7UP

25 stars shine bright but 3 are supernova’s

In the Northern hemisphere 25 sires had 7 or more graded winners in 2019. We know Mike rates sires on racecourse actual results so there is a strong probability all these active sires are in the higher echelon with regards to game ratings though other factors come into display this will be evident when reading the reviews on sires based in Japan. This may not be born out by the games sire rankings due to other factors fashion, location and ignorance.

To get a batter assessment I have also looked at the percentage of black type horses for the sire as it is a good indication of overall quality the higher the percentage the better.

I will look at a few sires especially younger ones who have over 14.5% stakes horses or over 5% graded stakes winners. These younger sires when they have 4 or 5 crops racing should be hitting the 7up club so therefore elite stallions.

Galileo no surprise he is top of the list with 26 graded winners his BTH/GSW percentages 24.13/9.09 are better than any other sire. The simple fact you cannot get away from is he is the best sire around easily. To put things further in perspective his 11 grade 1 winners was more than double any other living stallion. Those alone were enough to put him in the top 10 compared to other sires total graded winners.

Dubawi is the only other living sire with over 20 graded winners with 24. His percentages are 16.88/7.50 which are exceptional and make him one of the top 3 stallions in the world right now. He is great for the game as his offspring are best at 4 and above which fits into how Mike likes stallions and horses to progress.

Deep Impact dead

Frankel he continues to do really well with 16 graded winners. His percentages are 20.53/8.42 which can only be beaten by Galileo he is the next number 1 sire in the world. That means in simple terms 1 in 5 of his runners in 2019 earned black type, including 2 English Classic winners which was the one thing missing on his CV. In Logician he had pretty much the best 3yo colt in the Northern Hemisphere and it will be interesting to see how he develops. The one thing that is obvious with Frankel is time and patient is the key to success with his offspring. They stay well.

Shamardal had a bit off a bad year in 2018 but bounced back to his best and usual position as a top 5 performing sire in real life with 14 graded winners. He had health issues with what were his 3yo crop and a change in management by Darley was richly rewarded with 3 grade 1 2yo winners any of which can go on to be top class 3yo’s. He is still a sprinter miler type sire which is rare in Europe at the quality end of the market. His mares seem to impart even more speed. His percentages 11.46/4.86 are a drop down from the super sires below but still are top class.

Tapit The first North American sire on the list with 13 graded wins his percentages 15.41/4.45 the first figure is top class but you would expect this as he had the best mares in his region sent to him, this makes the low level of graded wins disappointing and even more worrying was no grade 1 winners only thee sires on the list did not manage one. Tapit had 25% more runners than they did which makes the failure even more worrying or odd depending how you look at a glass. He is still a top class.

Curlin is the first of the last two sires with above 10 graded winners with 11. His percentages are 12.27/3.97 we can see another small drop off in class. It is fair to mention he is getting better quality mares now so in theory should start to produce to Tapit’s level going forward. At present he is likely to be the best dirt stallion going forward. The other factor to mention is his low average winning distance below a mile. Dirt racing in the game needs to be more concentrated on the sprint program as is does in real life.

Sea The Stars he is the last sire with over 10 graded wins again 11. His percentages are 15.14/5.05 those high, class figures looking better than the number as for a while he had smaller crops. He is also the sire with the highest stamina index at over 10.5f again given him a different string to his bow. His offspring also take a while to mature.

Scat Daddy Dead

Candy Ride we are now into the single figured graded stakes winning sires and again we see a drop in results 10.87/3.91 being Candy Ride’s percentages these are still really, good but already well removed from the top star stallions. The two factors to point out here are his age another who was born in the last millennium he therefore has few days ahead of him than behind him. The other worthwhile point is being from a different sire line is always worth having in a dirt breeding program. It could well be worth forcing females from him to help the broodmare band going forward.

Lope De Vega the second horse to follow their dad in the list. As with Frankel he is slightly below his own Dad at current percentages 9.31/2.70 but both are getting better mares now proven so should show better results in a few year’s when the quality of mares is improved. A very solid sire who provides slightly more stamina than his Dad.

