Moodie’s unwavering belief in General Beau
High-class juvenile sprinter to stand at Victoria’s Maluka Thoroughbreds
Not since 1994 has prominent owner-breeder David Moodie seen a crop of colts as strong as the year his high-class juvenile General Beau (Brazen Beau) first displayed his racecourse wares in 2020-21.
And it’s for that reason that Moodie and his racing partners are backing the stakes-winning sprinter – a horse who won Australia’s first juvenile race of 2020 and dethroned future champion Anamoe (Street Boss) among other extremely talented horses soon after – by standing him at Breeders’ Farm near Romsey to the west of Melbourne in 2024.
The 2018-born General Beau will stand under the Maluka Thoroughbreds banner of Luke and Mags Anderson, who relocated their operation from Avenel to Breeders’ Farm last year, at an introductory fee of $8,800 (inc GST).
General Beau’s high-profile Victorian owners, which includes Contract Racing’s Moodie, Fern Vale Farm’s Ash Hardwick and Nick Psaltis, rebuffed offers from interstate studs to take on the son of Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) and, instead, they have entrusted the Andersons to manage his stud career at their own property that was once home to the US-owned Spendthrift Australia.
As well as defeating subsequent Australian Horse of the Year and Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) winner Anamoe in the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m), General Beau also had the better of Rosemont Stud’s young sire Extreme Warrior (Extreme Choice) a start earlier when landing the Blue Diamond Preview (Listed, 1000m).
Trained by Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra and then Ellerton when the cousins’ training partnership was dissolved in late 2021, the William Reid (Gr 1, 1200m) placed General Beau was the definition of precocity by winning as a juvenile in September of his two-year-old season when scoring down the Flemington straight.
He’d won three of his four starts by early February and ran a creditable fifth in a male-dominated Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) when beaten just 2.9 lengths behind Artorius (Flying Artie).
Moodie described General Beau as possessing the powerful physique of a stallion from the day he was born – a trait, he says, that may have in fact hindered his time on the track given his brute strength led him to being carefully managed later in his 31-start career.
“He’s got his early two-year-old form, which is what everybody wants, in what was undoubtedly a generational crop of colts,” Moodie told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“It comes along every 30 years and the last lot was 1994, which was Danzero, Racer’s Edge and Hurricane Sky. The list was endless.
“If you go through the record books, you will see the colts of General Beau’s year dominated.
“They were the first five home in the Blue Diamond and the first three home in the Slipper. They dominated and that’s unusual, two out of three years it’s fillies or there’s some balance to it.”
Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) would lead home a trifecta for the colts in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) while Anamoe won the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and Captivant (Capitalist) won the ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
Gelding Converge (Frankel) won the JJ Atkins Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), the last of the five Group 1 races run each season in Australia for two-year-olds.
Backing up Moodie’s claim is the fact that at least 24 Australian-bred colts out of the 2018-born crop of foals are at stud either in Australia or New Zealand and it’s part of the reason the long-time breeder is backing his judgment with General Beau.
“I only do it with horses that I believe in and probably the highlight one a long time ago was Blazing Sword who was a Listed winner and he became a very good stallion,” Moodie said.
“This horse’s prime attribute is that he’s an absolute bull and any male needs to be of that physique. He’s always been a beautiful horse.”
Blazing Sword (Marscay), a dual Listed winner at two, sired 12 stakes winners including Vic Health Cup (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Cut Up Rough and Moodie’s Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) and Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Arctic Scent.
Luke Anderson had long considered the prospect of taking on a stallion, but he didn’t want to stand one “just to make up the numbers” and he is grateful to Moodie and Hardwick for providing Maluka with the opportunity.
“General Beau did an amazing job and it goes to two things really: his mental ability to be early enough to run and win the first two-year-old race at Flemington and then show that speed in late summer in the Blue Diamond series,” Anderson said.
