Malone celebrates Kitchwin’s cup win
Malone, whose Kitchwin Hills team was celebrating the cup victory yesterday, praised bloodstock agent Sheamus Mills for devising the mating that produced Vow And Declare.
“It has been amazing afternoon. I wouldn’t think we will have a Melbourne Cup winner off our place again because it is not like we breed for it,” Malone told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“After he went through the ring, Paul syndicated him with a few family and friends. He had great belief in the pedigree and, quite frankly, I am not beating my chest about the mating.
“It is not something I probably would have done, but between Paul and Sheamus, full credit to them.”
Malone also revealed that Shannon Betts, who broke in Vow And Declare at Emeran Park on the NSW Central Coast ,had held the young horse in high regard after handling his early education.
“I had a fair to do with the horse, not just until he was a yearling, but when he was broken in as well,” he said.
“Shannon rang me at the end of his breaking in and said, ‘I don’t think I have ever broken in a horse like him’. It was just his attitude and his action – and she breaks in a lot of horses. She said to me that he was one of the nicest horses she had ever broken in.
“So, this is a pretty big result for Emeran Park and Shannon as well.”
Declaration Of War has emerged as a sire of above average staying horses in Australia, having also sired the winner of Saturday’s VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m), the Anthony Freedman-trained Warning, and this year’s Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) winner Winning Ways.
But the two-season Coolmore shuttler, who has since been sold to the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association’s Shizunai Stallion Station, did not return after the 2015 southern hemisphere season as commercial realities led to him not finding enough favour with local breeders.
His first Australian-bred yearlings were sold in 2017, a crop that included Vow And Declare, would average $50,271, while his second crop fared slightly better a year later with 28 lots selling for an average of $62,374.
Malone said it was the harsh commercial realities that made it difficult for breeders to support unproven shuttle stallions as Declaration Of War was at the time with significant mare numbers given the Australian market’s propensity for precocious sprinters.
“If you are going to be a commercial farm and you say you are sending ten mares to Declaration Of War, you won’t be a commercial farm or a farm for very long,” he said.
“Everyone knows that, but that is why the game is so great. We have all got opinions and you will never, ever hear me say ‘that won’t work’ because it can work.
“Declaration Of War had the credentials, but from a commercial point of view we couldn’t go to him, so well done to Paul who did.”
Luckily, as it turned out for Lanskey, Vow And Declare did not make his reserve at the Classic sale, which Malone again put down to buyers not paying Declaration Of War respect in the auction ring.
“He was a lovely horse and if the horse was by any other stallion he would have made four or five times his service fee,” he said.
Related link
Melbourne Cup race replay
https://www.racing.com/form/2019-11-05/flemington/race/7/results