Why Charm Spirit, Raven's Pass and Mayson are worth a look for budget breeders

For a simple guide to the quality a sire is imparting to his stock, it is hard to beat the tables the Racing Post website hosts in its statistics section that order names by the percentage of their progeny in Britain and Ireland rated at least 80, 100 or 115.

Unlike those tables that order sires by progeny earnings, which can be skewed by a handful of valuable races, or number of winners, which can be achieved with huge volumes of runners and therefore low strike-rates, these take into account both achievement and opportunity.

In a recent article, I highlighted the nine sires who had half or more of their runners achieve a Racing Post Rating of 80 – around the mark needed to win a maiden of fair quality and where resale value kicks in – or higher in 2019.

In some respects it made for a sobering lesson that you get what you pay for, as the leaders in this field included Frankel (stud fee: £175,000), Dubawi (£250,000), Galileo (private but astronomical), Sea The Stars (€150,000) and Kingman (£150,000), while the table-topper Scat Daddy was due to stand at $100,000 but died suddenly before he was able to cover his most expensive book.

This article appears in our Budget Breeding supplement - read the whole thing here

There were glimmers of hope for smaller breeders in the list, though. Fourth-placed Declaration Of War was advertised at $25,000 before he was transferred to Japan, while seventh-placed Night Of Thunder had fallen to £15,000 in the two seasons before he had runners but is now up to €25,000 after excelling in his freshman season, and the limited spaces in his book are being fought over by the leading operations.

The other sire among the nine, Lane's End Farm resident Noble Mission, could reward those with less budget but willing to have mares covered in Kentucky as he commanded a fee of just $15,000 in 2019 and is up to a still affordable $20,000 for 2020.

You have to scroll down further through the table to find those sires who are active in Britain and Ireland and stand at a budget price this season – £10,000/€12,000 or less – but there are a dozen who managed strike-rates of between 40 and 25 per cent runners rated 80 or more last year, meaning they may be good value for breeders operating on a shoestring.

Charm Spirit, the three-time Group 1 winner by Invincible Spirit who had Night Of Thunder behind when he triumphed in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, came out best in this subset with that mark of 40 per cent.

He has been represented by two full crops of racing age in Europe, the first conceived at Tweenhills in Gloucestershire and the second at Haras de Bonneval in Normandy, and it is fair to say he has so far lacked a superstar to put his name in lights – hence his fee has dropped from an opening mark of £25,000 to £8,500.

But there are grounds for thinking he is worth a punt at that price. Clearly he is a solid source of useful, if not outstanding, performers, and as well as having above-average sorts like Kick On and Lyndon B staying in training, his two-year-olds of 2020 are the result of a book of 100 mares, 12 of them black-type winners, covered at Tweenhills in 2017.

Raven's Pass is next best on this particular list, with 35 per cent of his offspring in Britain and Ireland running to an RPR of at least 80 in 2019.

Even taking into consideration libido issues which have restricted the son of Elusive Quality's racecourse representation, his output has been a little disappointing considering his own enormous ability, with none of his progeny getting any closer to his own peak rating than ten pounds.

Raven's Pass: good value optionCredit: Darley

However, he enjoyed something of a moment in 2019, with his two highest rated performers emerging ten years after he retired to Kildangan Stud – seven-length All-Weather Middle-Distance Championship scorer Matterhorn and Japanese Grade 1-winning sprinter Tower Of London.

Intriguingly, Matterhorn is out of a mare by Darshaan, and Tower Of London is out of a mare by Darshaan's son Dalakhani. The Raven's Pass-Darshaan cross is also responsible for earlier Group winners Kataniya and Steeler.

Mayson, a five-length July Cup winner by Invincible Spirit, awaits a first Pattern-winning offspring even with four crops to have raced.

That does not tell the full story of his ability as a sire, though, as he does have six Listed winners to his name and 14 other stakes performers besides. As the table below shows, he also had a healthy 33 per cent of his progeny achieve an RPR of 80 or higher in 2019.

Mayson also has a lot of runners in the pipeline – 141 mares covered in 2017, 83 in 2018 and 90 last year – so a small fee reduction from £6,000 to £5,000 at Cheveley Park Stud this year looks generous.

Passing Glance is better known as a jumps sire these days but as Australian Group 1 winner and Queen Anne Stakes third Side Glance showed, he can get classy performers on the Flat too. Indeed, from only 16 runners on the level in Britain and Ireland in 2019, five ran to a mark of 80 or higher, or 31 per cent.

With the booming market for horses in training in mind, the son of Polar Falcon also boasts a highly respectable lifetime strike-rate of 44 per cent winners to runners over jumps. Available for just £3,000 at Batsford Stud, he should be on the shortlist of all owner-breeders who do not need to worry about sire fashion at yearling sales.

