Exceed And Excel’s Signore Fox to stand at Alma Vale Thoroughbreds
Start-up Hunter Valley farm Alma Vale Thoroughbreds will stand its foundation stallion in 2023, taking on the stud duties of the well-bred Group-winning, Group 1-placed sprinter Signore Fox (Exceed And Excel).
The new home for the former Peter and Paul Snowden-trained stallion is the 47-acre property formerly known as Riversdale North, located five minutes from Scone, which has recently been rebranded as Alma Vale.
The farm was purchased earlier this year by a consortium of investors including Scott Shann, the long-time Scone Equine Hospital chief financial officer, and the owner of Signore Fox, Spartus Bloodstock’s Joe Stambe, has entrusted the new entity to manage the impressive stallion prospect’s stud career.
A four-time stakes winner of nine races and a $1 million earner, who won the 2021 Star Kingdom (Gr 3, 1200m) in Sydney on his way to placings in the Kingsford-Smith Cup (Gr 1, 1300m) and Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m) later that same campaign in Brisbane, Signore Fox will stand for an introductory fee of $9,900 (inc GST).
Underlining his talent, Signore Fox also won the 2020 Ramornie Handicap (Listed, 1200m), one of regional Australia’s premier sprint races, after unleashing a withering burst from near last, and in doing so defeated sprinters including Aquis Farm’s Group 1-winning young stallion Jonker (Spirit Of Boom).
“Signore Fox was a beautiful horse to work with, he was tough and genuine, with a sensational turn of foot,” Paul Snowden said.
“Some of his ratings were outstanding, he was very unlucky to not win a Group 1.
“He is a magnificent type, by a champion sire in Exceed and Excel. I look forward to securing some of his future progeny.”
Semi-retired Sydney-based infrastructure contractor Stambe, who raced Signore Fox in a syndicate with the Snowdens before buying out his partners last year, had been scouting studs in which to stand his sprinter before an approach came from Alma Vale’s owners.
“He confronted wet tracks and his action necessitated that he needed dry ground and when he got those, at three and four, he ran some magnificent times,” Stambe told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I always believed that had he not had those wet tracks curtailing him, he would have had three or four Group 1s under him and if he had those three or four Group 1 wins it would have been a different story.
“Because I knew all that and was with him all the way, I knew exactly what he went through.”
Eight-year-old Signore Fox, a $300,000 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale purchase by Snowden Racing in 2017, was bought in July last year by Spartus Bloodstock for $310,000 through the Inglis Digital Online platform.
By Darley’s champion stallion Exceed And Excel (Danehill), Signore Fox is out of US Grade 2-winning, Grade 1-placed mare Sharp Susan (Touch Gold), making him a half-brother to South Africa’s 2017-18 Horse of the Year Oh Susanna (Street Cry) and the Grade 2-placed Indiano Jones (A.P Indy).
Stambe has about 15 to 20 broodmares domiciled in the Hunter Valley and many of those are set to be mated to Signore Fox.
“I have already had half a dozen calls (from breeders) in the last day as well,” said Stambe in relation to early interest in Signore Fox.