Competitive yes – conclusive no

There are many examples of inexpensive stallions making good down through the years. The best of them – who ended up with six-figure fees at their zenith – include names like Champion Sire Danehill Dancer who started out at IR£4,000 and reached €115,000. Irish National Stud stalwart Invincible Spirit rose to a high of €120,000 from just €10,000, while 2025 nominations in the French pair Siyouni and Wootton Bassett will set you back €200,000 and €300,000 respectively, having cost only €6,000 and €8,000 when they began their stud careers. There are plenty of other success stories too at lower levels, including through the likes of Pivotal, Kodiac, Dark Angel and, more recently, Havana Grey and Mehmas have demonstrated that even the most lowly of starts will not prevent real sire power from shining through.

With this in mind, let’s have a look at the first-season sires – those with their first two-year-olds in 2024 – that are available at £15k and below for 2025, before later going on to consider those with first yearlings, foals and in-foal mares this year. 

Sergei Prokofiev, whose fee has only risen by £2,000, despite the fact that he is the Champion First Season Sire of 2024.

The mere fact that the Canadian-bred Scat Daddy sire Sergei Prokofiev has earned a modest fee increase to £8,000 from £6,000 tells us that he’s had a successful year with his first two-year-olds. The Whitsbury stallion has an unassailable lead on the European prize money table so that title is his, but the race for the most winners has been a closer affair and, with less than a fortnight left in the year, Sergei Prokofiev’s 29 individual winners ought to be enough to secure that particular crown too. At the time of writing he has a seven-winner lead over Darley’s Pinatubo, who let us not forget was a top-class Timeform 134-rated two-year-old who started out at a fee of £35,000 and will stand at £30,000 next spring. He’s eight clear of Shadwell’s Mohaather, also going up next spring from £12,500 to £15,000, and eight ahead of Haras d’Etreham’s young Kodiac stallion Hello Youmzain, whose first-year achievements earned him a jump in fee from €22,500 to €40,000 next year. 

Sergei Prokofiev was out of the blocks quickly and, although he had only six winners on the board by the end of May compared with stud companion Havana Grey’s 15 at the same point two years earlier, he already had two Stakes winners to his name when the likes of Havana Grey and Blue Point, the Champion first-season sires of the previous two seasons, had yet to register any. In a three-day period at the end of May, his daughter Enchanting Empress won the five-furlong National Stakes at Sandown and then Arizona Blaze gave him his first Group winner when landing the Group 3 Marble Hill at the Curragh from future Group 1 scorer Camille Pissarro. But, although Amo Racing’s Arizona Blaze enjoyed a successful subsequent campaign, including when second in the Group 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint and third in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes, neither he nor any other Sergei Prokofiev was to win in Stakes company for the rest of the year. Still, in a competitive year, two Stakes winners was bettered by only one other, that being Mohaather, sire of three Stakes winners, his standout being Group 3 Molecomb winner Big Mojo. Mohaather will need a good year with his first three-year-olds in 2025, as his mare quality slumped from 53 Stakes horses and producers to 26 in his second crop, to 16 and then 13.

Ain’t Nobody wins the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot. His sire, Sands of Mali, was also responsible for the third horse home, Aviation Time.

Third on our list of winners is Ballyhane’s Sands of Mali, another with two first-crop Stakes winners which is commendable given that his first book contained only 24 black-type horses or black-type producers. At a private fee for 2015, Sands of Mali’s mare numbers fell back to 69 in his second year from 144 and to 50 in year three before rebounding to over 100 again this year. Given these circumstances, a Royal Ascot Windsor Castle first and third with Ain’t Nobody and Aviation Time, later supplemented by Radley Stakes winner Ellaria Sand and Group 2 Lowther runner-up Time for Sandals, is an excellent return. More of the same next year will help him bridge the gap to what are likely to be stronger 2025 and 2026 crops. 

Darley’s Earthlight brought with him excellent credentials as a Prix Morny and Middle Park winner by Shamardal. He attracted an excellent first book of mares in 2021 which featured 49 Stakes horses or Stakes producers, the second highest number of any in this category. So far, he has netted 19 individual winners and just one Stakes winner, albeit a very talented and promising individual in Daylight, who ran second to Champion two-year-old filly Lake Victoria in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, having previously won the Group 3 Prix de Cabourg like her sire. It will be interesting to see how Earthlight fares with this crop next year as there are plenty of well-bred individuals yet to appear and we are all aware of Shamardal’s reputation as a source of quality stallion sons like Lope de Vega and Blue Point. Moreover, his three-parts brother, Shadow of Light, is European Champion two-year-old this year. Like Mohaather, Earthlight will require a marquee horse or two next year to counter weaker second, third and fourth crops.

Earthlight had just one Stakes winner this year, but has plenty of well-bred individuals yet to appear on the racecourse.

Far Above, based at Starfield Stud, is another deemed to be worthy of a fee rise next spring to €6,000 from €5,000. A son of the sub-fertile Farhh out of a Shamardal mare who has since produced the Timeform 122-rated Listed winner Night Raider by Dark Angel, Far Above sustained an injury that curtailed his career to just five starts, four of which he won, including the Listed Prix Kistena and the Group 3 Palace House on his final start. His first set of runners include two Italian Listed winners, plus seven more rated 80-plus by Timeform. Also in his favour is another comparatively large crop of two-year-olds to represent him next year.

This year’s class of first-crop sires may not have set any records, but they were a competitive bunch, and some will need their first three-year-olds to run before we can ultimately decide whether they are success stories or not.

FIRST-SEASON SIRES BY WINNERS 2024
(Standing at £15k and below in 2025. Dec 19th)