Shamus Award has service fee increased after daughter’s Oaks victory
Starspangledbanner returns for another season at Rosemont Stud with newcomer Hanseatic joining Victorian roster
Rosemont Stud has recognised the feats of versatile stallion Shamus Award (Snitzel), the sire of Saturday’s progressive Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Media Award, by increasing the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) winner’s service fee for the 2021 season.
The growing Victorian farm yesterday confirmed that Shamus Award would stand for $33,000 (all fees inc GST), up from the 2020 fee of $19,800, to lead a roster of six stallions which also includes first season sire Hanseatic (Street Boss) and proven shuttler Starspangledbanner (Choisir).
Rosemont Stud general manager of bloodstock Ryan McEvoy believes Shamus Award, who enters his third season in Victoria after standing his first five years at Widden Stud, is “a stallion who has continued to rise and rise”.
“His oldest are only five, so we’re incredibly excited about what the future holds. The fact that he has 140-odd live foals on the ground followed by 160-plus pregnancies, you’d expect that the best years are ahead of him,” McEvoy said.
“He is certainly entitled to an increase and I feel like a fee of $33,000 is an incredibly fair fee and I’d like to think that it still provides breeders great value, but also acknowledges what the stallion has achieved in the past 12 months.
“His successes include eight individual Australia-based stakes winners, six of them are Group winners and two of them are Group 1 winners. I think Written Tycoon is the only Victorian-based sire to have had more. Those numbers are a reflection of a great 12 months but also it highlights what great value he is as well.”
The sire of 12 stakes winners, Shamus Award covered 177 mares last year, his biggest book of mares since retiring to stud in 2014.
“We love the fact that he gets sprinters like It’s Me, who is undefeated in winning the Kosciuszko and has a big turn of foot, fillies like Swats That who are winning stakes races at a sprint trip and running placings in races like the Coolmore and the Lightning,” McEvoy said.
“But he also has Group 1-winning milers like Mr Quickie and, of course, Oaks winners like Media Award on Saturday over 2000 metres and Edward Cummings’ filly Duais, who won the Adrian Knox a few weeks ago and flashed home to run second in the Australian Oaks.
“I don’t think there are many other stallions in Australia that demonstrate the versatility which Shamus Award does “
Another proven sire returning to the Rosemont roster is Starspangledbanner, the sire of 15 stakes winners with homebred mare Brooklyn Hustle among them. Owned in partnership with Coolmore, the shuttler will stand for a slightly decreased fee of $16,500 this year.
McEvoy said: “One thing we’re really proud about is the stallions we do offer, who have had runners, do provide a good opportunity to breed a stakes winner.
“Shamus Award, of the leading stallions in the state, has the highest stakes-winners-to-runners percentage and Starspangledbanner is not far behind him. We counted the other day that he’s had 16 individual stakes horses since April 1 last year.
“Clearly, he’s got great ability to get you a high-class stakes performer, a high-class sprinter, and he’s the sire of two Group 1-winning two-year-olds (The Wow Signal and Millisle), which not many other stallions in Victoria have been able to do.”
The recent acquisition of Group 2-winning juvenile Hanseatic, whose fee of $17,600 had already been announced by Rosemont, is the next step in the Nigel Austin and Anthony Mithen-led operation’s desire to become one of Victoria’s premier stallion farms.
Hanseatic standing at Rosemont follows on from the 2020 launch of another Group 2 winner in I Am Invincible’s (Invincible Spirit) Strasbourg, whose fee remains at $11,000.
“These things obviously don’t happen overnight and we’ve put some plans in place to try and provide a stallion roster which is appealing to breeders, and I think we’re starting to get there,” he said.
“We’ve introduced a new horse this year in Hanseatic who has been unbelievably popular and we feel like we’ve priced him really well.
“He was a dynamite two-year-old with huge ratings and a big profile by the right stallion and from arguably the best family in the Stud Book.”
Of Strasbourg, McEvoy said: “He is the most magnificent stallion I’ve just about ever seen. He’s just gorgeous and he’s let down into an absolute adonis of a horse, so we’re really keen to see the foals that he can deliver this year.
“He was an expensive yearling purchase himself; he’s a Group 2-winning, pre-Christmas-winning son of I Am Invincible, who was super popular in his first season, so it’s exciting times for Rosemont.
“We’re working hard on the stallion roster and, in addition, we’ve got the Victorian Alliance (colts fund) and we’ve made no secret of our ultimate objective of using that as our vehicle to try and find our next one. Hopefully, we have found a fast one or two among them.”
The Rosemont roster is rounded out by Nostradamus (Medaglia d’Oro) ($4,400), the sire of star Perth filly Clairvoyance, and veteran Starcraft (Soviet Star), whose progeny are highly sought after in Hong Kong. His fee will be private this year.
Rosemont Stud roster
2021 2020
Shamus Award (Snitzel) $33,000 $19,800
Hanseatic (Street Boss) $17,600 new
Starspangledbanner (Choisir) $16,500 $19,800
Strasbourg (I Am Invincible) $11,000 unchanged
Nostradamus (Medaglia D’Oro) $4,400 $5,500
Starcraft (Soviet Star) Private $8,800
*all fees inclusive of GST