After missing a season due to an injury, shuttle sire, Big Brown, returns to Vinery in the middle of next month for the 2013 breeding season.

He has made a sensational transition from the racetrack, to the breeding barn, in such a short space of time as he was foaled in 2005.

His race record is well documented, seven wins from just eight starts, the best three year old in North America, laying claim to the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, the first two legs of the triple crown.

With 36 individual winners to date, Big Brown has emerged as a serious progenitor in the northern hemisphere.

Shades of Sugar, from the first crop is an exciting filly, she has scored in Listed company and could easily graduate to a Group win on what she has shown.

It could be interesting to see which filly achieves Group level first Bella Castani, or Shades of Sugar, both have won at Listed level, the latter’s two wins have been recorded each by eight lengths.

Big Brown is already an international success, with winners in North America, Canada, Europe and Japan, where he has had four starters for four individual winners.

Among them Apollo Sonic, placed in the Group1 Japan Derby, while this week’s JHRA Select Sales, in Japan, saw a weanling sold for $A 217,371.

Fifteen yearlings by Big Brown, at the Magic Millions in January, were sold for a total of $1.46 million an average of almost $100,000.