Which SAf Sire?
We are a third of the way through the 2023 season, so I thought I’d have a look at the South African sires, their usage and rankings. This is not going to consider any relative strength of these sires to the rest of the world but rather which sires are under/over-utilized and or under/over-rated in a local context.
Since the user-base has relatively little interest in the South African stock, the numbers are a bit skewed by my own breeding efforts but there are still some interesting discrepancies evident and hopefully this article will generate some added interest to the sector.
Let’s begin with the top 22 sires by number of two year old runners so far in the sim:
- 36 Trippi
- 25 The United States
- 24 Gimmethegreenlight, Flower Alley
- 18 Hawwaam
- 17 Canford Cliffs
- 16 Vercingetorix
- 14 Danon Platina, Rafeef
- 12 What A Winter
- 11 Potala Palace, Querari
- 10 Fire Way, Mambo In Seattle
- 9 Gold Standard, One World, Ideal World, Quasillo
- 8 Buffalo Bill Cody
- 7 Global View, Jackson, Erupt
Next up is the top 21 sires by sim breeding point cost (this varies a lot with usage):
- 459 Trippi
- 172 Flower Alley
- 130 Oratorio, Canford Cliffs
- 119 Twice Over
- 107 The United States
- 100 Fire Away, Mambo In Seattle, Pathfork
- 86 Skitt Skizzle, Gold Standard, Horizon, Jackson, Legislate, Louis The King, Captain Of All
- 83 Vercingetorix
- 81 Gimmethegreenlight, Danon Platina
- 76 Rafeef, Erupt
Now we look at real life numbers; the top 22 by stud fees:
- R200,000 Vercingetorix
- R160,000 Gimmethegreenlight
- R70,000 What A Winter
- R50,000 Rafeef
- R45,000 Querari
- R35,000 Master Of My Fate
- R30,000 Danon Platina, Hawwaam
- R25,000 Legislate
- R20,000 Futura, Ideal World, Flower Alley, Fire Alley, Elusive Fort, Canford Cliffs, The United States, Erupt, One World
- R15,000 Act Of War, William Longsword, Captain Of All, Erik The Red
The final list is the top 20 sires by percentage of real life GR/STK winners to runners (South African stats only):
- 22% Legislate
- 10% Trippi, Vercingetorix
- 9% Gimmethegreenlight
- 8% Rafeef, Futura
- 7% Ideal World, Skitt Skizzle
- 6% Querari, Red Ray, Pathfork, Flower Alley
- 5% Fire Away, Quasillo, What A Winter, Master Of My Fate
- 4% Act Of War, Elusive Fort, Canford Cliffs, The United States
With the numbers out of the way, let’s first address the obvious discrepancies.
Top of the list is Trippi. While still listed as an active sire at https://raceform.co.za/sires/trippi, his 2022 fee is marked as Private which is why he is missing from the stud fee list. The 16 year old has been a star of the local scene and is due his well deserved retirement, having earning a spot amongst the top stallions of recent years.
Legislate at 22% is obviously a number that cannot last. He has only 32 runners so far and has produced a Gr2 winner, three Gr3 winners, and three listed stakes winners.
The following sires appear on the lists above but are grouped at Raceform with the stallions no longer actively standing at stud, a status not yet reflected in the sim:
- 6% Oratorio
- 3% Mambo In Seattle, Jackson
- 2% Louis The King
Final thoughts:
There are only 51 active sires currently standing in South Africa (excluding 8 which begin duties in the southern hemisphere 2023 and 2024 seasons).
Top sire (1st/2nd) – Trippi and Vercingetorix have almost identical career stats and have to share top spot
Top 5% (3rd) – Gimmethegreenlight is somewhat lacking in the Gr1 winners department at only 1.0% (Trippi is 2.1 and Vercingetorix 2.8), but the rest of his numbers see him comfortably holding third place
Top 10% (4th/5th) – Rafeef is doing well and is an obvious inclusion here. The other spot is not as easy to choose but Legislate probably deserves it with his crazy numbers so far.
The United States is quite popular in the sim and has a real life Gr2 winner and a Gr3 winner from 78 runners, enough to place him around average for the region. It’s worth noting that 13% of his colts have been rated 100+ in the country; a very healthy stat.
Flower Alley is more established and can also be considered average. His overall numbers are okay but he has only 1 Gr1 winner from 216 runners and only 2% of his colts have been rated 100+.
Canford Cliffs is another who stood abroad before arriving in South Africa. He too falls into the average category with his 4% GR/SW% and no Gr1 winners from 75 runners to date.
Hawwaam won’t have any real life runners until late next year, while Danon Platina hasn’t had any stakes success with his first crop of 21 two year old runners so far; early days for him.
If there is interest, I may try doing a deeper dive into specific sires, looking at their individual traits as racehorses and also those of their foals. Feedback and/or requests would be appreciated!
Nice article. Glad you did it. To be quite honest I feel the SIM is neglecting the SAF-Sires and the Sires doing well in the SIM does not reflect actual performance in real life as I am from South Africa and keep a close eye. Good example is ELUSIVE FORT who had both the Met and July winners in previous seasons but not one G1 or even Stakes winner in SIM. The overseas Sires in the SIM imported to SAF gets Stakes and Group wins in SIM but hasn’t produced anything in real life bar a few. Half my stables are only SAF Sires, and I have a poor strike rate at that. Trippi and especially Var’s time has come and gone and still the SIM keep them upgraded. Our freshman Sires are not even on the list this year. Sires like ACT OF WAR, One World, Ideal World, Master of My Fate, Soqrat, What A Winter, Rafeef, Canford Cliffs, Jackson, Futura, Legislate and Vercingetorix SHOULD be much higher. Soqrat, Danon Platina, Hat Puntano, Fire Away, New Predator and Hawwaam are freshman BUT should have good offspring to come.
