At the yearling sales of 2022, I don’t recall anyone tipping either Justify (USA) or Brave Smash (Jpn) for first season sire honours based on their sale yearlings, but the racetrack is a very different thing and here we are.
It’s not that those stallions didn’t produce good types, they definitely did, but were they seen as early runners?
Justify (Coolmore) in particular had a lot of big scopey types like himself, so those horses were always going to need a bit of time and to do what he’s done is probably seen as a bonus with his brilliant filly Learning to Fly, no doubt owing a bit to her female family which is all precocious speed.
Brave Smash (Yarraman Park)is a little different, his first crop were conceived off a $22,000 fee, and they sold above expectation with 13 selling for $100,000 or more and a lot of them went into good two year-old stables, so it wasn’t long before there was talk that Brave Smash might have something.
With 30 runners that produced 11 winners, he’s definitely got something which is why he has moved to Yarraman Park.
Blueblood Lonhro stallion Encryption (Eureka Stud) is another sire that impressed at the sales of 2022 off a low service fee of $13,200 with 11 selling for $100,000 or more and his best horse Cifrado is also his most expensive selling for $320,000 and that is always a good sign.
Harry Angel (IRE) (Darley) was a talking horse at the sales and widely tipped to get two year-olds which he has done to great effect and as the lone representative of the Acclamation sireline in Australia the Darley shuttler does bring something different to the table in terms of bloodline, so his progress this season will be of real interest.
Triple Crown winner Justify (USA) spent last spring in Kentucky while the jury was out as to whether the son of Scat Daddy had what it takes to be a sire success in Australia, but 12 months on he will return to Coolmore Australia triumphant as the Champion Australian First Season Sire by earnings.
An undefeated USA Horse of the Year in 2018, Justify had six starts at three and won them all from 1400 to 2400m, proving himself the very best son of an outstanding sire in Scat Daddy.
As good a racehorse as he was, Justify is shaping as maybe just as good a sire with eight winners in Australia from 21 starters, three of them stakes-winners Learning to Fly, Legacies and Air Assault.
If the Northern Hemisphere experience is anything to go by, Justify is only just warming up!
He’s had two Group I winning three year-olds in North America this year in Arabian Lion and Aspen Grove, while his second crop of two year-olds features Group winners City of Troy and Ramatuelle, seen as possibly the best juvenile colt and filly in Europe this year.
With 15 stakes-winners worldwide, Justify is running at nearly 10% SW to runner stamping himself as a serious sire and his fee this spring is $77,000.
A dual Group I winning sprinter in Australia, that started his racing career in Japan and raced successfully from age two to six, Brave Smash has quite literally smashed it out of the park with his first Australian runners that include stakes-winner Brave Mead and Group placed Kimochi and Brave Halo.
The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace trained Brave Mead will be having his second trial back this time in work at Canterbury on Tuesday morning, while the Gary Portelli trained Kimochi had her first trial back last week at Warwick Farm and posted a soft half length win.
A Sunday Silence line sire from a top class Japanese female family, Brave Smash has the depth of pedigree to match his race performance suggesting better things are in store as his progeny mature and fulfil their potential.
Brave Smash has smaller foal crops of around 50 in each year to follow this initial group of two year-olds, but has been given the opportunity of a lifetime in transferring to Yarraman Park where he will cover a full book at a fee of $33,000.