The enduring appeal of two elder statesmen of the stallion ranks is illustrated in these figures, with both Sir Percy and Tamayuz turning out 80-plus rated runners in 2019 at a clip of 30 per cent.

Unbeaten Group 1-winning two-year-old and Derby victor Sir Percy has proved as versatile at stud as he was on the track and is value at £7,000 at Lanwades Stud.

Sir Percy and Martin Dwyer (right) get up in one of the most thrilling Derby finishes this centuryCredit: Edward Whitaker

Tamayuz, a top-class miler by Nayef, has had his price at Derrinstown Stud snipped into €10,000 even in the year after his son Mustashry landed the Lockinge Stakes to become his fourth Group 1 winner overall after Blond Me, G Force and Precieuse.

Orientor, who stands at Sidehouse Farm Stud in Scotland at just £1,500, rubs shoulders with some flashier names and even outdoes many of them with 29 per cent of his 17 runners attaining an RPR of at least 80 last year.

Another less star-studded name, Tough As Nails at Old Meadow Stud, has a reasonable concentration of quality in his small racecourse delegation – four out of 15 runners on an RPR of 80 or higher in 2019.

Sixties Icon continues to knock in a fair amount of smart performers including the Czech-trained Hardwicke Stakes runner-up Nagano Gold in 2019, when 29 per cent of the sire's runners ran to 80 or more. The beautifully bred son of Epsom Classic winners Galileo and Love Divine remains good value at £6,000 at Norman Court Stud.

Make Believe, the Classic-winning son of Makfi who stands at Ballylinch Stud at €12,000, fared best of last year's first-season sires who stand in our price bracket in this table, with 26 per cent of his runners rated 80 or higher. He is one for budget buyers too, with daughter Rose Of Kildare (out of a mare by Sixties Icon) sourced by trainer Mark Johnston for just €3,000 but earning £115,000 after winning five races including the Firth of Clyde Stakes and Oh So Sharp Stakes.

With two crops to have run, Mukhadram is establishing himself as a solid source of talented horses and 26 per cent of his runners last year achieved a peak RPR of 80. Available at Nunnery Stud for just £6,000, he represents an inexpensive entry point into the increasingly important Shamardal sire line.

Nunnery Stud resident MukhadramCredit: Shadwell

The fact that Slade Power scrapes into this table with a quarter of his runners in 2019 rated 80 or higher might surprise many, as the sprinting star by Dutch Art had initially been considered disappointing. Indeed, he covered only seven mares last year after his first juveniles had run.

But he did supply one of the best two-year-old fillies in Europe in his second crop, dual Group 2 winner Raffle Prize, and several horses in training by him made their connections fair profit when they were sold on after accumulating decent form, including Dan (€250,000 at the Arqana Arc Sale), Deira Surprise (82,000gns at Tattersalls July) and Libras Power (72,000gns at Tattersalls December).

Slade Power is being offered to breeders at €7,500 at Kildangan Stud this year and he deserves more business than he received in 2019.

LEADING BUDGET SIRES BY % RUNNERS WITH RPR OF 80 OR MORE IN 2019

Charm Spirit
Runners 68
No. RPR80 27
% 40
Stud Tweenhills, GB
Fee £8,500

Raven's Pass
Runners 80
No. RPR80 28
% 35
Stud Kildangan, Ire
Fee €10,000

Mayson
Runners 110
No. RPR80 36
% 33
Stud Cheveley Park, GB
Fee £5,000

Passing Glance
Runners 16
No. RPR80 5
% 31
Stud Batsford, GB
Fee £3,000

Sir Percy
Runners 84
No. RPR80 25
% 30
Stud Lanwades, GB
Fee £7,000

Tamayuz
Runners 71
No. RPR80 21
% 30
Stud Derrinstown, Ire
Fee €10,000

Orientor
Runners 17
No. RPR80 5
% 29
Stud Sidehouse Farm, GB
Fee £1,500

Sixties Icon
Runners 65
No. RPR80 19
% 29
Stud Norman Court, GB
Fee £6,000

Tough As Nails
Runners 15
No. RPR80 4
% 27
Stud Old Meadow, Ire
Fee POA

Make Believe
Runners 38
No. RPR80 10
% 26
Stud Ballylinch, Ire
Fee €12,000

Mukhadram
Runners 80
No. RPR80 21
% 26
Stud Nunnery, GB
Fee £6,000

Slade Power
Runners 87
No. RPR80 22
% 25
Stud Kildangan, Ire
Fee €7,500

*Stallions standing in GB & Ire in 2020 for £10,000/€12,000 or less

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