Business time for breeders following weeks of stallion parades
First season sires put to the test as new breeding season gets underway
Just days after breeders were toasting themselves with champagne and canapes at the Hunter Valley stallion parades, it was officially down to business yesterday, with trucks roaring into stud farms across Australia’s thoroughbred heartland for the start of the southern hemisphere breeding season.
September 1 signified the opening of the 2022 breeding season, with champions I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), Written Tycoon (Iglesia) and Savabeel (Zabeel) all put to work for another year at stud across Australasia.
September 1 was also an important day of reckoning for the new season sires, including Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Stay Inside (Extreme Choice), Home Affairs (I Am Invincible), Captivant (Capitalist) and Extreme Warrior (Extreme Choice), who faced their maiden moment of reckoning in the breeding shed from the early hours of yesterday.
It will be at least two weeks before the new stallions leave a clue to their potency, with early mares tested by veterinarians to confirm if they are in foal.
The parades, which farms in Australia and New Zealand have conducted in recent weeks, were an opportunity to either solidify breeders’ mating decisions confirmed months earlier, or to make the all-important call having waited to see the stallions in the flesh.
Kia Ora Stud has made a splash in its return to standing stallions – 2020 Golden Slipper winner Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) and Group-winning juvenile Prague (Redoute’s Choice) being joined by ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Captivant on the three-horse roster this year – and the Scone-based farm made sure its inaugural parade was equally as spectacular.
Kia Ora’s Shane Wright said Captivant was “a great endorsement of what we are trying to do here”.
“He’s such a lovely mover, a quality type, very well made and he’s getting a significant book of mares here as well,” Wright said.
“He’s up to about 140 mares at the minute, but there’s still some limited opportunities to get into him. He’s a Group 1-winning two-year-old, he ran extraordinarily well in the Guineas at three, he did it as a pre-Christmas two-year-old, he has it all.”
Newgate Farm’s four new stallions started their careers yesterday, Group 1 winners Stay Inside and Wild Ruler (Snitzel) and stakes-winning juveniles Tiger Of Malay (Extreme Choice) and Profiteer (Capitalist).
“Tiger Of Malay and Profiteer are both horses who had oodles of two-year-old ability and they’re both by top sires and they’re both very good looking, so we feel very confident [about their prospects],” Newgate Farm’s managing director Henry Field said.
Coolmore’s roster has champion Fastnet Rock (Danehill), Pierro (Lonhro) – anointed as a future champion by the stud – and So You Think (High Chaparral) who almost ran down I Am Invincible in season 2021-22 for the Australian champion sire title.
Many observers suggested Home Affairs, a two-time Group 1-winning sprinter, was in the imposing mould of his own champion sire but others believe he resembles that of his dam sire, the late top stallion Flying Spur (Danehill).
Either way, he is hard to fault, while Acrobat (Fastnet Rock), not a sire with the conventional Group 1-winning Coolmore credentials, also gained attention with his physique befitting his $1 million price tag.
A big bank of shareholders will ensure Acrobat, a winner of the Inglis Nursery (RL, 1000m) at his only start in December of his two-year-old career, is well supported early in his stallion career.
“I think if he didn’t get injured the world could have been his oyster. I think if he … could have won a Golden Slipper or a race like that and be standing at a big fee and be fully booked, so he’s enormous value at that price [$13,200] for breeders to get involved with [a horse] with one of the best pedigrees in Australia,” Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier said.
Ridgmont Farm hosted Swettenham Stud’s Toronado (High Chaparral) and Wooded (Wootton Bassett) in their 24-hour Hunter Valley cameo before the duo returned to Victoria ahead of yesterday’s opening day.
“It’s always difficult when you go to someone else’s territory, taking a Victorian breeder up to NSW, and it is always a little bit of a challenge but we have been incredibly overwhelmed with the support of people sending mares and wanting to send mares in the future,” Swettenham Stud’s Sam Matthews said.
“It’s a new initiative [bringing stallions to the Hunter] and we probably won’t do it again but we wanted to make sure they got to see the horses. If that means one of the [attendees] goes two extra bids on a Toronado or a Wooded, it’s all been worth it.”
Darley, across three days, paraded a roster of champions in Lonhro (Octagonal) and Exceed And Excel (Danehill), Anamoe’s sire Street Boss (Street Cry), shuttling newcomers Palace Pier (Kingman), Pinatubo (Shamardal) and Victor Ludorum (Shamardal) as well as high-profile second season sire Bivouac (Exceed And Excel).
Pinatubo was to shuttle last year, however his trip was postponed due to injury, but it hasn’t stopped Australasian breeders embracing him this year.
“He’s the horse who is blowing everyone away and with good reason. He was an absolutely scintillating two-year-old. His win in the National Stakes in Ireland, which he won by nine lengths, was quite spectacular,” Godolphin Australia managing director Vin Cox said.
“He’s by Shamardal and his physique and presence oozes what the commercial Australian market is looking for.”
