Poster Boy during his racing career
FRESHMAN stallion Poster Boy smashed all records in 2024.
The regally bred former star pacer boasted 23 individual winners from his first crop – headlined by the brilliant The Highlight Reel - more than double any other first season sire before last year.
Poster Boy (Somebeachsomewhere USA) is quickly matching his success on the track where he won 22 of just 30 starts, including Group 1 success at two (Vicbred final), three (NSW Derby) and four (Chariots Of Fire). In total, he won five Group races, along with a second in the Victoria Derby and that enormous third to Spankem in the 2019 Miracle Mile.
Since HRA started keeping statistics on first crop stallions in the 2002/03 season, the record was shared by Bling It On (2021) and Vincent (2022) with 11 individual winners.
While Poster Boy’s impact has been phenomenal, it was just the headline of a crucial growth in interest and impact for Australian-bred first season stallions.
Underlining that, Soho Tribeca also smashed the previous record with 17 individual winners, most notably Hell Im Smooth and Soho The Real Deal.
While The Storm Inside (Rocknroll Hanover USA) equalled the previous mark with his 11 individual winners, headed by Storms Collide and Zeus Immortal.
They were the stars of an impressive six of Australian-bred freshman stallions to have at least one individual winner in their first crop.
Go back to 2006 and former star pacer Saab's (Classic Garry) first crop had nine winners which equalled his sire, another great Australian Bred sire Classic Garry's (Garry Rowan) 1989 achievement of nine in his first crop.
In the 16 seasons from 2002/03 to 2017/18, there were on average 4.4 Australian-bred first season stallions that sired a winner, with an average of 7.2 winners. Saab’s nine in 2006 was clearly the highest, ahead of Rich And Spoilt (six in 2006) and Flightpath (six in 2013).
Since 2019 the average number of individual stallions dropped to 3.8, with an average of 16.5 individual winners each season.
Follow The Stars joined Saab in 2019 with nine individual winners, then Bling It On set a new benchmark with 11 winners in 2021, a mark Vincent matched 2022.
Overall, the 2024 season high of 56 individual winners to first crops of Australian Bred sires, smashed the previous season record of 21.
