The Australian Group 1 season in review
With all 74 Group 1 races for the Australian racing season completed, we take a look at the most successful horses, trainers, jockeys, breeders, vendors, owners, buyers, sires and broodmare sires.
When Palaisipan (So You Think) strode to victory in last Saturday’s Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) at Eagle Farm, she became the 61st, and final horse this season, to win an Australian Group 1 race.
She will be long remembered by Chris Munce and Kyle Wilson-Taylor as their first elite-level winner, allowing Munce to join a select group of 32 trainers to have trained an Australian Group 1 winner in 2022/23, while Wilson-Taylor is one of 36 jockeys to achieve the same.
The distribution of Group 1-winning jockeys this season was relatively concentrated. There are 836 jockeys to have ridden in Australia in 2022/23, meaning just 4.3 per cent of them won a top-level race.
Six of those 36 jockeys claimed their first career Group 1 victory, with Wilson-Taylor joined by Ben Thompson, Billy Egan, Dylan Gibbons, Jamie Mott and Tyler Schiller in that department.
Amazingly, 16 of 74 Group 1 races were won by horses ridden by someone called James or Jamie. James McDonald was clearly the leading Group 1 jockey of the season with 11 in Australia – he also won three in Hong Kong – and that represents his best Australian Group 1 haul in a season, one more than in 2021/22.
The two Jamies to win Group 1 races were Jamie Kah, with three, and Jamie Mott, with two. Second on the overall list was Michael Dee, whose career-best campaign saw him net six Group 1 races as well as a contract in Hong Kong. Craig Williams had four Group 1 wins, while the others with three were Damian Lane, Mark Zahra, Tim Clark and Zac Purton.
Leading jockeys by Australian Group 1 wins – 2022/23
| Jockey | G1 wins | G1 winners |
| James McDonald | 11 | 6 |
| Mick Dee | 6 | 6 |
| Craig Williams | 4 | 3 |
| Damian Lane | 3 | 2 |
| Mark Zahra | 3 | 3 |
| Jamie Kah | 3 | 2 |
| Tim Clark | 3 | 2 |
| Zac Purton | 3 | 3 |
In the training ranks, Chris Waller held off a determined challenge to lead the way in terms of Group 1 wins, netting 12 from 11 individual horses. One win adrift were both Ciaron Maher and David Eustace and James Cummings on 11.
Maher and Eustace’s total was by far their biggest for any season, up from six the previous campaign, and came from ten different horses which, as previously pointed out in this column, were all for different connections.
Cummings’ total was also a career high, helped considerably by Anamoe (Street Boss), who with six Group 1 victories was by far the most successful Group 1-performing horse of the Australian season.
Godolphin head trainer Cummings also had two Group 1 successes from star three-year-old sprinting filly In Secret (I Am Invincible) and other elite-level wins from Cascadian (New Approach), Paulele (Dawn Approach) and Golden Mile (Astern).
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott earned four Group 1 wins across the season, three of them by the grand performer Alligator Blood (All Too Hard), while the other was in the Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) via Major Beel (Savabeel), Waterhouse’s breakthrough success in that Classic race.
Those with three Group 1 wins as trainers this season were Annabel Neasham, Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, and Joe Pride. It was Pride’s most successful ever campaign in that regard.
Leading trainers by Australian Group 1 wins – 2022/23
| Trainer | G1 Wins | G1 winners |
| Chris Waller | 12 | 11 |
| James Cummings | 11 | 5 |
| Ciaron Maher and David Eustace | 11 | 10 |
| Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott | 4 | 2 |
| Joseph Pride | 3 | 2 |
| Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr | 3 | 2 |
| Annabel Neasham | 3 | 3 |
Alligator Blood (three) and Pride’s Think About It (So You Think), along with In Secret, Dubai Honour (Pride Of Dubai), Militarize (Dundeel), Giga Kick (Scissor Kick), Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) and Jacquinot (Rubick) (all two) were the other horses to win multiple Group 1 races in 2022/23.
The most successful breeder was Godolphin with nine Group 1 wins spread across four horses, again considerably helped by Anamoe, while the blue army was also the most successful owner with 11 Group 1 wins.
