Six sires to note on heavy ground in the early weeks of the turf season
With a wet start to the Flat season on turf, John Ingles highlights six sires whose progeny have a good strike-rate on heavy ground.
The Method
Before a closer look at some heavy-ground sires, an explanation first on how they’ve been selected.
First, we generated a list of sires who’d had at least 50 runners (not necessarily 50 individual horses) on ground described as ‘heavy’ by Timeform on the Flat in Britain and Ireland since the beginning of 2019. A dozen of those sires had a better than 15% strike-rate under those conditions. This dozen included champion sires past and present Galileo (who’s had more winners, 52, than any other sire in that period on heavy ground), Dubawi and Frankel. But while their offspring clearly perform well on heavy ground, relative to other sires, it would be wrong to class them as specialists when the mud is flying. They’re simply top-notch sires regardless of underfoot conditions. In fact, Dubawi and Frankel have a slightly worse strike-rate on heavy ground than they do on turf overall, even though it’s still better than most of their rivals.
More interesting are the sires among that dozen whose strike-rates are significantly better when their runners encounter heavy ground compared with their overall ratio of winners to runners on turf. These are the top six among the dozen whose strike-rates show the most improvement on heavy ground.
The Sires
Gleneagles
Anyone who remembers Gleneagles’ own racing career might be surprised to find him among the best sires of winners on heavy ground but there no arguing with his 27 winners from 133 runners under those conditions since 2019. Gleneagles did all his winning at two on good to firm ground and then won the 2000 Guineas, Irish 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes on good to firm, good and firm ground respectively. He even missed several other races because the ground was considered too soft for him. But whatever Gleneagles’ own ground requirements, with the best strike-rate there is of 20.3% on heavy ground (compared with 13.6% on turf in general), his offspring clearly act well in the mud. Already this season his 1000 Guineas hopefuls One Look and Brilliant have won on heavy ground in Ireland, the latter a second successive winner of a heavy-ground Park Express Stakes at the Curragh for Gleneagles after Insinuendo in 2023.
Sixties Icon
Like Gleneagles, Sixties Icon is another son of Galileo. He’s had 21 winners from 116 runners on heavy ground at a strike-rate of 18.1% which is far better than his overall turf strike-rate of 11.7%. Best known for winning the 2006 St Leger, Sixties Icon never raced on soft or heavy ground himself, though he did win the Geoffrey Freer Stakes on good to soft ground as a five-year-old. A couple of his handicappers to show useful form on heavy ground last season were Concorde for George Boughey and Flash Bardot for Jack Channon, both of them successful twice on heavy ground from four wins apiece.
Caravaggio
Caravaggio, the leading first-season sire in 2021, has had only just enough heavy-ground runners to qualify for this list, but with nine winners from 54 runners at a strike-rate of 16.7%, that’s much better than his overall strike-rated on turf of 11%. Caravaggio never raced on heavy ground but he was versatile when it came to going, with his two Group 1 wins in the Phoenix Stakes and Commonwealth Cup coming on good to firm, while two more of his pattern wins in Ireland, in the Lacken Stakes and Flying Five, came on soft. Two of his best performers (both Cheveley Park winners), Tenebrism and Porta Fortuna, were successful on heavy ground in Ireland last spring, while sprint handicapper Merisi Diamond confirmed his liking for heavy ground when storming clear to win at the Curragh on his reappearance after winning under similar conditions there on his final start last year.
Garswood
Garswood is a sire who does seem to be transmitting his own ground preferences to his offspring. He got off the mark as a two-year-old on heavy going when winning the listed Harry Rosebery Stakes at Ayr and he gained the biggest win of his career on his final start as a four-year-old when winning the Prix Maurice de Gheest on soft ground. Overall, Garswood’s 9.2% strike-rate on turf is nothing to write home about but that improves to 16.2% on heavy where he’s had 11 winners from 68 runners under those conditions. The Roger Fell & Sean Murray-trained Harswell Duke had excuses in the latest running of the Spring Mile at Doncaster on heavy ground but won that event under similar conditions in 2023, with all four of his wins coming on soft or heavy ground. Garswood’s highest-rated horse Significantly won the Ayr Gold Cup on good ground last season after having his stamina stretched on heavy in the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood but he ran a good race under softer conditions when runner-up in the Coral Sprint Trophy at York on his final start last year.
Fast Company
Fast Company not only boasts one of the best heavy-ground strike-rates (15.4%, compared with a much more modest 9.5% on turf overall), he is second only to Galileo when it comes to numbers of winners on heavy ground with 49. He was restricted to just three starts as a two-year-old, winning a Salisbury maiden on good to firm ground and the Acomb Stakes at York on good but running much his best race on good to soft in the Dewhurst Stakes when beaten half a length by New Approach. Already this season the Gemma Tutty-trained Look Back Smiling has added the Spring Mile to another heavy-ground success at Doncaster last autumn, while Fast Company’s other winners of note under similar conditions at the back-end of last year were smart Newmarket listed winner Checkandchallenge and useful handicapper Dashing Roger who won at Nottingham and Newmarket.
Helmet
Helmet was a high-class performer in Australia where he counted a Group 1 win on heavy ground, in the Champagne Stakes at Randwick, among his successes. As a stallion, his stand-out performer Thunder Snow was best known for his exploits on dirt as a dual winner of the Dubai World Cup. On turf, though, Helmet’s heavy-ground strike rate of 15.2% is much better than an overall strike-rate of 9.9%. A major contributor to Helmet’s heavy-ground stats was the useful Ed Walker-trained mare Molls Memory who gained the last four of her six starts over seven furlongs, all on heavy ground. More recently, fairly useful handicappers Crystal Casque and Robert Johnston both counted a heavy-ground success among their several wins in 2023.
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