Excelling, as usual

We've become used to seeing Exceed And Excel high up in the two-year-old tables and he's on top again this season with 14 winners and more 90+ rated juveniles than any other sire

Exceed And Excel has topped the table for leading sires of two-year-olds for much of the season and he currently boasts a highly impressive 45 per cent winners to runners strike rate, with 14 individual winners of 18 races from only 31 runners.

Eight of those talented juveniles have been awarded a Timeform rating of 92 or higher, more than Invincible Spirit (seven), Galileo (five) and Danehill Dancer (five). They include Margot Did, who has been given a mark of 105 for her two victories to date, plus a runner-up finish in the G3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Excel Bolt has gained the highly respectable rating of 103p from similar performances to Margot Did: a first-time-out victory, followed quickly by another win and a Group place finish at Ascot, this time finishing third in the Norfolk Stakes.

Crown Prosecutor has also scored twice this season for the Sangster Families and he has gained a mark of 99p, while just below him is the speedy Klammer, another dual winner who finished fifth in the G2 Coventry Stakes and is on 98p.

The once-raced Googlette is a highly-rated Exceed And Excel filly who has yet to get her head in front but that is sure to change very soon as her mark of 97p, earned from her runner-up finish in a competitive Newmarket maiden, suggests.

Excello won her maiden in June and has since been placed in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at the Royal meeting. She is rated 95 while the Marco Botti-trained Excelebration is on 93p after winning at Doncaster in June.

Moonlit Garden made an impressive debut for Dermot Weld, winning by three lengths at the Curragh in May before placing in the Listed Ballygallon Stud Stakes back at the same course and being awarded a mark of 92+.

As the proliferation of the letter 'p' after the Timeform ratings of these juveniles show, there's still likely to be plenty of improvement to come. As for their sire, we've always thought he was exceedingly good.