By John Boyce
The European season has barely begun and there is no escaping the bright start made by Shamardal, who has posted six group winners so far, two more than his closest pursuer, Dubawi (Ire). Recent Group 2 winner, the progressive Morgan Le Faye (GB), is one of eight European stakes winners for her sire this year, the others featuring Castle Lady (Ire) winner of the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, plus Skardu (GB) and Shaman (Ire), both of whom have placed in Classics.
Now in their 11th year at the races, Shamardal's stock have always been held in high regard. He retired to Kildangan Stud the same year as Dubawi covered his first mares at Dalham Hall, the pair switching locations for their third season at stud.
Though he hasn't quite matched Dubawi's exploits, Shamardal can be considered among the top 10 sires in Europe over the past 25 years on two important scores. First, the rate at which he produces stakes winners (currently 11.5%) puts him behind only Frankel (GB) (17.2%), Galileo (Ire) (16.7%), Dubawi (15.8%) and Dansili (GB) (11.7%) among British and Irish sires in the past 20 years. Moreover, the quality of his 109 Northern Hemisphere-foaled group and listed winners are also of the highest order. Those that have gone under the Timeform microscope have an average Timeform rating of 114, which again marks him down as a top-notch stallion. Only the stakes winners by Galileo and Dubawi are as highly rated.
Interestingly, Shamardal adds speed to his mares; he has a stamina index pf 8.0 furlongs from mares whose stock normally produce an average winning distance of 9.0 furlongs. His very best runner according to Timeform is the 129-rated sprinter Blue Point (Ire), already a G1 winner in Dubai this year, but his next 11 highest-rated G1 winners have all won at up to a mile-and-a-quarter.
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