Why Elzaam deserves more of your consideration than the bare stats suggest

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Today, he takes a look at whether stallion data really tells the whole story behind every sire and highlights why that might not always be the case - subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.

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There are no end of stallion statistics that can be used to inform breeding and buying decisions these days. On the Racing Post website alone, you can order tables by prize-money, number of winners, winners-to-runners ratios or, best of all to my mind, percentage of runners over certain RPRs.

It occurs to me, though, that a lot of stallion data will not tell the whole story in an era of increased international demand for young horses who show a good level of form early in their careers in Britain and Ireland.

Those performers are often exported abroad before they are able to gain black type, higher ratings or more prize-money, all of which would have served to boost their sires’ profiles.

Even when they are left in their stables, the enormous profits their connections have received are kept private and so can’t be measured, compared or advertised like a stallion's average and median prices at public auction.

One sire who is perhaps poorly served by those traditional metrics of success is Ballyhane Stud resident Elzaam (pictured below). He has an uncanny knack of supplying inexpensively sourced horses who win early and are then snapped up by big-money connections.

The best known example is his Group 1-winning daughter Champers Elysees. She was bought by her trainer Johnny Murtagh as a yearling for €28,000 and, after graduating through handicaps to win the Corrib Stakes, Fairy Bridge Stakes and Matron Stakes, was sold privately to Teruya Yoshida for presumably huge profit.

Martin Schwartz, who has an impeccable track record in pinpointing classy fillies early in their careers and trading them when they’ve reached the top, struck for the two-year-old Elzaam filly Limiti Di Greccio after she finished second at Leopardstown for Johnny Kinsella last month. She returned to the course to win a maiden in good style for Paddy Twomey in recent weeks, and it would be no surprise to see her earn black type in time.

Several of the sire’s offspring have also been sold to Arab connections as they were reaching their peak.

Coolagh Forest and Litigator, cheapish horses who worked their way up to official ratings in the early 100s, were both sold to be trained in Bahrain by Haider Ebrahim, while Mjjack, a €50,000 Goresbridge breeze-up buy who developed into a smart handicapper for Karl Burke, was sold for 260,000gns to race in Saudi Arabia, where he became a local Group 1 winner.

Elzaam: 'He must be some upgrader'Credit: Mark Cranham

It is in acquisitions for the Hong Kong racing scene that Elzaam has really specialised, though.

The most striking example is Playa Del Puente, a €40,000 yearling purchase who won the Patton Stakes for Mick Halford before being sold to be trained by Danny Shum. He nearly pulled off a huge shock in last year's Hong Kong Derby when kicking clear on the home bend and only being reeled in by Golden Sixty at the post to finish a neck second at odds of 290-1.

Ecliptical (now Win Win Fighter), Hafeet Alain, Indicative Vote, King Electric (now Magic Power), London Icon (now Classic Beauty), Mackqeez (now Beauty Happy), Mateo Cruz (now Encouraged) and Vincy were all also affordable yearlings or breezers who showed significant promise in Britain and Ireland before being spirited away to Hong Kong in private deals.

The fact that Elzaam has sired so many runners who have enough talent to make them valuable commodities to overseas owners and their agents is all the more laudable when you consider he has never stood at a fee higher than €6,000. He must be some upgrader.

The son of Redoute’s Choice has only five black-type winners to his name, though, and his best position in the annual British and Irish sire championship, decided (for the sake of tradition rather than relevance) by prize-money, is 49th.

How much better would those records look if some of the above named horses had been allowed to remain in Britain and Ireland to realise their full potential? Or if private purchase prices were known and somehow factored into progeny earnings?

Elzaam is undoubtedly better than bare statistics show, and buyers might do well to bear that in mind at the coming yearling sales.

Get involved!

Spotted any interesting pedigree angles from the weekend’s racing action, or in the yearling sale catalogues? Share them with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com.

Don't miss this week

Goffs UK Premier and Silver Yearling Sales

What: The time-honoured sale of precociously bred yearlings, many of whom will have a touch of class.

When: Tomorrow and Wednesday, sessions start at 10am.

Where: Get down to the Goffs UK sales complex in Doncaster.

What you need to know: Study the pedigrees and pinhook prices using the Racing Post’s customisable catalogue, but conformation is king at this sale, the source of Dream Of Dreams and Happy Romance.

Listen in!

Henry Beeby joins James Thomas and me to discuss a busy spell of sales for Goffs and Goffs UK, how the market has been affected by Covid-19 and the new bloodstock sales codes of practice.

Hear the new Racing Post Bloodstock Top Lot podcast, produced in association with Irish Thoroughbred Marketing.

Essential stats

Don’t forget to check in how the action at York last week affected the British and Irish sires’ championship and the first and second-season sire tables with the Racing Post’s comprehensive stats.

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Good Morning Bloodstock is our latest email newsletter. Martin Stevens, a doyen among bloodstock journalists, provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday