A SUPERSTAR racehorse dubbed ‘the best in the world’ has made more than £20million for his owners – despite not running a single race.
Equinox swept all before him in Japan and was a record-breaker on the track.
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The equine equivalent of a jet engine, he won eight of his ten career races – including six in a row to finish his career – and won more than £14m.
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A brilliant six-time Group 1 champion, he was absolutely adored in Japan and was even given his own retirement ceremony attended by thousands of fans.
His jockey Christophe Lemaire called him ‘the best horse in the world’ and said: “He really is perfect.”
He was also expected to be in-demand in his second career as a stallion.
And the bar was set high when he was introduced at £105,000 a cover – a record for a first-season stallion in Japan.
It wasn’t long before rival owners desperate for a star of their own booked him out.
And it has since been revealed that Equinox has been a busy boy in his new job at Shadai Stallion Farm, covering 203 mares in his first season at stud.
Costing £105,000 a pop, that’s a mighty £21.3m in earnings for his owners Silk Racing Co Ltd.
Or to put it another way, over £7m more than he won racing.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that, in Flat racing, the real big money can be made at stud.
Trainer Aidan O’Brien and all-conquering owners Coolmore will be hoping for similar from their Derby winner City Of Troy – and his sire Justify.
The latter, a Triple Crown-winning superstar in the States, stands for around £150,000 at Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
A specialist on dirt, his star son City Of Troy could easily smash that figure should he win the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November.
No horse has ever won the Derby and Classic, giving City Of Troy the potential to be a massive success at stud.
Still, those figures don’t touch the rumoured £600,000 Galileo – the sire of sires – charged at stud.
Worth well into the hundreds of millions, and possibly even a billion quid, at the time of his death in July 2021, Galileo changed the game for stallions.
Some of the best to follow in his hoof prints since then include the likes of Frankel, the unbeaten 14-from-14 superstar, and Godolphin’s Dubawi.
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