Bowness Stud secures Rosehill Guineas winner D’Argento
Studmaster hopes that new acquisition will allow the Young nursery to go to the next level
Bowness Stud has secured Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) winner D’Argento (So You Think) to join its roster for the upcoming breeding season, with the stallion set to join Bon Hoffa (Belong To Me) at the Young nursery.
D’Argento will stand at $16,500 (inc GST) for his maiden season at stud, having been retired by trainer Chris Waller and owners Star Thoroughbreds earlier this year.
Studmaster John North believes that the acquisition of D’Argento, the highest-rated son of So You Think (High Chaparral) on Timeform ratings, will take Bowness Stud to the next level. However, it looked for some time like they had missed the opportunity to secure the grey.
“We immediately identified him and got in contact but it seemed he had been snapped up quickly to stand at stud in New Zealand. We thought we’d lost him,” North told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday. “But next we find out that the deal had fallen through and we were able to get on the bandwagon. It didn’t take very long to get the deal over the line.”
Bowness Stud is a renowned nursery, having produced horses like four-time Group 1 winner Trapeze Artist (Snitzel), as well as Group 1-winning siblings Youngstar (High Chaparral) and Funstar (Adelaide) and their sister Baggy Green (Galileo), dam of All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Tofane (Ocean Park).
However, North hopes that D’Argento may allow them to produce some quality horses on the farm, with many of their broodmares set to visit him in his first year at stud.
“What we want is to breed horses that sales agents can work with and take into yearling sales with confidence,” North said. “He ticks a lot of boxes for us. We just haven’t had the horse to do it ourselves and this now opens up lots of opportunities. We had Bullet Train and Myboycharlie and we continue to stand Bon Hoffa, who is your bread and butter stallion. But this will just take our operation to the next level.
“One of the main reasons we’re doing it is because, in the current climate, there are no certainties and we’re five or six hours from the Hunter Valley. It makes sense for us to be able to keep the mares at home and I believe D’Argento will complement our band of broodmares extremely well.
“We’re pressing on as normal in these times and changing tack a little bit with standing our own stallion like D’Argento, and hopefully we can keep most of the mares at home and not have to go to the Hunter Valley.”
North has long been a fan of Sadler’s Wells-line stallions, standing Frankel’s (Galileo) three-quarter brother Bullet Train (Sadler’s Wells) for five seasons between 2013 and 2017. D’Argento comes from that same line, through So You Think and his sire High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells).
“We’ve always been huge fans of the Sadler’s Wells sire line which has done plenty in both the southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere,” he said. “We stood Bullet Train, a three-quarter to Frankel, here. He didn’t quite get the opportunity and was a little too dour for our breeders, but D’Argento has that speed to appeal.
“High Chaparral has done an enormous job in the southern hemisphere, not least with So You Think who, by the way, was the first stallion to fill his book for this season. He can produce some fast, early horses. Gerald Ryan, who trains a lot of ours, has a two-year-old called Peltzer who is undefeated in three starts and likens him to horses that he’s trained such as Snitzel and Rubick.
“But there are also those milers and those nice middle-distance horses that he can produce. I think D’Argento, who has that speed in him and won up to 2000 metres, can be one to also produce a horse over varying distances, giving the breeder that flexibility. He’s out of a Redoute’s Choice mare too, Fullazz, that Gerry Harvey owns, so I think that will appeal also.”
Star Thoroughbreds principal Denise Martin, speaking to ANZ Bloodstock News earlier this year, endorsed the rising six-year-old as a “lovely stallion prospect”.
“He was a very handsome colt and so very talented too,” she said. “He had a presence and often classy horses have presence. I don’t think it was simply because he was a light grey and very easy to spot, but he had a very good turn of foot and he was precocious enough to win at two while he performed well as an older horse as well.”
These attributes were also at the forefront of North’s mind when deciding to chase D’Argento.
“I think he was a horse that really stood up because he got back in his races and finished off,” he said. “He had a terrific finish on him and was very unlucky in a lot of races that he ran. I don’t think we really saw the best of him and he deserved to win more than he did. He was a genuine Group 1 horse – he wasn’t a pretender.
“This is a horse who is a Guineas winner, who ran fourth to Happy Clapper in the Doncaster when 15th at the 400 metres, third in the Winx Stakes over 1400 metres behind the great mare herself. He was second in the Theo Marks, beating Trapeze Artist and was beaten a lip to Hartnell in the Epsom. And, of course, in a superb crop of three-year-olds he was third to Kementari and Pierata over the 1400 metres.”
He added: “I think he was a genuine miler. He was stretched out to the 2000 metres to win his Group 1 and I know he went on to contest a Cox Plate, but I think his best form came over the mile. Chris Waller maintains he should’ve won an Epsom and a Doncaster – he was very unlucky in both.”
Bowness Stud’s resident stallion Bon Hoffa will stand for $5,500 (inc GST), down from $8,800 (inc GST) last season.