Here are yesterday’s results from a G1 Raceday in Gauteng, Turffontein: G2 2yo Nursery winner VERCINGETORIX, G2 Nursery for 2yo winner GIMMETHEGREENLIGHT, G1 Computaform Sprint Open winner WHAT A WINTER, The Premier G1 Open winner SEEK AGAIN [USA], Camelia Stakes G2 for F&M sire WHAT A WINTER, Gerald Rosenberg G2 Open Sire FLOWER ALLEY
No Var. Only 58 runners for Trippi as he’s getting old and his older crops keeping him up the list and the same goes for Dynasty. Below is actual updated 2022/2023 STATS BY STAKE WINNERS: [Excluding Yesterday]
https://raceform.co.za/statistics/sires-by-stakes-won
1. GIMMETHEGREENLIGHT 2. TRIPPI 3. VERCINGETORIX 4. FLOWER ALLEY 5. DYNASTY 6. WHAT A WINTER 7. RAFEEF 8. DUKE OF MARMALADE 9. TWICE OVER 10. FUTARA [& 4 others]
FRESHMAN SIRES: Ridgemont Highlands’ impressive young sire Rafeef has officially been crowned South Africa’s Leading First Season Sire for 2020-2021. Then 2. CANFORD CLIFFS. 3. ERUPT
Dynasty’s record as a sire of sires is beyond reproach, suffice to say that his son Act Of War already has a pair of Gr1 winners to his credit, whilst all of Futura, Legislate and Jackson have sired Graded stakes winners. Given his blue-blooded pedigree, there is every reason to believe Horizon could follow in their footsteps.
Just feel SAF has proven like Ausland and New Zealand we can compete in Dubai and worldwide and our Sires should be given there spot in the sun.
Thanks Heinz!
I’ve been playing the sim for the really long time but recently took a break when I moved from SA to USA. Now that I’ve settled here, I’ve got back into the game. I’ve had quite a few GR1 winners in the sim with SAf sires, and one horse even got an end of season award (Cachix by Vercingetorix out of my own bred Horse Chestnut mare, Cache). Back when I started playing the sim, SAf-breds were useless. A recent underrated example is Jet Master but they’re much better lately.
I keep Mike up to date fairly regularly with stats etc., especially towards the end of the year in preparation for the following season. I can’t speak for him, but the team seems open to input and feedback by email. A couple of emails to them every now and then wouldn’t hurt.
The big problem now with South African racing is how hard it is to get horses to Dubai etc. This is useful for giving the form a rating and grounding in terms of the global market, has it improved is it worse. If you look at things like TRC rankings which are a decent guide tool based. There are 7 SAF sires in the top 300 most have passed away. The current crop with enough horses bred 100+ should be able to throw a grade stakes winner a crop and five stakes winners (non local). That is a good return on current prices. There are 1,000 point game sires who should do worse.
Yup, can’t disagree there. There was a bit of a golden period when the horses got out but it has become difficult again. The pool of sires has reduced as well.
@Iant…you absolutely right, our biggest problem here is the MR system [merit rating] and our handicappers tend to bump these ratings especially 3-year-olds and sometimes “expected” breeding. We never had horses rated around 131 which is a common feature nowadays. Honestly, I believe only Horse Chestnut and Pocket Power earned that MR. Makes it hard for these horses to compete at 5-6 as they stuck on 120-131. Another little fact not known to many as that in the last 20 years or so not ONE of the highest selling yearlings at our “big sales” have gone on to become something special, so our sales are not a true reflection of our breeding. Point I also try to make is that a Sire like ELUSIVE FORT, who produced G1 real life winners and been neglected in servicing some good mares, has done brilliantly with the mares he serviced and in the SIM his half-brother, DYNASTY has stakes & Group winners, but he has none. Does not make sense. Fact is all offspring of Captain Al and Fort Wood should be given more merit in SIM. Dragnil, you set a good example in your article, and I think the MAIN issue missed in the SIM to regards SAF Sires are that SAF-horses are predominantly [90%] TURF orientated, and I shake my head when I see some “sires” are viewed as Dirt sires. Imported sires as well, how can they, without being proven, just get stake wins. They don’t even feature or have crops to prove that in real life. I believe real life performances should be added to sires in the SIM as to regards Stakes and Group wins.
All-in-All I believe Vercingetorix, What A Winter, Elusive Fort, Gimmethegreenlight and most Captain Al and Fort Wood [Dynasty] progeny should be bumped up. I believe Soqrat [brilliant on Turf] will be a factor in future as he is the only Epaulette [Commands/Danehill] progeny sire that suits our mares over here. Anyways I will keep trying. Good articles and enjoy the states brother!!!
You can go into the WikiPedigree and adjust sire ratings. I think with the knowledge shown of |South African racing if the two of you do this it would get pulled through for next year. It takes time but will be worthwhile.
The other factors to consider is that guy with Coolmore who got done for fraud went bankrupt would have had a massive negative impact on quality and investment. Shadwell pulling out would not have helped either. They used to have nice horses down there. I cannot remember the last time I saw South African racing on the TV it used to be on often in the mornings. In the UK French regional racing has taken it’s place. All the above are not going to help the product, along with the African horse sickness restrictions.
this was an interesting read – are there any in-game local bred series featuring SAF sires? I enjoy finding underused sires and (occasionally) “cornering the market” in the sense that I might be the only sim user that uses the horse.
The sim has the in-built local stakes races for SAf breds. I don’t think there are any player run series right now.
…and thanks! 🙂
I’d be happy to have more people utilizing these sires. Feel free to join in the fun.