3 minute read
A look at the best products of star son of Octagonal, who has been retired from stud duty
The news of Lonhro being retired from stud duties brings down the curtain of one of the great racetrack/stud careers of any horse in Australian history.
The son of Octagonal was one of Australia's most popular racehorses this millennium, winning 26 of 35 starts, including 11 at Group 1 level.
His career peak from a Timeform perspective as a racehorse was 128, which he ran in six of his elite-level wins, including his Australian Cup success, both George Ryder Stakes successes and his two Caulfield Stakes wins.
He also sired a dozen individual Group 1 winners, mostly recently last Saturday's Rosehill Guineas winner Lindermann, and below is a list of the 24-year-old's highest-rating performers from a Timeform perspective.
128 – PIERRO: Champion 2YO who won Triple Crown in Sydney, including a 127 win over All Too Hard in the Champagne, but his peak rating came in defeat when second under 57kg as a 3YO in the Doncaster Mile.
127 – EXOSPHERE: Hulking colt who remains the highest-rating Golden Rose winner since it became a Group 1 event in 2009.
127 – MENTAL: Exploded in his 4YO season, the best performance of which was a brilliant win over multiple Group 1 winner Sea Siren in the VRC Sprint Classic.
125 – GRONKOWSKI: Lonhro's best Northern Hemisphere product never rated higher than 106 in victory but went 125 when second to Thunder Snow in the 2019 Dubai World Cup, having earlier bumped into Justify in the Belmont Stakes, when he ran second in 120.
125 – KEMENTARI: None of Lonhro's progeny can claim to have the career of 'Special K', who was a star three-year-old – which included victory in the Randwick Guineas, when he posted his peak performance – who retired to stud amid much fanfare only to return to the racetrack as a gelding after proving nowhere near as virile as his old man.
124 – DENMAN: Ensured Lonhro was the sire of the first winner of the Golden Rose at Group 1 level when he went 124 to win the 2009 edition.
122 – IMPENDING: Doesn't boast the peak rating of several mentioned above but won more Group 1s than most of them and was a model of consistency, rating 122 in both the Doomben 10,000 and Kingsford Smith Cup along with his second placing to In Her Time in the Sydney Stakes.
Lonhro's other Group 1 winners were Beaded, Bounding, Benfica, Aristia and Lyre with the 24-year-old to live out his days at Darley's Kelvinside property in the Hunter Valley.