Waikato Stud bred four elite-level winners across the season: Atishu (Savabeel), Major Beel, I Wish I Win (Savabeel) and Icebath (Sacred Falls). Gerry Harvey-bred progeny also had four wins; three from Alligator Blood and one from Sharp ‘N’ Smart (Redwood), as did Jonathan Munz’s GSA Bloodstock thanks to Giga Kick (two) and Militarize (two).
Michael Christian’s Saconi Thoroughbreds were involved in the breeding of horses that won three Group 1 races this season. Combining with Segenhoe, Christian bred dual elite-level victrix In Secret, as well as Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai) under their own name.
In terms of ownership groups, the second most successful behind Godolphin was the Newgate/China Horse Club colts fund, which landed two Group 1 successes from Militarize and one from Artorius (Flying Artie), as well as the connections of triple Group 1 winner Alligator Blood, which are his breeder, Harvey, and ongoing owners Jeff and Robyn Simpson.
The 61 different horses to win the 74 Group 1 races – noting there was a dead heat in the Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) – were represented by 50 individual sires, a quite remarkable genetic diversity.
While Street Boss (Street Cry) had the most Group 1 wins, with Anamoe’s six, it was Savabeel (Zabeel) who had the most individual winners with three: Atishu, Major Beel and I Wish I Win.
Others with multiple winners (as opposed to wins) were Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry), Astern (Medaglia D’Oro), Kermadec (Teofilo), Per Incanto (Street Cry), Dundeel (High Chaparral), Proisir (Choisir), Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and So You Think (High Chaparral).
Leading sires by Australian Group 1 winners – 2022/23
| Sires | G1 winners | G1 wins |
| Savabeel | 3 | 3 |
| Dundeel | 2 | 3 |
| Pride Of Dubai | 2 | 3 |
| I Am Invincible | 2 | 3 |
| So You Think | 2 | 3 |
| Kermadec | 2 | 2 |
| Proisir | 2 | 2 |
| Extreme Choice | 2 | 2 |
| Astern | 2 | 2 |
| Per Incanto | 2 | 2 |
The diversity continues when you look at the broodmare sires represented among those winners, of which there are 52. The progeny of daughters of Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) won seven Group 1 races, but six of those came from Anamoe.
Breaking it down into individual Group 1 winners and More Than Ready (Southern Halo) leads the way with three. Redoute’s Choice, Fastnet Rock (Danehill), Flying Spur (Danehill), O’Reilly (Last Tycoon), Encosta De Lago (Fairy King), Exceed And Excel (Danehill) and Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) all had two Australian Group 1 winners in that damsire role this season.
There were five stallions who featured as Group 1-winning sires and damsires this season: Savabeel, Lonhro (Octagonal), Tavistock (Montjeu), Pins (Snippets) and Choisir (Danehill Dancer).
Leading broodmare sires by Australian Group 1 winners – 2022/23
| Broodmare sires | G1 winners | G1 Wins |
| More Than Ready | 3 | 4 |
| Encosta De Lago | 2 | 4 |
| Redoute’s Choice | 2 | 7 |
| Flying Spur | 2 | 3 |
| Fastnet Rock | 2 | 2 |
| O’Reilly | 2 | 2 |
| Exceed And Excel | 2 | 2 |
| Galileo | 2 | 2 |
So, what about through the sales ring? Which vendor had the most Group 1 success from its graduates? A total of 39 of the 61 individual Group 1 winners in Australia this season passed through an Australasian sales ring at some point.
The most successful vendor, with four, was Sledmere Stud, whose top-level winning graduates in 2022/23 were Communist (Russian Revolution), Little Brose (Per Incanto), Icebath and Snapdancer (Choisir). Bhima Thoroughbreds had three, as did Curraghmore and Coolmore.
The most successful buyer was Waller and his chief agent Guy Mulcaster, who selected Kovalica (Ocean Park), Manzoice (Almanzor), Madame Pommery (No Nay Never) and Zougotcha (Zoustar), all from the same crop during the same 2021 sales season.
Filtering by those who sold as yearlings, we see the average price of the 34 Group 1 winners this season in that category was $193,897. The most expensive was In Secret at $900,000, while the least expensive was Mariamia (Toronado), who was initially sold at just $18,000.
The other notable aspect of looking at those sold as yearlings is just how many of them were sold through the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. There were 15 graduates of this sale which won at the elite-level in Australia this season, combining for 21 victories between them.