Starman dominates as champion first-crop sire

Starman is the champion first-crop sire of 2026.

With 45 winners sired across Europe, 41 of them in Britain and Ireland, Starman dominated across the standings.

There is huge quality among them, starting with our homebred Lady Iman, who got her sire off to the best possible start when landing her debut for Ger Lyons at Dundalk in March. From there, she went on to win the Listed First Flier Stakes, Group 3 EBF Naas Juvenile Sprint Stakes and Group 3 Molecomb Stakes.

Lady Iman's early season exploits provided a taste of what was to come. Tally-Ho bred Venetian Sun swept the Group 1 Prix Morny, Group 2 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes and Group 3 Albany Stakes for Karl Burke. Joseph O'Brien sent out Green Sense to win the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin and North Coast to win the Group 3 Tyros Stakes while Leading Dancer won the Listed Radley Stakes and The Prettiest Star, Flowerhead and Into The Sky were each Group 2-placed.

"He didn't just win the first-season sires' championship, he annihilated his rivals," wrote Brian Sheerin in the TDN.

He added: "One of the fascinating subplots to Starmans' supersonic performance has been the number of smaller breeders who got a touch out of the stallion in the sales ring. Again, this is more good news."

In all, Starman's progeny won close to £1.5 million in Europe.

David Ward, Starman's owner-breeder, spoke to the TDN earlier in December. “You go into the year with hopes and dreams, don't you? But in life, hopes and dreams get dashed, never mind in horse racing,” he said. “To come out the other end with those hopes and dreams exceeded is amazing. You have to remind yourself the journey we have enjoyed with this horse ever since Lady Iman won first time out at Dundalk earlier in the year. To where we are now, it has been a white-knuckle ride. Unbelievable.

"Every day has been Christmas for me for a long time this year. What more can you say? He's remarkable in his temperament and he's remarkable in what he has achieved at stud."

Starman is book full for 2026.

Mehmas sired 169 winners in Europe to head all sires by that metric. The brilliant sprinter Believing, winner of the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint, and Tally-Ho bred Wise Approach, who signed off his year for Godolphin with a win in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, headed his eight stakes winners.

Kodiac also hit the European top four by winners on a tally of 145.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.