Heart’s Cry is the reason why basing ratings on prize money is just insane. His prize money is twice that of Galileo who could believe he is better than him. The brutal reality is his percentages 5.53/1.77. He is on the list due to how many runners he has not the absolute ability of his offspring. There is know way any sire based there is as good as those on the list based in North America or Europe hence the global download a few years back.

Lord Kanaloa another from Japan with low percentages 4.57/2.04 again these are far removed from the sires in Europe and North America. The points to highlight of interest are his fee is double that of Heart’s Cry which is down to many Deep Impact bound mares being sent to him, he was a far better racehorse and in Japan they value this. The other issue of note is an average winning distance of 7.02f which is low especially in Japan where most racing is at 8-10f. So do not expect many classic horses sired by him.

Medaglia d’Oro like the two sires above managed 8 graded winners but his percentages were 13.69/3.32 you can see they are far superior, and you would hope he was rated so. He continues to be a top class, sire just below the top few and each year does his job to a similar level. He is another sire who was born in another millennium.

Camelot again has 8 winners with percentages of 12.84/3.67 over the 6 figures he is ahead on 4 compared to Medaglia d’Oro the two stallions are pretty much equal in ability. Camelot is another sire like Sea The Stars who has a high stamina index as would be expected of a son of Montjeu. Coolmore keep having horses by him so retain the faith which is always a good sign.

No Nay Never has been upgraded twice in two years these results will show why 17.99/5.76 those percentages are very close to the top 3 and his mare quality has been far inferior. With better mare quality he can break into the super elite sires. There are though a few factors to consider. The first is most of his stake’s winners are juveniles many do not train on all that well. Though in the game with wear and tear peaking early is not a bad thing for a sire the reverse will be seen later. Secondly, he has the lowest average winning distance of any sire outside of the USA do not expect many offspring to stay a mile let alone further. Lastly and most importantly he has a lack of interest in breeding which is apparently becoming worse. How bad it is I do not know but the star mare Laurens was going to be sent to him this year but has been rerouted to Invincible Spirit which does not read well. His days as a stallion might be numbered.

Hard Spun is the first of the bottom tear of sires with 7 wins but throws decent percentages 9.09/2.45 he is going about is business without much fanfare and looking at the price he is available in the game obviously has ben missed by a lot of players too. If you believe Mike that most sires are where he has them rated, he is good value for money. If he is under appreciated by players, he will not get the same quality of mares as other sires and this will result to disappointing results in the game. This should not be seen, as lack of ability if given the correct ammunition.

Speightstown keeps going about his business and is a very solid sprint sire. Results of 12.98/2.98 show decent percentage returns. He is what he is, and it should be noted he was born in 1998 so is not getting any younger. If you want a decent speed sire, he is an excellent option.

Kitten’s Joy has a lot in common with the sires from Japan lots of runners that get him to the 7 up club his percentages 5.61/1.71 are poor in this group but everything is relative. If compared against stallion who would be rated around the 75-100 mark in the game, he would be a very worthwhile option.

War Front continues to be a high, class sire. It is worth noting that now he is covering more mares obviously having the same fertility help Starspangledbanner received his actual percentages are dropping 14.61/3.20. That said he still has a ow number of runners which means his results really put him in a slightly higher bracket. He is the only American sire on the list who has worldwide appeal. He is therefore a sire I tend to use, and my experiences have shown him to act differently to what I expect. In Europe he is a sire of mainly sprinter miler 2yo to 3yo types. My results in the game show him to develop slower best at 4+ and most tend to want at least a mile.

English Channel has very good results of 11.97/2.99 again these are helped a little by smaller crop sizes. He is a sire in the game that does not do as well as you might think. That though can easily be explained. If you look at his real, life race results many off his offspring improve with age included a graded winner in 2019 who was 9 years old. This does not play into the game’s dynamics very well. Slow developing sires have their peak at 6 or older. To get the best out of English Channel you really need to think about going into the 5, year old season with a horse with only a handful of runs.

