Perfect Power’s sire Ardad, who got away to the fastest start of any British first-crop sire last year, before proving to be the most popular stallion in the country in 2022, will stand for £12,500 Oct 1, SLF – his fee unchanged despite another year of high achievement. Perfect Power’s big victory in the G1 Commonwealth Cup was the highlight, and two-year-old Crispy Cat ran with distinction in many of the season’s leading juvenile sprints, looking especially hard-done-by when third in the G2 Norfolk Stakes, after being badly impeded. He was also the first colt home in the G2 Flying Childers, a race his sire won. Ardad also enjoyed great success in the sales ring in 2022: a 200,000gns Book 1 yearling is his biggest yearling sale so far, and his average – £82,000 – was 12.6 times the stud fee this crop was conceived for, making him the single most profitable European stallion of the year.
Horse of the Year Golden Horn, who has enjoyed a resurgent year on the track with several major winners, will stand for £8,000 Oct 1st, SLF in his first season at Overbury Stud. Bought from Darley by Jayne McGivern’s Dash Grange Stud in July, Golden Horn’s first-crop son Botanik celebrated the deal with two August Group wins, the G3 Prix de Reux and the G2 Grand Prix de Deauville. Meanwhile, four-year-old Trawlerman took Europe’s most valuable handicap, the Ebor, at York, and finished the season with a third in the G2 British Champions Cup. York is also where Juddmonte three-year-old Haskoy stayed unbeaten with victory in the Listed Galtres Stakes. She went on to finish second in the G1 St Leger, before being demoted to fourth, a disqualification which is still subject to an appeal.
The Derby and Arc hero is also off to an amazing start with his first runners over jumps: every single one of his 26 National Hunt runners has finished in the money, including 16 winners. His first hurdler and first ‘chaser both won on debut, and his first bumper horse, Lady and Alice Bamford’s First Street, is now rated 146 having finished second in the County Hurdle at the Festival. Golden Horn is also the sire of G2 Leamington Hurdle winner, Stag Horn.
Fellow Overbury stallion Jack Hobbs twice chased home Golden Horn on the track – and they were both trained by John Gosden, too. The Irish Derby winner with an outcross pedigree has covered more than 750 mares so far, and his stock are already rewarding breeders: 2022 stores averaged £37,000, with a top price of €110,000, and his yearling top price was £50,000. His first runner is successful three-year-old stayer The Gadget Man, rated 99 by Timeform and sold to race on in Australia at the horses-in-training sale for 310,000gns. With juvenile hurdlers and bumper runners expected over the coming months, his 2022 fee will be settled later in the year.
The surprise package of the Overbury roster is Frontiersman, who will cover again at £1,000 Oct 1st, SLF. The son of Dubawi and Ouija Board, who was second to Highland Reel in a very fast running of the G1 Coronation Cup on his Stakes debut, has been increasingly popular with breeders as word of the quality of his all-bay stock has spread. His oldest are two-year-olds and his only runner so far, Miss Dolly Rocker, has performed with great promise, finishing a neck runner-up on debut, behind a filly who was herself second in a Listed next time out. Among Frontiersman’s youngstock at Overbury Stud are two half-sisters to Thyme Hill.
With Cityscape spending this winter in his second home of Argentina, where he’s had nine G1 horses from five crops, the Overbury line-up is completed by Schiaparelli, rising 20, who had his best season yet in 2021-22. G2 West Yorkshire Hurdle winner Indefatigable was his star performer and no fewer than ten others won at least twice. The son of Monsun was himself the most determined and robust of racehorses, and his stock are renowned for their soundness and genuine way of running. His fee is £2,000 Oct 1st, SLF.
Simon Sweeting, Overbury Stud’s manager, said, ‘I think we’ve got stallions for most ambitions and most tastes – certainly they are all showing they can sire horses you’d be proud to have bred. We’re really looking forward to talking to breeders about their mares, and we’ll be doing our best for them in the season ahead. I hope we can have as lucky a run in 2023 as we’ve had in the past year or two.’
