The year 2008 will go down in history as one of change and unprecedented events. Our little tiny sim world is no different as events in the real breeding world turn our top sires upside down. 2008 witnessed the pensioning, retiring from stallion duties, or untimely death of several top stallions that collectively represent an unprecedented amount of talent. While most of the stallions where not topping sire lists statistically in real life they where doing very well in the sim.
If one was to make a short list of the top five sim sires all three of these sires would likely make that list. Hard to believe that three of the top five or so sim sires will only be available for three year old breeding the rest of this year. Storm Cat, Sadler’s Wells and Seeking the Gold, sire of the only sim Triple Crown winner, all where retired from breeding last year. In just their last five crops they are represented by 118 graded stakes winners and 409 stakes winners overall. The greatness of Storm Cat, Sadler’s Wells, and Seeking the Gold will be missed.
We are not done yet as we further add to the list. The Northern Dancer line was also impacted with the retirement of Dixieland Band. Sire of 17 graded winners and 56 stakes winners in his last five crops. The untimely death of Seattle Slew son Vindication took away a sire that had produced 14 graded winners and 73 stakes winners in his last 5 sim crops. Cozzene, a son of Caro, also was retired last year. He was always one of the better sires out there that was free from any Northern Dancer or Mr. Prospector influence. He was represented by 6 graded stakes winners and 27 stakes winners in his last five crops. A steady son of Storm Cat, Forest Wildcat passed away last year. In the sim he was represented by 9 graded stakes winners and 51 stakes winners in his last five crops. Silver Deputy can also be thrown in this group represented by 5 graded winners and twenty nine stakes winners in his last five crops.
Gone are the sires of 169 graded winners and 649 stakes winners in the last five years and I am sure I am missing a sire or two more. Those numbers will still grow a bit as their last crops continue racing. This represents a great void that will be filled by new sires. The question then becomes who will step up and take the places of the now retired almost legendary sires?
The usual list of suspects seem the most likely choices. Every year a freshman sire or two seem to join the ranks of top stallions even if it is only for a short time. Two young North American sires that have caught my eye are Tiznow and Street Cry. I have been a fan of Tiznow from the very beginning and he is really starting to produce in real life. Street Cry has proven to be a hot prospect with 5 individual grade one winners this year. Giant’s Causeway had that many but had nearly twice as many runners to get there. Really more sires than most of us think are capable of producing graded stakes winners, we just never give them a chance.
In this writers opinion sim breeders can be narrow minded in their focus on creating great runners, myself included. We limit our selves to a precious few sires hoping for the next great runner. Hopefully with the great amount of change at the top of the sim sires list we can broaden our view and take into consideration very good, very capable sires that have been virtually ignored in the past. Add to this scenario the addition of more graded stakes races and we could have the makings of a really interesting period of sire diversity in the sim.
