Leading sire in Great Britain and Ireland
racehorse award in Great Britain and Ireland
The title of champion, or leading, sire of racehorses in Great Britain and Ireland is awarded to the stallion whose offspring have won the most prize money in Britain and Ireland during the flat racing season. The current (2023) champion is Frankel, who earned his first title in 2021.
Unlike the similar title for leading sire in North America, the stallion in question does not need to have resided in Great Britain or Ireland during his stud career, although the vast majority have done so. Northern Dancer is the most notable example of a North American-based stallion who won this title. The Northern Dancer sire line has dominated the list for the last several decades, mostly through his son Sadler's Wells (14 titles) and grandson Galileo (12 titles).
The 2016 novel Mount! by Jilly Cooper describes the process to gain the fictional title for global leading sire.
Records
Most championships:
14 – Sadler's Wells – 1990, 1992–2004
13 – Highflyer – 1785–1796, 1798
12 – Galileo – 2008, 2010–2020
10 – Sir Peter Teazle – 1799–1802, 1804–1809
9 – St. Simon – 1890–1896, 1900–1901
8 – Regulus – 1754–1757, 1761, 1763, 1765–1766; Herod – 1777–1784
Champion sires 1721–1997
Champion sires since 1998
Top sire lines
Excluding any championships by the foundation stallions themselves, the following sire-lines have produced champion sires (1721–2016):
Darley Arabian – 88 stallions, 188 championships. all titles since 1964
Byerley Turk – 17 stallions, 59 championships, most recently Tetratema in 1929
Godolphin Arabian – 12 stallions, 32 championships, most recently Chamossaire in 1964
D'Arcy White Turk – 3 stallions, 10 championships, most recently Bolton Starling in 1744
Curwen's Bay Barb – 2 stallions, 4 championships, most recently Crab in 1750
Acaster Turk, Bloody Buttocks, St.
“Leading sire in Great Britain and Ireland” enters the record as racehorse award in Great Britain and Ireland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Leading, sire and Great can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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