Sangster’s stallion market innovations embrace his father’s Horsetrader spirit
A good book is an essential companion during lockdown, and for bloodstock aficionados there can be no finer read than Horsetrader, as co-authors Patrick Robinson and Nick Robinson chart the story of Robert Sangster’s bid to corner the thoroughbred market with partners Vincent O’Brien and John Magnier.
The trio’s policy of plundering major US yearling sales in pursuit of ‘baby’ stallions proved a modus operandi that reshaped the bloodstock market forever, with the reverberations of their actions still felt around the industry to this day.
Those who have read the spellbinding story of swashbuckling sales ring battles, which was first published in 1993, will be pleased to learn that Sangster’s son, Adam, has ensured that his father’s entrepreneurial flair in the stallion market endures from his Swettenham Stud in Nagambie, Australia.
Ahead of the 2018 Australian breeding season, Swettenham launched what it dubbed an ‘each-way bet’ for breeders in the Foalshare/Wholeshare initiative, with the stud entering into a foal share agreement for the progeny of stallions Trust In A Gust (Keep The Faith), Rebel Dane (Danehill), Puissance De Lune (Shamardal) or Americain (Dynaformer).
“We had about 50 mares come to the stallions on Foalshare/Wholeshare across the four stallions that we had on offer for the 2018 breeding season,” reports Sangster. “On top of that, there were another 60 breeders who came through the Foalshare/Wholeshare opportunity but decided to pay for their nominations due to the fact that the stallions were selling so well.”
The scheme meant that when a foal was born, breeders were given 14 days to decide whether they would like to exercise their buyout clause and pay the service fee, giving them 100 per cent ownership of the foal, or press on with the foal share arrangement.
If the breeder opted not to buy out, no covering fee was payable and the foal was sold at public auction, where the breeder and Swettenham Stud split the net proceeds from the sale 50-50.
“Of the 50 mares that went to the stallions in that year, over half decided to buy out Swettenham once they saw their foals,” Sangster continues. “One breeder recently sold their weanling filly for six figures from that foal share, and this is exactly what we wanted to see; breeders getting an opportunity to get a result without the service fee.”
The Australian breeding industry continues to live through a boom period that has seen a who’s who of the bloodstock world take up interests in the country. However, Sangster is acutely aware that the industry requires not only the participation of international powerhouse operations, but the smaller breeder too.
“Thinking outside the box for the breeders’ benefit is something that we are always doing as we want all of our supporters to be successful. Our aim is to keep supporting the smaller breeder as they are the backbone to the industry, especially in Australia,” he says.
“The Foalshare/Wholeshare scheme was positively received by breeders across the board and people really understood that the reason we wanted to put this in place was to help breeders and give them an opportunity to use the stallion that they want to use, but see the foal before deciding if they wanted to pay for it.”
Breeding at any level comes with a degree of financial risk, but Swettenham Stud is keen to mitigate that where possible, and recently launched the Breeder Support Initiative, which offers an extended payment plan allowing breeders to pay nomination fees in seven per cent installments.
“Our most recent announcement is the Breeder Support Initiative, whereby breeders start paying seven per cent of the service fee from when the mare receives a 45-day scan, which essentially spreads the payments over the period until the foal is about five months old,” explains Sangster.
“It allows the breeder to budget for service fee and get a guarantee that their foal gets to the weanling stage without any risk. The feedback has been incredible from the breeders, whether it be a small hobby breeder or a large commercial breeder. They understand that we are assisting them to manage their cashflow, but also making sure that they are protected should anything happen to the foal.
“Should the mare fail to produce a live foal, all payments will be refunded to the breeder. Should a mare produce a live foal that does not make it to the timing of the final payment, a free return will be issued to the breeder for any mare they nominate for the following season.”
While the Covid-19 pandemic has brought much of the action in the thoroughbred world to a standstill, Australia have continued to race behind closed doors and the prestigious Inglis Easter Yearling Sale broke new ground when conducted entirely online earlier this year.
Nonetheless, it would only be natural for breeders to experience heightened anxiety during such a time, and Sangster says the Swettenham team has done its utmost to ensure life continues as normal for its patrons.
“We made it known to the entire industry that our priority through this, as always, is the ongoing success of the breeders who support us,” he says. “With the ability to be flexible and nimble and treat each breeder as an individual, we have managed to assist so many people over the past couple of months to make sure their lives and livelihoods are as normal and stress free as possible.
“We’ve been able to offer things like the Breeder Support Initiative, which has meant that the season is looking promising for those who have supported us. We kept our service fees at an affordable level, and we are working with each individual to ensure that we cater to their needs at this time.
