Expectations high as Yulong’s foaling season kicks off
A host of star mares including Hungry Heart and Away Game set to deliver first produce
Yulong Stud’s mammoth investment in broodmares in recent years is about to bear some of its most royally bred fruit, as a selection of Australia’s better-performed modern racemares prepare to deliver their first foals at the Victorian farm.
Five years ago, Zhang Yuesheng’s breeding operation owned 70 mares in Australia. Today, it has 630 – amid some 720 worldwide – after the Chinese billionaire’s colossal investment in the Australian and international breeding and racing scene.
Yulong has 380 broodmares to foal down this spring, including some of the most valuable in the country.
And the action has already begun, with 2019 Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) victor Winning Ways (Declaration Of War), having dropped a filly from the second crop of Yulong’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1 1200m)-winning stallion Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa).
Away Game (Snitzel), the four-time stakes-winner and Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner bought by Yulong for a stunning $4 million at last year’s Magic Millions broodmare sale, is due to deliver her first foal by Yulong’s star stallion Written Tycoon (Iglesia), “in the coming days”, the stud’s CEO Sam Fairgray said.
And Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m)–Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) double winner Hungry Heart (Frankel) is set to give her illustrious father’s already impressive broodmare sire CV a substantial boost, with the Yulong-bred mare’s first foal, by Written Tycoon, due in the next few days.
Among the stud’s more seasoned producers, dual Group 1 winner In Her Time (Time Thief) is poised to throw her third foal, also by Written Tycoon. The six-time stakes-winner, bought for $2.2 million by Yulong at the Inglis Chairman’s sale in 2021, had her first foal – by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) – sell for $800,000 to Matt Laurie at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale this year, with a second colt, by Written Tycoon, set to go to auction next year.
“We’ve got an exciting few months coming up,” Fairgray told ANZ Bloodstock News. “The season’s about to take off, with 380 mares to foal down, and with about 130 due in August. So it’s going to be a busy time.
“We’ve got a lot of good mares due to have their first foals. I guess you could say this is where we see the results of a lot of the mares Mr Zhang has been buying. It’s going to be pretty exciting to see what they can produce, and be able to rear them and take them to the sales.”
Aside from those due to foal imminently, four-time Group 1 winner Tofane (Ocean Park) – bought by Yulong at last year’s Magic Millions Broodmare Sale for $3.1 million – is due to throw her first offspring, also by Written Tycoon, in October.
Of those due in the coming days, great attention will focus on Away Game, the now six-year-old who retired last year after a glittering career netting $3.75 million in prize-money, with her stakes wins accompanied by three Group 1 seconds, including in Farnan’s (Not A Single Doubt) Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) of 2020.
“Away Game has really let down well,” Fairgray said. “She isn’t big, but she’s really dropped down in her belly and looks like she’s got a decent sized foal in there, so we’re really excited awaiting that first foal.”
Also this spring, Yulong is set to single-handedly spark a significant increase in Frankel’s (Galileo) stocks of Australian runners. Fairgray confirmed the stud would soon foal down 13 mares bought in Europe and covered to southern time last year by the super sire, who stood for £200,000 (approx. AU$388,000) in 2022, before Banstead Manor Stud raised his fee to £275,000 (approx. AU$533,760).
“They’re mares we bought or owned in the northern hemisphere and got in-foal to Frankel and brought down here. He’s a wonderful sire, who has got a lot of form on the board,” Fairgray said.
“He’s one of those few stallions who’ve been able to do it in both hemispheres. A lot of them can be champions in one hemisphere and so-so in the other. But with his progeny they’ve been just as successful here as they have been in the northern hemisphere.”
Frankel has just recorded his strongest Australian season as a sire. With limited numbers compared to locally based stallions, his 33 winners from 56 starters put him 47th on the general sires’ list, his best ranking from seven seasons of runners.
But on the score of stakes-winners, Frankel finished in a superb equal-fourth place with nine, level with Deep Field (Northern Meteor) and Exceed And Excel (Danehill), and behind I Am Invincible (22), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) (15) and So You Think (High Chaparral) (11).
The 15-year-old is also making impressive early strides as a broodmare sire, with 51 winners – and four stakes-winners – from 115 runners worldwide.
They include one winner and one stakes horse from four runners in Australia, and Hungry Heart is set to deliver one of his best-credentialed second-generation descendants yet with her foal by Written Tycoon, Yulong’s flag-bearing 2021 champion sire.
“Hungry Heart has let down really well,” Fairgray said. “She was always a nice–sized sort of filly, but has really matured and let down into a really good broodmare.
“She was our first Group 1 winner bred off the farm, so it’s interesting now that she’s cycled round and is becoming a broodmare for us.
“She’s a daughter of Frankel so she’s obviously going to be very valuable. Most good sires like him, if they’re a good stallion with their own progeny, they’ll generally go on to become good broodmare sires as well.”
Winning Ways, who claimed two stakes races in her eight career wins, was bought from Ridgmont Farm by Yulong’s Lucky Vega Syndicate for $700,000 at the Inglis Digital August sale last year. The eight-year-old already has two offspring on the ground in Europe. On her retirement, she was sent to be covered by Kingman (Invincible Spirit), with the resultant filly fetching £300,000 at Book 2 of last year’s Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. She also has a 2022 colt by Camelot (Montjeu).
Fairgray said Winning Ways’ filly by Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) – “a really nice match for her on pedigrees” – was possibly the stand-out of the 11 foals born on the farm so far this season.
“She’s very, very nice – a very strong foal,” Fairgray said. “We’ll probably offer her for sale. Being a commercial operation, we try to offer everything, although if it’s something we really like, we’ll put a reserve on and see how we go.”
Of all the mares Zhang has bought in recent seasons, none made larger headlines than his $10 million purchase last year of British superstar Alcohol Free (No Nay Never).
The four-time Group 1 winner had a one-start first Australian campaign last autumn for the Gai Waterhouse-Adrian Bott stable, being spelled after a disappointing 10th of 16 when favourite in Atishu’s (Savabeel) Queen Of The Turf Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Randwick.
Fairgray said hopes were high that Alcohol Free would show her true ability in her second campaign.
“She’ll trial in the next ten days to two weeks,” he said. “Gai and Adrian are really happy with the way she’s come back and progressing. They’ll see how she trials and make a call on her first-up run and see which direction she goes in for the spring.”