmith became the eighth non-Group 1 winning racehorse to sire a Group 1 winner in Australia this season, Run The Numbers looks at how commonplace this pattern has been over the years.
I Am Invincible and Written Tycoon, winners of three of the past four champion Australian sires’ titles between them, are the poster boys for horses that didn’t win Group 1 races on the track, becoming Group 1-producing stallions themselves.
But looking back across the most prolific Australian Group 1 producers of the 21st century, we see this pair is the exception rather than the rule.
Of the 19 stallions since the start of the 2000/01 season who have produced more than 10 individual Group 1 winners in Australia, just four did not win Group 1 races themselves.
The top six, Redoute’s Choice, Fastnet Rock, Zabeel, Snitzel, Danehill and Encosta De Lago (all of which are also champion Australian sires) won Group 1 races during their racing careers.
I Am Invincible, who came closest to a Group 1 win when second in the 2009 Goodwood, has the most non-elite winners, with 16 (in Australia), two more than Written Tycoon and Not A Single Doubt. The other non-Group 1 winner who has sired more than 10 Australian Group 1 winners this century is Commands.
It is a topical subject this week because of Geegees Mistruth’s success in the Robert Sangster Stakes at Morphettville.
The Tasmanian-bred mare is by Wordsmith, a son of Testa Rossa whose only stakes win came in the Group 3 Debonair at Moonee Valley in February 2007. His two Group 1 starts for trainer Shane Nichols saw him run sixth in the Caulfield Guineas and eighth in the Australian Guineas.
Having served his career at Paul and Elizabeth Geard’s property north of Hobart, becoming one of the island’s most prolific sires, his chance of becoming a Group 1 producing stallion has been limited.
Wordsmith has had just four Group 1 runners: Geegees Mistruth, Sawpods, Swindon Lass and The Nephew. But he now belongs among a list of 437 sires to have produced an Australian Group 1 winner since 2000.
He becomes the eighth non-Group 1 winner sire, and 41st sire overall, to have produced a Group 1 winner this racing season.
It is an assorted list of non-Group 1 winning sires headed, predictably, by I Am Invincible, who has had Charm Stone and Caballus win Australian Group 1s this season. There is also Per Incanto (Jimmysstar), St Jean (Half Yours), Scissor Kick (Giga Kick), Fast Company (Light Infantry Man), Calyx (Sepals) and Bullbars (Mr Brightside).
When you list them like that, it does look like a relatively common occurrence, but the stats show that this season, of the 51 individual Australian Group 1 winners, only nine have been by non-Group 1-winning sires. The means 17 per cent of Group 1 winners in 2025/26 have been by non-Group 1 winners.
While that is a slight improvement on last season, when it was 15.8 per cent, the ratio since the start of the 2020/21 season is 19.2 per cent, or 53 of 275.
Season by season winning record on G1 winners by non G1 winning sires
| Season | Overall ind. G1w | By non G1 sires | % |
| 2025/26 | 51 | 9 | 17.65% |
| 2024/25 | 57 | 9 | 15.79% |
| 2023/24 | 53 | 9 | 16.98% |
| 2022/23 | 61 | 14 | 22.95% |
| 2021/22 | 59 | 12 | 20.34% |
| 2020/21 | 59 | 10 | 16.95% |
| Overall 2020s | 275 | 53 | 19.27% |
The most represented non-G1-winning sire this decade is I Am Invincible, with eight individual Australian Group 1 winners, followed by Written Tycoon with seven, then the Kiwi-based pair Per Incanto and Proisir, and Not A Single Doubt, all on two apiece.
In terms of the most successful recent season, the highest percentage of non-Group 1 winning sires to overall Group 1 producers was in 2022/23 when it was 23 per cent, with 14 Group 1 winners from 61 individuals in total.
So how does this stand up to the overall representation of non-Group 1 winning sires on Australian rosters?
A look through Arion’s list of Australian-based stallions shows 274 sires, of which 149, or 54.4 per cent, did not win a Group 1 race.
Of that list of 274, just 13 are Group 1-producing sires who didn’t win Group 1 races. In comparison, there are 50 Group 1-producing stallions who themselves were Group 1 winners.
That means that 20.7 per cent of Group 1-producing stallions on that list did not win Group 1 races, a similar trend to those reported above.
Author
Related Articles
Run The Numbers – Jigsaw’s streak a two-in-a-million chance
While one famous equine winning streak came to an end earlier this month, at the weekend, another rolled on as Jigsaw extended his run to seven straight victories. We look at Australian racing’s best current streaks.
Run The Numbers – Streets ahead in the damsire stakes
Idle Flyer’s victory in the Queen of the Turf Stakes provided her late damsire Street Cry with his fifth Australian Group 1 winner in that role this season, well clear of any other stallion as the remarkable record of the produce of his daughters continues to build.
Run The Numbers – The filly and mare advantage
The victories of Joliestar and Sheza Alibi at Randwick on Saturday mean that 14 times this season, a filly or mare has upstaged the colts and geldings in an open-age Group 1 in Australia. Is this dominance becoming more common? Run The Numbers investigates.