“From a farm perspective, we were able to implement measures very early to ensure that we had even stricter biosecurity measures in place for the protection of all of our staff, which has meant our horses continue to get the best of care from my amazing team.”
Forward-thinking stallion deals are far from the only major draw at Swettenham, however, with the farm, which was purchased by Robert Sangster and Colin Hayes in 1995, welcoming I Am Immortal (I Am Invincible) for the 2020 breeding season.
The son of Australian sire sensation I Am Invincible was a precocious talent, winning the Blue Diamond Preview (Listed 1000m) and Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m).
“I Am Immortal was an acquisition we needed at Swettenham as he really completes our roster,” says Sangster. “He has a very similar profile to his father in that he’s a colonial sprinter by the hottest sire in the southern hemisphere.
“He’s I Am Invincible’s only dual stakes-winning two-year-old colt in Australia. When my team and I went to inspect him, we knew the great racehorse that he was, winning both of the lead-ups to the Blue Diamond in his first two starts, but it was his physical attributes that really sold us on him.
“He’s so hard to fault. He’s an oil painting to look at and exactly what we know the breeders love as he is strong, correct, a lovely walker and stands over some ground at 16.2 hands high.
“He’s from a fast family, being out of the best daughter of Ad Valorem, and he showed that when beating Microphone in the Blue Diamond Preview in a faster time than Sepoy and Hanseatic. We sold some shares in him and they went like hotcakes, we were oversubscribed very quickly. It certainly was an endorsement that our decision to purchase him was also backed by some of Australia’s top breeders.”
Swettenham also has plenty to offer breeders in the shape of a couple of shuttle stallions who are familiar names in the northern hemisphere, including the globe-trotting great Highland Reel (Galileo). The son of Galileo and the Australian-bred Danehill mare Hveger will begin his third southern hemisphere covering season later this year.
“Highland Reel’s foals are standouts,” says Sangster. “A very good judge told us just last week that it’s the best crop of foals that they’ve ever seen. He got 148 mares in his first season in Australia and most of those breeders went back to him last season. They are so well put together; all correct, powerful with the most fluent walks you can see.
“He’s certainly stamped his stock and the Tattersalls and Goffs foal sales late last year really showed the quality of his stock, with his foals selling for up to €185,000 and to some top judges like Bertrand Le Metayer, Glenvale Stud, Blandford Bloodstock, JC Bloodstock, Manister House Stud, Matt Houldsworth and Ben Sangster.”
Another shuttler on the Swettenham roster is Haras de Bouquetot’s Toronado (High Chaparral). The son of High Chaparral has been enjoying a hot run of form in Australia, sitting in fifth in the second-season sires’ table thanks to the likes of the prolific Still A Star and the hugely promising Masked Crusader. The Sussex and Queen Anne Stakes hero was the most in-demand stallion standing in Victoria in 2019.
“Toronado is certainly in demand, not only in Australia but especially in Hong Kong, where so many tried and untried Toronados have been recently purchased,” says Sangster. “He was Victoria’s most popular horse in 2019 and he is full again for 2020.
“The High Chaparral line seems to work so well in Australia with sires like So You Think and Dundeel and I think that comes down to their ability to throw horses that can sprint and those that can get out to a bit of a trip.
“From a pedigree point of view, Toronado is free from Danehill and has so many mares that match up well with him genetically. It definitely doesn’t hurt that his progeny have such a physical presence as individuals.”
Sangster may be busy writing his own chapter of his family’s storied life in racing and breeding, but he still has time to reflect fondly, and with no shortage of pride, on the impact his father had on the modern thoroughbred industry – and his own journey through it.
“To have a book like Horsetrader that is timeless and appeals to such a global audience makes me incredibly proud of my father, his legacy and what he passed on to all of those that were lucky enough to be around him,” he says.
“His legacy lives on through our whole family and it’s incredible to look through pedigrees of yearlings, mares and stallions across the world and see how much he was able to shape what we currently have today.”
And while Horsetrader makes an absorbing read, the tales contained within will always pale in comparison to Sangster’s own cherished memories of his father, some of which have no doubt influenced the innovative approach he now takes to standing stallions.
“My memories are that our father allowed my brothers and I to really embrace the industry in every way without any pressure, going to Keeneland for the July sales during school holidays or living in Deauville at the Haras de Monde de Mont until boarding school,” he says.
“He managed to surround himself with the best judges in their field and also with funniest raconteurs for many legendary lunches. I certainly never heard him raise his voice to anyone. He taught me a lot about life, people and about respect. We were very lucky to have him as a father.”