Larneuk Stud’s Neville Murdoch optimistic about fortunes of breeding season
Victorian farm principal believes breeder drop off yet to be seen despite Covid uncertainty
The widely held belief is that the Covid-19 pandemic will lead to a smaller foal crop being born as breeders look to cut costs and the commercial realities hit home but one Victorian stud principal says it is not a forgone conclusion that will be the case.
Larneuk Stud’s Neville Murdoch, who stands four stallions at his Euroa property, including O’Lonhro (Lonhro) and Cluster (Fastnet Rock), operates in a breed-to-race niche but he is optimistic inquiries from his clients can lead to only a minimal decline this year.
“It’s not simple, my friend, I can assure you but it’s OK,” a blunt Murdoch told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“You would think (mare numbers will fall), but who knows? It’s probably the best year to breed in a lot of ways.
“I’m hearing the same (about a decline), but until the end of the season we don’t really know because there’s a lot of people doing deals.
“A lot of farms, especially the bigger farms, are putting a lot of their own horses to the stallions. That side of things will keep going, but it’s more the breed-to-race type owners which I think could slow down a little bit.”
An owner of a number of racehorses with a range of trainers including Greg Eurell, Murdoch admits that his roster of four stallions – O’Lonhro, Cluster, Typhoon Tracy’s (Red Ransom) only foal Last Typhoon (Street Cry) and Honorius (Holy Roman Emperor) – have to do it “the hard way” but is content with his niche offering.
“We’re a little bit smaller than a lot of people in a lot of ways but I am not complaining this year. I am actually a little bit surprised that we’ve got as many coming as what we do,” he said.
“People are still ringing us and a lot of people don’t book out their stallions – we don’t have stallions that book out – so we can take horses right up until November and that’s what we do.
“At this time of the year, and every year is the same, people aren’t thinking about breeding because their mare hasn’t foaled yet.”
The southern hemisphere season started yesterday with trucks criss-crossing the respective breeding regions of each state delivering mares to be served.
Murdoch, who has more than 70 mares on the farm, expects to have his stallions in action from today.
“I own Last Typhoon and he’s back here now and he’s going to have two-year-olds this year, Wolf Cry has got two-year-olds this year and Honorius has got two-year-olds this year.
“We’ll have a bit of fun and hopefully a couple of them will swallow a couple (of races this season).
“We’ve got plenty happening here, don’t worry about that. O’Tauto runs on Saturday at Caulfield and we’ve got some nice horses running around.”
At the other end of the pendulum is Arrowfield Stud, home to four-time champion sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), which is offering a streamlined stallion roster in 2020.
With the absence of its Japanese contingent, stranded in their home country due to travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus, Arrowfield was left without the likes of Maurice (Screen Hero), Mikki Isle (Deep Impact) and Real Steel (Deep Impact) but was able to bolster its roster by securing the standing rights for Woodside Park Stud’s Written Tycoon (Iglesia).
Last month, when assessing the overall market following the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale on the Gold Coast, Arrowfield principal John Messara described the current business environment as a “day-to-day proposition”.
“If we got on top of Covid over the next few months we could start to see people being bullish about the (yearling) market, but on the other hand, if we are still plagued by it, you have got to be conservative about what you expect is going to happen,” Messara said.
“There will be people who have stables and they will buy horses, they aren’t going to disappear, but there could be some price moderation.
“At Arrowfield, we have got as good a year as we’ve had bookings wise, but we’ve got a very tight roster this year with good horses, so we’re lucky.
“We’re at least as good as we were last year.”
Internationally-owned Victorian farm Spendthrift Australia will launch the southern hemisphere stud careers of Vino Rosso (Curlin) and Omaha Beach (War Front) who support local stallions Overshare (I Am Invincible), Gold Standard (Sebring) and Swear (Redoute’s Choice).
“We’re in a pretty good spot with the amount of bookings that we’ve got. Obviously, we’ve got the two high-quality shuttle stallions in Vino Rosso and Omaha Beach and we’re happy with where we’re at with those boys,” Spendthrift Australia general manager Garry Cuddy said.
“The boss has asked us to only cover a limited number of mares with those horses and we’re getting up towards those limits which, for us, is great.
“If border restrictions do stay as they are, like everybody, we will just play the ball on the run and hopefully come November-December we’re sitting here talking about how resilient the industry is.”