Giant Gizmo tops among Canada's stallions in Beyer Sire Performance Standings

The consistent Amis Gizmo helped propel his sire, Giant Gizmo, near the top of Canada’s general sire list in 2016 by winning three stakes, including the Prince of Wales Stakes, the middle leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. The colt will keep his sire in the headlines this week as he was a finalist for a Sovereign Award as Canada’s outstanding 3-year-old male of 2016.

Giant Gizmo, a Giant’s Causeway horse standing at Adena Springs North in Canada, also figures prominently in Daily Racing Form’s Beyer Sire Performance Standings, an exclusive metric to examine stallion progeny performance in depth, often highlighting under-the-radar sires.

Beyer Speed Figures were incorporated into DRF’s past performances in 1992 and are now an industry standard for the comparison of horses’ performances. The Beyer Sire Performance Standings provide the breeding industry with an additional metric to compare stallion progeny performance beyond wins and earnings. The standings provide totals and percentages for progeny who surpass specific Beyer benchmarks in North American races.

While traditional sire lists based on earnings can be slanted by one or two major runners – or casino-inflated purses on some circuits – the Beyer Sire Performance Standings look beyond these factors. Beyers are assigned to all runners in a race, allowing DRF’s sire lists to include all performances.

Among stallions currently standing in North America who had 50 or more starters in 2016, Giant Gizmo ranks ninth by the percentage of his individual runners who earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90 or above – a benchmark of quality. Of his 64 runners, 10.9 percent reached that mark.

Above Giant Gizmo in those rankings were prominent sires War Front (23 percent), Medaglia d’Oro (21 percent), Bernardini (14.6 percent), Tapit (13.3 percent), Curlin (13.2 percent), Twirling Candy (11.8 percent), Distorted Humor (11.6 percent), and Uncle Mo (11.1 percent).

Where’s the Widget earned the top Beyer for Giant Gizmo in 2016 when he posted a 99 in winning the Steady Growth Stakes at Woodbine.

Along with Amis Gizmo, who won the Grade 3 Ontario Derby, the stallion’s other graded-stakes winners included Brooklynsway, who took the Grade 3 Doubledogdare Stakes.