Blue Diamond Stakes winner Reward For Effort did his sire Exceed And Excel proud by finishing the 2014/15 season as the most successful Victorian based first season sire by winners and earnings.

Reward For Effort was the first G1-winning son of Exceed And Excel to go to stud and certainly made his mark with his first crop of runners.

From 30 starters last season Reward For Effort produced 10 winners, nine of them in Australia and one in South Africa.

They included metropolitan winners Montana Star, Jevilla and Petite’s Reward and the stakes-placed filly Take Pride.

The Murray Johnson-trained Take Pride recorded brilliant wins in December and January before finishing third to subsequent G I winner Pasadena Girl in the Listed Talindert Stakes in the autumn.

Reward For Effort finished the season with a flourish posting three winners in July – Gold Symphony, Kilowatt and Pakaya Prince – on provincial Victorian tracks for astute trainers.

Reward For Effort retired to stud in 2011 and in the ensuing years the worth of his female pedigree and the reputation of Exceed And Excel grew substantially.

His three-quarter sister-in-blood Overreach won the 2013 Golden Slipper Stakes while Exceed And Excel was crowned Champion Australian Sire of 2012/13 and finished second to Fastnet Rock in 2014/15.

Now the sire of 100 stakes-winners worldwide, Exceed And Excel was Champion Australian 2YO Sire for 2012/13 and took the title again last season with five juvenile stakes winners, the most of any sire.

As a result breeders have shown their support for Reward For Effort, whose following books of mares after his initial year at Chatswood Stud have grown in quantity and quality.

His yearlings in 2015 sold for up to $160,000 and the 11 sold at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale achieved a median price of $60,000.

“His second crop looked even better that his first crop,” said Greg Willis of Chatswood Stud.

“On average, they were bigger, stronger, more mature and sold accordingly, providing a great return on his service fee.”

Some 22 of his new season two year-olds have been entered for the 2016 Blue Diamond Stakes, giving Reward For Effort a great chance to sire the winner of a race he won himself in 2009.

He also has 10 of his stock entered for the 2016 Golden Slipper including his highest priced yearling, a colt from Tarcoola Ice that was purchased for $160,000 at Magic Millions by Mark Pilkington Bloodstock and Andrew Noblet Racing.