So often sprinting sires are quick to grab the headlines when the first-season stallions start having their first yearlings sold, but the message from Tattersalls October Sale is that, as far as the outstanding Doyen is concerned, a diamond is forever.
Doyen’s first yearlings have sold for up to 100,000gns, showing that purchasers have not forgotten the brilliance of this outstanding racehorse who annihilated the opposition in the 2004 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, which he won by three lengths from the American challenger Hard Buck. This, remarkably, arguably wasn’t even Doyen’s best Ascot performance, because at the Royal Meeting the previous month he had smashed the 12-furlong track record in the Hardwicke Stakes, beating the mark set by Japan Cup victrix Stanerra in the same race 21 years previously – and she herself had bettered the record established in the ‘Race of the Century’, the 1975 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes in which the Derby winner Grundy had bested Bustino in a titanic duel which had left the mighty Dahlia, winner of the previous two renewals of this great race, toiling in their wakes. It was no wonder that Timeform rated him 132 and elected him its Horse of the Year.
In retrospect, it would have been the correct decision to retire Doyen to stud at the end of that year; but had he done so, it is unlikely that breeders would have been able to avail themselves of his services at the bargain prices which have so far pertained. As Tony Morris observed in the Timeform Stallion Statistical Review, “Doyen looked so good in the summer … had he bowed out after his King George triumph, he might have been able to command a fee of £50,000 ”.
Fortunately, when Doyen did finally retire to stud, it transpired that his brilliance was still fresh enough in breeders’ memories for him to be well patronized. That’s just as it should be – particularly bearing in mind Frankie Dettori’s description of him as “the best looking horse I have ridden” – and 41 of the foals in his first crop were either out of Stakes winners or siblings to Stakes winners.
These foals are now yearlings, and unsurprisingly they are attracting plenty of attention at the yearling sales. While the likelihood is that many of the Doyens are going to make their mark when they get up to the Classic distances at which he himself excelled, don’t be surprised if throws some classy juveniles: after all, his close relative Miss Finland was not only an Oaks winner, but she was also a champion two-year-old, winning the Golden Slipper, which is Australia’s (and many would say the world’s) most keenly contested two-year-old race.
It’s exciting that the Doyens are now coming to the sales. And it’s going to be even more exciting when they start running.
