READY FOR MORE
Lyndhurst Stud looking to the future after Port Lockroy provides Better Than Ready with his second elite-level winner
Star Queensland stallion Better Than Ready (More Than Ready) is, as the name suggests, well prepared to kick on for still greater success after his versatility went on show with his second Group 1 winner on Saturday.
That’s the word from Jeff Kruger, manager at the 15-year-old’s home of Lyndhurst Stud, after Port Lockroy’s victory in Ascot’s Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
The top–level triumph over a mile for a sire better known for his young speedsters came more than two years after the stallion’s first elite–level success, with Apache Chase’s Kingsford-Smith Cup (Gr 1, 1300m) of 2022.
And if that sounds like a long wait, it was the first Group 1 victory for Yarramalong Park’s Richard Foster – Port Lockroy’s breeder and part–owner and the major shareholder in Better Than Ready – after 61 years in the business.
“The closest I’d come was when I had a mare called Gaigola who ran fourth in a Group 1,” the 79-year-old Foster told ANZ Bloodstock News. “And Manikato won the race, so that shows how long ago that was.
“I’ve won Group 2s and Group 3s, but winning a Group 1 is a hard mountain to climb. And when you get there you realise that, because of the sea of people who congratulate you, including people you wouldn’t have thought would notice it. There’s a never-ending stream of people who are happy for you.”
Foster set up Yarramalong, on the eastern fringe of the Darling Downs, as a commercial concern running broodmares 20 years ago, but after a decade he decided on a change of strategy.
“We were sending a lot of mares to Scone, but I got to the stage where I thought if we don’t go get a stallion we’re wasting our time, since stallion owners control everything,” said Foster.
He’d admired Queensland sprinter Better Than Ready through a 16-start career in the care of Kelly Schweida that netted four Listed victories and a third and two fifths at Group 1 level.
“He was the type of horse who, when he walked into the mounting yard the crowd would start buzzing,” Foster said.
“A bit later I was talking to [bloodstock agent] Julian Blaxland at a sale one day and he asked if I wanted him. I said, ‘Want him? I’ll buy him right now’.”
Syndicated with Foster retaining 25 per cent, Better Than Ready kicked off at Lyndhurst in 2015 with a 138-mare book at a fee of $9,900 (inc GST). He swiftly made himself one of the Sunshine State’s breeding stars, and by 2019, with his two-year-olds showing ample ability, he covered 216 mares at $33,000.
Those numbers softened somewhat in subsequent years, such as his 146 at $24,000 in 2022 but much changed after Magic Millions day in 2023. Skirt The Law (Better Than Ready) won the 2YO Classic (RL,1200m), and Port Lockroy’s brother Alpine Edge won the QTIS Open (1300m).
“This time last year, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing. He’s a very fertile horse, so we kept taking the bookings,” said Kruger, who ended up accepting 213 mares at $27,500.
Better Than Ready, whose fertility has ranged from 87.8 to 89.3 per cent the past three years, has been Queensland’s champion sire for the past two seasons, having stopped the four-year streak of friendly rival Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo). He has seven crops running – one fewer than Eureka Stud’s flagbearer.
And he’s well positioned to raise a hat-trick this season. Port Lockroy’s win in the $1.5 million Railway pushed him to 21st on Australia’s general sires table, six spots higher than Eureka’s Stud’s Spirit Of Boom.
Better Than Ready has a career-best finish of 13th on that table two years ago, yet for all his successes, a Group 1 winner over 1600 metres may have surprised many.
While the predomination of sprint races in Australia skews the numbers somewhat, Better Than Ready’s distance stats still make stark reading.
At up to 1000 metres, his winners to runners ratio is at 40.38 per cent. The 1001-1200 metres bracket is his strongest, at 44.62 per cent, ahead of 38.60 per cent from 1201-1400 metres. At 1401-1600 metres, it drops to 20.85 per cent, and at 1601-1800 metres it’s 13 per cent – making Saturday’s second career Group 1 all the more meritorious.
“He’s a great juvenile win-getter, but it’s good to see one of his progeny win at this level over a mile,” Kruger said. “It shows you that he’s got a bit of versatility.
“I’m not sure about out to 2000 metres or so, but I think he can get a lot of winners at around the mile, with the right mares to do so. Port Lockroy’s got a bit of Marscay blood in him, and we know Marscay could put a bit of stoutness into them.”
Kruger also believes Better Than Ready will have an improved chance of showing his versatility in the coming couple of seasons, with his progeny trying longer distances at later ages, as trainers take more time with his stock.
“The thing is, he’s got such a good strike-rate with his early two-year-olds that I think a lot of them have been burnt out as early juveniles and haven’t got to see three and four,” Kruger said. “He would get more horses over a mile if they didn’t race them so early.
“But he had fewer two-year-old winners last season than his initial six seasons at stud, and it may be that people are giving them a bit more time, and we’ll start to see more of them at three and four.”
In his first five completed seasons of runners, Better Than Ready’s number of two-year-old winners came in at 23, 17, 15, 25 and 20. Last year, the figure dipped to nine.
Marscay (Biscay) appears in Port Lockroy’s pedigree as the sire of his damsire Freeze, who was syndicated privately to stand at stud by Foster.
Freeze made a hot start, with his first seven runners yielding 2010 VRC Maribyrnong Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) winner Arctic Command, but that was also where his stakes winners became frozen.
Foster did, however, breed his daughter Freezethemillions, who while winning only one from 14, at the Sunshine Coast, has become quite the dam.
Her first five foals have been winners, and they include third foal Alpine Edge – a victor at Group 3 and Listed level – and now her Group 1 winning four-year-old entire, the Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald trained Port Lockroy.
Offered by Yarramalong at the Gold Coast, Port Lockroy was a $300,000 purchase for Neasham and Brian McGuire, and was syndicated to a group headed by Sir Own Glenn’s Go Bloodstock, with Foster staying in the ownership.
Freezethemillions now has a two-year-old brother to Port Lockroy making waves with Neasham and Archibald, Kruger reported, while the mare was covered for a sixth time by Better Than Ready earlier this spring.
Kruger said Better Than Ready would serve a more typical book of around 140 this season, still at $27,500. He’s confident more Group 1 success will lay ahead, possibly through the likes of Chris Waller’s Chrysaor, who’s won at Group 2 and Listed level so far, alongside two unplaced top-tier runs.
“The greatest thing about Better Than Ready is that all the way through he hasn’t covered A-grade mares,” Kruger said. “He’s had two Group 1 winners and 14 stakes winners from B-grade mares, so you’ve got to give credit where it’s due.
“Also, to give credit where it’s due, Spirit Of Boom is a very good fellow Queenslander, and he’s got an extra crop on the ground over Better Than Ready. So to be Queensland’s champion sire the past two years running, with one less crop than him, is a fair feather in our stallion’s cap, and hopefully we’re on track to do it again.”
While Lyndhurst’s Better Than Ready and Eureka’s Spirit Of Boom are Darling Downs neighbours, their rivalry isn’t exactly fierce, with each stud holding a share in the other’s star stallion.
“We cheer each other’s success,” Kruger said. “One of the first people to message us yesterday after the win was Eureka, so that was great.”
Having become the first eastern states visitor to win the Railway in ten years, Port Lockroy looks set for a quick return home.
While many a Railway winner has stayed in Perth for the WFA Northerly Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m), Foster said Neasham and Archibald may lean toward staying at handicap conditions for the $2m The Ingham (Gr 2, 1600m) at Randwick on the same day, December 7.