Like the Champion Sire title, the Champion Maternal Grandsire is decided solely on the basis of stakes won. Multidimensional's first crop was born in 2010. Some fillies from that crop would have gone to stud in 2014 and their foals would have been born in 2015. It takes a while before a sire has sufficient daughters at stud to make a bid for the honours. In the racing year just ended, Multidimensional had, for the first time, more than a hundred foals out of his daughters running and he finished on the top, well clear of the rivals. Five times Champion Sire himself, fertility issues prompted his early retirement from the covering yard. He is now leading a pensioner's life at Usha Stud's original Carterpuri location.

That Multidimensional would eventually become a Champion Maternal Grandsire was something that was widely anticipated. The daughters of his own sire Danehill and his damsire Diesis have been much valued in the paddocks. Multidimensional has sired 41 Classic winners in India and 29 of them are fillies. It's a thumb rule of breeding that a good sire of fillies is potentially a good broodmare sire. The portents were good but what was needed was the proof of pudding.

The proof came when his Golconda Derby winning daughter Roses In Bloom, a member of his very first crop, foaled Rosina, the winner of Calcutta Oaks. She has been followed by the good milers Stockbridge, Philosophy and Ravishing Form. Mirra's Bangalore Oaks-Indian Derby double provided the clincher and since then Something Royal, Livermore and Synthesis have added more lustre. The sparkling victory of Synthesis in the Deccan Derby gives ample reason for better things to come. What is remarkable is all these eight Classic winners out of Multidimensional mares have been sired by Speaking of Which to frank the efficacy of the "nick". There are plenty of daughters of Multidimensional at Usha Stud and the son of Invincible Spirit is bound to cover a lion's share of them. Multidimensional was a very comfortable winner of this category.

The old order certainly changed during the last racing year. Razeen won the Champion Maternal Grandsire accolade for the first time in 2006-07 and Placerville in 2008-09. Since then, the title has been at the mercy of these two giants, the son of Northern Dancer finishing on top ten times and Mr. Prospector's scion on six occasions. Both of them passed away in February 2011. Thereafter, once the supply in the pipeline was over the number of their daughters at stud began to shrink. It was hard for them to hold their own against the likes of Multidimensional and Burden of Proof whose numbers were increasing.

Kunigal Stud's Burden of Proof won his only Champion Sire accolade in 2015-16. A year before that he made it into the ranks of the leading five maternal grandsires table for the first time and maintained the position for the next four years. However, he was missing from that select group for the last three years. During the current year, Touch of Grey was the only Classic winner out of a Burden of Proof mare. However, he had the maximum number of runners and they provided plenty of other winners for him to finish as the runner-up to Multidimensional.

Apart from Multidimensional and Burden of Proof, only Placerville and Razeen had in excess of 100 runners. The old stalwarts finished third and fourth leaving the fifth to Alnasr Alwsheek. Razeen's daughters are so far responsible for winners of 95 Classics. The son of Northern Dancer will find it hard to regain the numero uno position as a maternal grandsire. He is the only stallion in India whose progeny has won more than a hundred Classics and whether he manages 'a century in each innings' is something to look forward to.

Alnasr Alwasheek's own sire Sadler's Wells was not only a great sire himself but also excelled as an influential damsire. Alnasr Alwasheek himself sired three winners of the Indian Derby. He has been a tad unlucky in that a good portion of his daughters visited Greensmith, Ace and Arazan in their prime and those three stallions played only bit parts at the Classic level.

PAST THE POST

Not every successful stallion does well as a broodmare sire. Hyder Ali, Rock of Gibraltar and Prince Pradeep, to name just three, failed to shine as damsires. On the other hand, only moderately successful sires like Babbanio, Flower Dust and Asopo became Champion Maternal Grandsires.

In India, a stallion mostly covers the mares resident at the farm. That band of broodmares consists predominantly of daughters of the farm's previous stallions. It is hence very necessary that affinity -- a 'nick, if you like -- exists between the current stallions and daughters of previous stallions.