As the year comes to an end, Run The Numbers goes around the world to look at who the leading sires of 2024 have been, including an Australian-bred star at the top of the global winners’ list for the second straight year.
Widden Stud’s Zoustar is on the verge of the most successful calendar year of any Australian-bred stallion after he chalked up global winner 284 for 2024 at the weekend.
With 21 days left in 2024, Zoustar is now within one win of Exceed And Excel’s annual record of 285, achieved in 2017 and has surpassed the Darley legend’s 2013 global tally of 281. Fastnet Rock is the only other Australian stallion to have reached similar heights, with 279 winners in 2016.
Those three sprinting stars turned superstar sires have all had the statistical advantage of reverse shuttling for spells throughout their careers.
Zoustar is no longer be shuttling to Tweenhills in England, such is his tremendous value on home soil. But his five seasons in the northern hemisphere have given him every numerical chance of dominating when it comes to being the world’s leading stallion by winners.
He will clearly be the most prolific winning sire in the world in 2024, an honour he also achieved in 2023, when he had 281 winners.
Of Zoustar’s 285 global winners for 2024, 198 have been in Australia, 37 in Great Britain and 11 in Hong Kong. Breaking them down by where they were foaled, 217 of the 285 were born in the southern hemisphere and 68 in the northern hemisphere.
Zoustar comfortably leads the champion American sire Into Mischief, who has 259 winners.
American Pharoah may no longer shuttle to Australia but he is still getting the benefit of dual hemisphere winners, of which he has had 244, to be the third best internationally.
Winstar Farm’s Constitution has spent time shuttling between the US and Chile and also has impressive numbers, with 240 winners so far in 2024.
Swettenham Stud’s Toronado, who shuttled to and from Europe for most of his career but has remained in Australia since 2023, has 238 winners in 2024, a career-high.
Lord Kanaloa has 217, Golden Cents 215, Practical Joke 214 and Kizuna 213. Lope De Vega is the other stallion with more than 200 winners on 204.
Of Australian-bred sires, Deep Field is next with 193 winners across 2024, while I Am Invincible and Written Tycoon each have 192. None of that trio has shuttled.
Starspangledbanner, the only Australian-bred stallion booked to reverse shuttle in 2025, has had 168 winners so far in 2024, while Snitzel, who spent two seasons in Japan early in his breeding career, but whose racing stock are now all conceived in Australia, has 151.
Also of interest is Maurice, a shuttler between Australia and Japan, who has 193 winners and Justify, who no longer comes to Australia from the US, but is already up to 150 winners worldwide with just three crops of racing age.
Zoustar is also leading the way regarding overall racetrack wins from his progeny. They have won 489 races globally, 55 more than Constitution and 83 more than Into Mischief.
Were Zoustar to reach 500 winners for the calendar year, he would join such greats as Danehill (who did that four times, with a best of 565) and More Than Ready (who did it once with 516 in 2010).
The most successful global sire of 2024 when it comes to stakes winners is a tight three-way battle. Dubawi is on 33, level with Into Mischief, while Lope de Vega is one further back.
Dubawi’s stats are remarkable when you consider he has had only 148 winners for the year, much fewer than his key rivals.
Next follows Sea The Stars on 29 (from just 137 winners) and Frankel on 24 from 169 winners. Zoustar leads all Australian-bred sires with 22 stakes winners in 2024.
In many jurisdictions, such as Australia, prize money is the determining factor in awarding sires premierships.
With that in mind, the award for the highest progeny earnings globally, to this point of the year at least, goes to Into Mischief, with AU$52.9 million, while Japanese pair Kizuna ($45.2 million) and Lord Kanaloa ($41.4 million) round out the podium.
Zoustar is fourth with $39.5 million, which eclipses the previous record of $39.3 million by an Australian-bred sire, set by I Am Invincible last year.
Bren O’Brien
Splitting that out by Australian and overseas earnings, $26 million has been earned by Zoustar’s runners in Australia, while $13.3 million has been won overseas, $8 million of which has been in Hong Kong.
Moving away from global totals for the most successful stallions this year in individual countries in the northern hemisphere this year provides further insight.
Starting out in Japan, we see emerging star Kizuna leading Lord Kanaloa on both prize money and overall winners (212 to 210). Lord Kanaloa has been the leading sire by winners in the past three seasons, while he looks destined to be runner-up in the sires’ championship for the fifth consecutive year.
In Great Britain, Dark Angel looks set to claim his first sires' title, leading Dubawi comfortably on prize money, while he and Lope de Vega share the lead on winners on 85.
Bren O’Brien
In Ireland, Frankel is narrowly ahead of Wootton Bassett on earnings, while the late Galileo is the leading sire by winners three clear of Wootton Bassett.
In France, Camelot leads progeny earnings, thanks largely to Arc winner Bluestocking, while the leading sire by winners is Siyouni.
In the United States, it is no surprise that Into Mischief is at the top of both categories. He leads Gun Runner by nearly $4 million in earnings and has had 87 more winners than any other sire in the country in 2024. He also had double the number of stakes winners, 32 to 16, compared to his closest rival.
Leading sires in the world by winners in 2024
Data sourced from arion.co.nz