Siyouni is one of two French based sires in the list. Both seem to be very good at siring fillies and interestingly have connections closely to Pivotal one of the best broodmare sires around. It would therefore be expected in time Siyouni will follow that path as well. The main thing to say here is really a sprinter miler sire and very few if any of his offspring stay beyond 10f. This should be in your mind when racing his offspring. His percentages are 9.38/2.43.

Le Havre has always been a good sire but over, looked. I have always used him mostly as Christophe Lemaire was adamite he would have won the Arc if not injured the tone of his voice said he believed it, the winner that year Sea The Stars. He is like Siyouni based in France and a very good sire of fillies, with his different sire and female family being the same as Pivotal he is a horse you really want to have broodmares by both in the game and real life. He has a longer stamina index than Siyouni making a better classic prospect, his percentages 9.35/3.27.

Champs Elysees dead

New Approach rounds of the 7up club with percentages of 8.95/3.68 these could be viewed as disappointing given how he started his life at stud. He looked like he was on his way to be an elite stallion like the top 3 but that has not been the case, he is still though very good and capable of throwing classic horses which is always a bonus.

We will look at the sires making a mark who should all things being equal and a few more crops under their belts be replacing the old guard above.

Kingman just missed the list with 6 winners and his percentages are 17.95/3.85 the first one puts him up with the elite stallions, the graded winners does not tell the whole story as his graded placed horses threw 12.82% which would again put him in the top 3, a bit of luck and we could have a very different story. Unlike No Nay Never his offspring are improving with age and it would be somewhat of a surprise if his statistics do not overtake him this year. Kingman’s offspring like himself tend to be very good looking with a lot of scope.

Constitution was on Mike’s major upgrades and these are the percentages that tell you why 12.86/5.71 these are top class figures. I doubt he was high on very few people’s lists of future top sires. We can see with over 63% of his named foals having run they are well developed. Fingers crossed they continue to develop well and can show the ability to stay over a mile, otherwise like No Nay Never he could become a bit limited. Though quick development is good news for the game and how most people play it.

Sea The Moon I was at Warwick the other weekend to watch the Classic Chase over 3 miles 5 furlongs in a few years I was expecting this guy to sire plenty of runners in staying chases with a pedigree of Sea The Stars over Monsun. He is though doing very well 14.71/3.92 is eye popping given the mares he was bred to along with a much lower than expected AWD of 9.90 at present. His offspring are taking a while to mature so the numbers could improve further. An interesting sire especially with few class staying stallions around.

American Pharoah was expected to be the first crop sire leader but is not his percentages are 15.28/4.71 are very good but a long way removed to what Frankel did in is first season 13.95% graded stakes winners. He at this point going to struggle to be as good as Frankel but looks more than capable to get to Candy Ride levels. The proviso would be Bernardini if you think back to the video’s Mike made for the new game he made bold predictions which were well off in hindsight both were given similar opportunities in real life. He has not got the potential upside of Constitution but hopefully for people enjoyed watching him race he does get to Candy Ride levels which is better to 99.9% of stallions.

Farhh always appear in these lists his results 15.09/5.66. The results look great but are on a very small sample size. As could be seen with War Front more foals equal more runners and lower percentages.

Night Of Thunder he was the leading first crop sire by percentages but these do not tell the whole story. Th percentages are 22.45/6.12 that puts him up with the top 3 stallions. At present 55% of his named foals have run so like he himself you would expect improvement as they get older. The other figures which show him a positive light are his winners to runner’s ratio of over 57% the other two first season sires had 41.43/37.5 so massively inferior. The other stand out is his 49 starters won 44 races very few stallions get to this level American Pharoah has 72/33 not in the same ballpark. If night Of Thunder keeps these results up he could easily be a contender to replace his sire Dubawi who interestingly also exceeded expectations, we can say the same for Constitution and Tapit which is great news for both sire’s with better mares likely to be coming their way.