Kings of the Sim – Just Who Are the Leading Sires?
This is the first in a series of articles examining the leading sires in the game. To do this I examined the sire lists for the 2011-2015 foal crops. A five year span seemed appropriate for looking at long term trends. Ending with the 2015 foal crop was decided for two reasons – first because there will be no more foals born into this crop (as opposed to 2016’s crop which can grow due to three year old breeding) and second because it gives the foals a full two years of racing experience with which to draw on. I examined the sire lists for each foal crop and ranked the top 25 sires that are still active in 2017 for each year. The 125 available rankings for the five year period were filled by 40 individual sires (it should be noted that Cape Cross would have filled one of those slots, as he is technically active in 2017 but he was not included because that active 2yo status is an error). Thirteen sires were in the top 25 rankings for each of the five foal crops selected. They were: Awesome Again, Bernardini, Dansili, Deep Impact, Distorted Humor, Dubawi, Galileo, Gaint’s Causeway, Malibu Moon, Medaglia D’oro, Redoute’s Choice, Sea the Stars and Tapit. Following are the crop-by-crop data for those sires. In coming columns we will examine the remaining twenty seven sires who earned a ranking.
Awesome Again Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 7 142(95.8) 26 (18.3) 8(5.6)
2012 Rank 8 113 (92.2) 20 (17.7) 6(5.3)
2013 Rank 6 183(97.3) 38(20.8) 14(7.7)
2014 Rank 8 198 (97.0) 30 (6) 13(6)
2015 Rank 2 230 (91.7) 30 (13) 8 (3.1)
Bernardini Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 6 142 (94.4) 27 (19) 9 (6.3)
2012 Rank 4 121 (94.2) 33 (27.3) 13 (10.7)
2013 Rank 4 208 (97.6) 59 (28.4) 21 (10.1)
2014 Rank 2 224 (95.5) 46 (20.5) 16 (7.1)
2015 Rank 17 205 (89.8) 15 (7.3) 4 (2.0)
Dansili Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 15 130 (96.2) 27 (21.8) 8 (6.5)
2012 Rank 7 102 (99) 36 (35.3) 18 (17.7)
2013 Rank 10 176 (96.6) 41 (23.3) 12 (6.8)
2014 Rank 9 188 (95.2) 38 (20.2) 8 (4.3)
2015 Rank 6 200 (93) 26 (13.0) 5 (2.5)
Deep Impact Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 16 128 (94.5) 31 (24.2) 13 (10.2)
2012 Rank 9 105 (96.2) 32 (30.5) 11 (10.5)
2013 Rank 11 169 (93.5) 45 (26.6) 16 (9.5)
2014 Rank 14 169 (94.1) 38 (22.5) 14 (8.3)
2015 Rank 24 173 (89.6) 17 (9.8) 5 (2.9)
Distorted Humor Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 1 141 (99.3) 38 (27.0) 9 (6.4)
2012 Rank 5 118 (96.6) 25 (21.2) 12 (10.2)
2013 Rank 7 184 (95.1) 44 (23.9) 16 (8.7)
2014 Rank 4 214 (94.9) 54 (25.2) 15 (7.0)
2015 Rank 3 219 (89.0) 22 (10.1) 5 (2.3)
Dubawi Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 11 118 (95.8) 24 (20.3) 6 (5.1)
2012 Rank 20 102 (90.2) 33 (32.4) 12 (11.8)
2013 Rank 14 147 (94.6) 25 (17.0) 9 (6.1)
2014 Rank 10 181 (93.9) 47 (26.0) 18 (9.9)
2015 Rank 11 180 (91.1) 24 (13.3) 8 (4.4)
Galileo Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 5 147 (94.6) 33 (22.5) 10 (6.8)
2012 Rank 3 121 (93.4) 27 (22.3) 12 (9.7)
2013 Rank 5 200 (96.5) 45 (22.5) 19 (9.5)
2014 Rank 1 236 (97.0) 49 (20.8) 18 (7.6)
2015 Rank 10 224 (87.1) 12 (5.4) 2 (0.9)
Giant’s Causeway Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 2 145 (94.5) 38 (26.2) 11 (7.6)
2012 Rank 2 124 (94.4) 35 (28.2) 12 (9.7)
2013 Rank 3 204 (97.1) 60 (29.4) 12 (5.9)
2014 Rank 3 217 (98.2) 53 (24.4) 19 (8.8)
2015 Rank 1 255 (95.3) 41 (16.1) 8 (3.1)
Malibu Moon Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 14 124 (99.2) 27 (21.8) 8 (6.5)
2012 Rank 13 110 (96.4) 28 (25.5) 9 (8.2)
2013 Rank 19 144 (95.8) 19 (13.2) 5 (3.5)
2014 Rank 13 187 (89.8) 27 (14.4) 10 (5.4)
2015 Rank 7 217 (89.9) 22 (10.1) 9 (4.2)
Medaglia D’oro Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 4 146 (95.2) 42 (28.8) 14 (9.6)
2012 Rank 11 114 (97.4) 29 (25.4) 10 (8.8)
2013 Rank 8 194 (92.3) 49 (25.3) 13 (6.7)
2014 Rank 5 205 (92.2) 43 (21.0) 15 (7.3)
2015 Rank 12 205 (88.8) 19 (9.3) 6 (2.9)
Redoute’s Choice Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 8 126 (98.4) 33 (26.2) 13 (10.3)
2012 Rank 24 108 (87.0) 22 (20.4) 8 (7.4)
2013 Rank 12 155 (96.8) 34 (21.9) 14 (9.0)
2014 Rank 17 164 (95.7) 30 (18.3) 9 (5.5)
2015 Rank 16 174 (90.2) 25 (14.4) 8 (4.6)
Sea the Stars Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 3 150 (97.3) 27 (18.0) 11 (7.6)
2012 Rank 1 124 (98.4) 42 (33.9) 17 (13.7)
2013 Rank 1 216 (97.2) 61 (28.2) 18 (8.3)
2014 Rank 6 205 (95.6) 41 (20) 13 (6.3)
2015 Rank 8 215 (88.4) 22 (10.2) 9 (4.2)
Tapit Runners (win%) SWs(%) GWs(%)
2011 Rank 12 139 (95.7) 32 (23.0) 13 (9.4)
2012 Ran 110 (91.8) 21 (19.1) 9 (8.2)
2013 Rank 9 164 (95.7) 46 (28.1) 19 (11.6)
2014 Rank 15 176 (93.2) 43 (24.4) 11 (6.3)
2015 Rank 4 247 (91.5) 29 (11.7) 9 (3.6)
Thanks Spin!
Spin? Could you tell us your thoughts on Deep Impact?
Collectively in ’11, ’12, ’13, he had about the highest % of SW and GW’s of any listed above but was only able to crack the Rank Top Ten only once.
I think one thing that is very interesting with these stats (and something I will discuss in part 3) is the number of foals each sire had. For 2011-2012 (in old sim) the number of offspring a sire could have was pretty consistent and the range of foal crops was not that big. Things changed big time in 2013 when sires could basically have unlimited number of foals. Of the thirteen sires profiled in this article, Deep Impact ranked #11 on total number of foals. His popularity has not increased at the same pace as those above him. The one year he did crack the top 10 was 2012, a year when his number of foals was smaller than others but only by maybe 15-20 foals. Compared to say 2014 when he had over 60 fewer foals than the leader.