“What jumped out to us about him was just his strength. He’s got an amazing backend, a massive forearm and a beautiful, masculine head.
“He’s a good package and one of those ones that interested us because he was an early horse himself and … he’s got that commercial aspect to him because he’s going to have those early runners if he throws the way he looks into his stock.”
From a family developed by Moodie over four generations, General Beau is a grandson of his early running filly Nediym’s Glow (General Nediym), who also won three races at two, while the stallion’s dam Phosphorescence (Lonhro) is a half-sister to Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (Listed, 1000m) placed Double Jeopardy (Exceed And Excel). He is also from the same family as Danehill Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winner Kinglike (Exceed And Excel) and Listed winner Royal Haunt (Hard Spun).
With Moodie and Hardwick’s Contract Racing and Hesket Bloodstock backing General Beau, Moodie has also established The General Beau Syndicate in a bid to support the stallion in his early years at stud.
With the assistance of South Australia-based agent Adrian Hancock, the Moodie-led syndicate bought four in-foal mares at last week’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale who will be mated with General Beau this season.
“I believe the bottom third of the market is now being harshly marked down, people can’t afford it, they’re bailing out, service fees are too high and the cost of upkeep is too high unless you’ve got the facilities to do it,” Moodie said of his quartet of Gold Coast acquired mares.
“The top end’s probably exaggerated the other way, so I was able to buy four mares on the Gold Coast for $92,500 carrying covers with advertised service fees of $140,000.
“I’ll put together eight to ten of those in a satellite syndicate for him, plus all the mares that we’ll send to him separate to the satellite syndicate to ensure that he’s got a proper book.”
General Beau’s Darley Northwood Park-based sire Brazen Beau is also developing into a sire of sires from limited exposure thus far by virtue of Newgate Farm’s two-start juvenile Tassort – the sire of this season’s first crop ATC Sires’ Produce (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Manaal – and his Hunter Valley based rostermate North Pacific whose first two-year-olds will hit the racecourse next season.
Moodie and Cotton On co-founder Hardwick bought the 244-hectare Breeders’ Farm from Spendthrift in 2022, with resident stallions Overshare (I Am Invincible), Dirty Work (Written Tycoon) and Gold Standard (Sebring) relocating to nearby Widden Victoria.
2018-born crop of stallions (all AUS fees inc. GST – NZ fees plus GST)
Stud 2024 fee
General Beau (Brazen Beau) Maluka Thoroughbreds $8,800
Anamoe (Street Boss) Darley $121,000
Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) Coolmore Australia $82,500
Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) Newgate Farm $55,000
In The Congo (Snitzel) Newgate Farm $27,500
Hitotsu (Maurice) Arrowfield Stud $22,000
Artorius (Flying Artie) Newgate Farm $22,000
Captivant (Capitalist) Kia Ora Stud $22,000
Profondo (Deep Impact) Windsor Park Stud NZ$17,500
Extreme Warrior (Extreme Choice) Rosemont Stud $16,500
Sword Of State (Snitzel) Cambridge Stud NZ$15,000
Paulele (Dawn Approach) Darley $13,750
Acrobat (Fastnet Rock) Coolmore Australia $13,750
Finance Tycoon (Written Tycoon) Kooringal Stud $11,000
Generation (Snitzel) Lovatsville $11,000
Bruckner (Snitzel) Widden Victoria $11,000
Profiteer (Capitalist) Newgate Farm $11,000
Tiger Of Malay (Extreme Choice) Newgate Farm $11,000
Ingratiating (Frosted) Oakland Park Stud $9,000
Marine One (Capitalist) Mogumber Park $8,800
Alpine Edge (Better Than Ready) Clear Mountain Fairview $7,700
Hilal (Fastnet Rock) Grangewilliam Stud $7,500
Lightsaber (Zoustar) Darling View Thoroughbreds $6,600
Mr Mozart (Snitzel) Highview Stud NZ$6,000