Striking gold

Shamardal and Dubawi head percentages on sires' table

Leading young sires Shamardal and Dubawi, who filled the top two slots in last year's freshman table, continue to lead the way, occcupying the same slots in the European sires' table by percentage of winners to runners.

Each stallion boasts a higher than 50 per cent strike rate - and they are the only two sires to do so. Shamardal currently stands at 54 winners from his 100 runners so far this season. One doesn't have to be a mathematical genius to work out that that's a highly respectable strike rate of 54 per cent, with his average earnings per runner standing at £19,450.

As ever, Dubawi's not far behind. His strike rate is 53 per cent, his 119 runners having produced 63 winners at an average prize-money total per runner of £19,031. In third spot is Pivotal on 47 per cent, with Singspiel fourth and those two elite sires Dansili and Monsun tying for fifth spot with a 43 per cent strike rate.

Green Desert and Oasis Dream are in equal seventh place on 42 per cent winners to runners while next in the list are another two Darley sires, Halling and Exceed And Excel, with a 41 per cent strike rate.

Significantly, none of the other stallions in the top ten can produce a higher average earnings figure than either Shamardal or Dubawi.