Newmarket winner Cylinder retired from racing to join Darley roster in 2024

Cylinder, the 2024 G1 Newmarket Handicap winner and the highest-rated sprinter of his generation has retired fit and well to the Darley roster for the 2024 breeding season. 

A multiple G2-winning two-year-old, a runner-up in the G1 Golden Slipper, Cylinder returned at three to win the G3 Vain Stakes, the G2 Run To The Rose before a dominant win in the G1 Newmarket Handicap down the Flemington straight defeating Imperatriz.

Described by his trainer James Cummings as “a powerhouse of excitement”, like his sire Exceed And Excel, the world's best sire of two-year-olds, Cylinder won the G2 Todman Stakes at two and the G1 Newmarket Handicap at three.

“It's amazing that in the same week, one champion exits the stage and potentially the next champion stallion joins the roster." said head trainer, James Cummings, to 7HorseRacing after Cylinder’s victory in the G1 Newmarket.

"Now he's got the Newmarket to his name. That is a huge result for the farm, he had them covered a long way out. I love the fact that good horses were in the race; it just underlines the form, and he powered away from them."

"He's a very interesting horse, Cylinder. He's by Exceed And Excel, who won a Newmarket and has produced over 200 Stakes wins - an amazing career as a stallion. 

“Now we have Cylinder, who's by that horse (Exceed And Excel) from the family of Lonhro and out of a Street Cry mare; he's got it all."

In welcoming Cylinder to Northwood Park in VIC, Darley’s Australian Head of Sales, Andy Makiv, described him as “a top sprinter with an outstanding pedigree.”

“This is a significant boost for Northwood Park and shows how much we admire the property and the breeding industry in Victoria. 

“A Newmarket winner, who’s by Exceed And Excel out of the Group-winning Street Cry mare, from the family of Lonhro. Cylinder captures three great Darley stallions from the last two decades.

“He was an elite two-year-old, by the best sire of two-year-olds who trained on at three to win the Newmarket, just like Exceed And Excel. 

"To win the Silver Slipper, dominate the Todman, finish second in the Slipper, and display brilliance in the Newmarket, defeating the 10-time G1 winner Imperatriz and a handful of G1 winners, is quite some record," Makiv said.