The Breeders’ Cup has traditionally been a popular destination for stallions standing outside of North America to test their progeny’s mettle against our best, but an ever-growing interest from U.S. owners to buy racing stock at European sales and bring them home to race has changed that dynamic.
Today, the upper levels of North American graded stakes races, particularly those on turf, regularly feature horses by stallions that stand on the other side of the world. By that metric, no stallion has succeeded this year greater than Dubawi.
The resident of Darley’s Dalham Hall Stud in Suffolk, England, is responsible for seven North American graded stakes wins this year through Nov. 5, leading all international stallions in that category.
To be considered for this list, a stallion must stand outside of North America, and the mating that conceived the graded stakes winner must have also occurred in another continent. Stallions who stood in the U.S., but left behind graded winners after they left the country, such as Kentucky Derby winner and current Japanese resident Animal Kingdom, were not counted.
Leading International Sires By 2022 North American Graded Stakes Wins
| Sire | Graded Wins |
|---|---|
| Dubawi | 7 |
| Frankel | 4 |
| Kingman | 3 |
| Mehmas | 3 |
| Muhaarar | 3 |
| Soldier Hollow | 3 |
| Zelzal | 3 |
Dubawi’s seven progeny graded stakes victories were spread across four different horses.
In Italian has accounted for three of those graded wins. Purchased by Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm for $609,434 at the 2019 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, the British-born In Italian has never finished worse than third in eight career starts, all racing in the U.S. for trainer Chad Brown.
The 4-year-old filly notched her first career graded stakes victory on March 5, when she set the pace and won the Grade 3 Honey Fox Stakes at Gulfstream Park by 1 1/4 lengths.
Following a pair of in-the-money efforts in the G2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes and the G1 Just a Game Stakes, In Italian found her way back to the winner’s circle in the G1 Diana Stakes on July 16 at Saratoga Race Course. Stretching out to 1 1/8 miles, she once again took an early lead and drew off to win by 1 1/2 lengths.
She then entered the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf off another Grade 1 victory, this time scaling back to a mile for the First Lady Stakes. Like her other victories, In Italian once again took to the lead early and held off all challengers, winning by a length.
Dubawi was represented by a pair of Irish-born, Godolphin-homebred winners during this year’s Breeders’ Cup, with Modern Games taking the Mile and Rebel’s Romance winning the Turf.
After winning last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, Modern Games made a winning return to North American soil on Sept. 17, when he won the G1 Woodbine Mile Stakes by 5 1/4 lengths.
After returning to England to run second in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, Modern Games returned to the U.S. for the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland, which he won with a sweeping charge by three-quarters of a length.
Later in the day, Rebel’s Romance made his North American debut a winning one in the Breeders’ Cup Turf to give Dubawi his seventh graded stakes win on the season.
Rounding out the slate of North American graded stakes winners for Dubawi in 2022 is Emaraaty, who took the G3 Bernard Baruch Handicap on Sept. 5 in a front-running fashion, winning by 3 1/2 lengths.
Emaraaty was a $3,480,477 purchase by Shadwell Estate Co. at the 2016 Tattersalls October Sale, and he raced in England for the late Shekih Hamdan Al-Maktoum before being sent stateside in 2019. He won his U.S. debut in a Saratoga allowance optional claiming race, and he raced three times that season before going on the shelf for over a year.
The horse was acquired privately by the partnership of Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, and Michael Caruso in the fall of 2021, remaining under the Chad Brown shedrow, and he earned his first career graded or group stakes victory in this year’s Bernard Baruch.