Brisbane agent Jim Clarke brought a contingent of clients to the Hunter Valley for the parades, Widden being stop one, and he remains confident that the Thompson family’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Written By (Written Tycoon) can make an impact when his first crop two-year-olds hit the track this season.
“Written By is a horse I’ve taken a strong position on. My approach in both buying yearlings and matings, I tend to favour proven stallions to take a bit of risk out of it, but I’ve gone out on a limb with Written By,” Clarke said.
“Bjorn [Baker, trainer] and I bought three of his yearlings, including his most expensive, a [$410,000] colt out of The Messina Nymph, and he’s in the stable now and Bjorn’s got a big opinion of him. He’s shown all the right signs, but whether he’s going to be in the Breeders’ Plate or he’ll take a little bit longer, we’ll have to wait and see, but he’s a nice colt.
“I’ve got five mares on behalf of clients going back to Written By this year, so I am really pinning my mast to him, so it’ll be make or break in a lot of ways, I guess. The thing I found in Written By’s yearlings was he stamped them; they all had that strength and quality and it’s a sireline that is going very well.”
Widden Stud is also standing Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) winner Portland Sky (Deep Field) in the Hunter Valley this year, with principal Antony Thompson admitting his Victorian clients would have preferred to see him stand in the southern state.
Clarke was taken by the former Matt Laurie-trained sprinter, having only laid eyes on him last week.
“He’s an impressive beast, a beautiful horse … with a lovely pedigree. I think he’s inherited his father’s looks and he’s a gorgeous horse,” Clarke said.
“He’s an Oakleigh Plate winner as a three-year-old, which is a difficult thing to do, and I’ve got a lot of confidence about him, so I think he’s going to be a popular first season stallion.
“If he passes on his looks, there’ll be a good market for them as yearlings.”
Vinery Stud staff were in mourning after the death in the US of top shuttle sire More Than Ready (Southern Halo) at 25 on the eve of its parades, but the farm is also in good shape with All Too Hard (Casino Prince), Star Turn (Star Witness), Exceedance (Exceed And Excel) and Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) among the sires on its roster.
All Too Hard, Vinery Stud’s bloodstock manager Adam White asserts, is no longer underrated by owners, trainers or breeders.
“Over the last 12 months we’ve had so many people say to us that All Too Hard is doing a terrific job, so I don’t think he’s underrated anymore. He’s actually rated,” White said.
“In the last 12 months, from August last year to August this year, there’s only been two stallions who have had four individual Group 1 winners and that’s I Am Invincible and All Too Hard.
“He’s consistently in the top ten by earnings, he’s consistently in the top ten by winners. He’s just doing a tremendous job and he has the champion sprinter in Hong Kong with Wellington.”
Yarraman Park Stud also celebrated the maiden champion general sire title with I Am Invincible and his emerging son Hellbent, who was runner-up in the first season sires’ title by winners last season.
Arthur Mitchell is confident I Am Invincible can maintain his dominance at or near the top of the sires’ premiership this season.
“His looks are outstanding. He’s just turned 18 and he looks more like a ten-year-old. He throws these types and he obviously transmits his speed and he’s from a good sireline and he’s got a wonderful temperament, so it all boils into being able to transmit his speed gene,” Mitchell said.
Kitchwin Hills paraded second season sire Graff (Star Witness) at the nearby Linga Longa Inn at dusk, the Group 2-winning sprinter lit up through spotlight and behaving more like a lamb despite the unusual setting.
“He paraded so well. There’s not many stallions you could do that with. He’s always had that temperament,” Kitchwin Hills’ Mick Malone said.
“If he puts that attitude, speed and all those things that we talk about into his progeny, then I don’t know what we’ve got to do to attract mares. We are so supportive of him, from the guys who own him such as Australian Bloodstock, Max Whitby and crew, so we are behind him in a major way.”
Arrowfield Stud also conducted its official stallion parades the previous weekend but its Beast from the East, Japanese shuttler Maurice (Screen Hero), was out of quarantine last weekend, allowing farm visitors to get a glimpse of the rising star who is already the sire of top sprinter Mazu and three-time Group 1 winner Hitotsu.
Matthew Sandblom’s Kingstar Farm also showed off its roster of four: Time To Reign (Time For War), Unite And Conquer (Hinchinbrook), Bull Point (Fastnet Rock) and Lord Of The Sky (Danerich).
“Matthew is a big investor here in NSW and the Hunter particularly, but also right around Australia, and Kingstar operates primarily as a broodmare base for his mares, but we also stand four stallions,” Kingstar’s Conor Phelan said.
“Our goal is to start a stallion from scratch, to create one for the small breeder, so we’re standing stallions who are a bit left of centre for some people, but they’re two-year-old sprinting types with the right pedigrees and race records for the Australian market, but we try to stand them for under $10,000.
“It gives people a chance to get in early and support the horses all the way through … if we can start a stallion from scratch I think that would be the biggest achievement Kingstar could have.”