The stallion makers
Building talented colts into stallions can be a lucrative business model for any stable. By The Numbers looks at the trainers with the most graduates on Australasian stallion rosters.
John Hawkes built his reputation as a maker of future stallions in his tenure in charge of Bob and Jack Ingham’s Crown Lodge operation.
In the 1990s, he nurtured the talent of horses like Octagonal (Zabeel), Strategic (Zeditave) and Commands (Danehill), all of whom would become influential in their time at the Inghams’ Woodlands Stud.
The 2000s saw further graduates from Crown Lodge end up prospering at Woodlands, such as Viscount (Quest For Fame), Over (Dr Grace) and future champion Australian stallion Lonhro (Octagonal). When Woodlands was sold to Darley in a landmark 2008 deal, Hawkes’s stallion-making prowess contributed significantly to the reported price tag of $500 million for the property and bloodstock.
Any questions as to whether Hawkes’s formidable reputation with the colts would continue to prosper without the backing of a major breeding operation were answered with the very first winner he trained in partnership with his sons Michael and Wayne.
The trio had been handed a talented Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) colt, previously in the care of Toby Edmonds. Named I Am Invincible, he was the first ever winner for Team Hawkes in a mid-week ratings race at Warwick Farm.
I Am Invincible only had two starts for the stable before heading to Peter Morgan. He then developed into not only a champion Australian stallion, but from his Yarraman Park base has become a commercial powerhouse unseen in Australian bloodstock.
He is one of 18 horses currently on Australasian stallion rosters who were trained by Team Hawkes. It will not surprise anyone that the tally is clearly the most of any stable.
We have taken a detailed look at which stables have the most active graduates at stud, filtering, in order to keep a relatively manageable data set, those at a fee of above $10,000 in either Australia or New Zealand.
That list of stallions includes the top 149 commercial sires in Australasia. Those horses have come through 86 individual stables.
Former Team Hawkes horses actively standing at stud (at $10,000 or more)
| Stallion | Stud |
| I Am Invincible | Yarraman Park |
| Ole Kirk | Vinery Stud |
| All Too Hard | Vinery Stud |
| Exceedance | Vinery Stud |
| Star Turn | Vinery Stud |
| Brutal | Newgate |
| North Pacific | Newgate |
| Showtime | Arrowfield |
| Dirty Work | Widden Stud |
| Doubtland | Widden Stud |
| Headwater | Vinery Stud |
| Divine Prophet | Highview Stud |
On that specific list of horses in that price bracket, Team Hawkes leads the way with 12 representatives. As well as I Am Invincible, the list includes Group 1 producers All Too Hard (Casino Prince) and Star Turn (Star Witness), stakes producers Showtime (Snitzel), Headwater (Exceed And Excel) and Divine Prophet (Choisir) and an emerging cohort led by Exceedance (Exceed And Excel), Brutal (O’Reilly), North Pacific (Brazen Beau), Doubtland (Not A Single Doubt) and Dirty Work (Written Tycoon).
Second on this list is John Hawkes’s one-time foreman at Woodlands, and the man who took over the reins at Darley/Godolphin when he left, Peter Snowden, who has 11 alumni on stallion rosters in that $10,000-plus fee range.
Ten of those stallions are in the training partnership with his son Paul, while there is one sire, Sessions (Lonhro), which he trained in his time with Darley.
The Snowdens have built their reputation as a stallion-making stable, chiefly through Group 1-winning two-year-olds such as Capitalist (Written Tycoon), Captivant (Capitalist), Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry), Invader (Snitzel) and King’s Legacy (Redoute’s Choice).
It’s also notable that three of the past four champion Australian first season sires are former Snowden stable products.
They have also played a major role in the emergence of Newgate Farm as one of Australia’s leading stallion operations. Four of the farm’s young stallions were trained by the Snowdens, including last year’s champion first season sire Russian Revolution (Snitzel).
Chris Waller, Australia’s champion trainer of the past four seasons, has ten former members of his stable standing at $10,000 or above across Australasia. That cohort is led by Widden’s Zoustar (Northern Meteor). It also contains champion three-year-olds Yes Yes Yes (Rubick), The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice) and Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible), who are domiciled at Coolmore, Arrowfield and Darley respectively, as well Coolmore’s Home Affairs (I Am Invincible).
The Waller alumni at stud also includes Group 1 producers Kermadec (Teofilo) and Reliable Man (Dalakhani), who are at Darley and Westbury Stud, respectively, along with D’Argento (So You Think) (Bowness Stud), Lean Mean Machine (Zoustar) (Aquis) and Zousain (Zoustar) (Widden).
Those numbers are expected to swell further in the coming years, when you consider Waller had two Group 1-winning two-year-old colts this year, Shinzo (Snitzel), and Militarize (Dundeel), both of which are owned by stallion farms in Coolmore and Newgate.
Aidan O’Brien is fourth on the list with eight horses which have gone through his Ballydoyle stables currently at Australasian studs at $10,000-plus fees. That includes three Australasian-bred horses who progressed to Group 1 success from O’Brien’s Irish base having started their careers in Australia; So You Think (High Chaparral), Starspangledbanner (Choisir) and Merchant Navy (Fastnet Rock).
Coolmore Australia is the southern hemisphere base for O’Brien’s European Group 1 winners St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) and Churchill (Galileo), while he also trained Oaklands Stud’s Power (Oasis Dream) and New Zealand-based pair Circus Maximus (Galileo) and U S Navy Flag (War Front).
Ciaron Maher has been involved in training seven sires in this category, including Merchant Navy earlier in that colt’s career, while new Arrowfield addition Hitotsu (Maurice) (Arrowfield) joins Anders (Not A Single Doubt) (Widden), Prague (Redoute’s Choice) (Kia Ora Stud), Dubious (Not A Single Doubt) (Kitchwin Hills), Acrobat (Fastnet Rock) (Coolmore) and Bruckner (Snitzel) (Widden) as current sires in that bracket who have been trained by Maher and David Eustace.
Also with seven stallions on the list is Mick Price, four in his own name, and three in partnership with Michael Kent Jnr. Group 1-winning colt and now young sire sensation Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) (Newgate) emerged in the same crop for Price as Flying Artie (Artie Schiller) (Blue Gum Farm), while Tarzino (Tavistock) (Westbury Stud) is the other Group 1 producer for the trainer.
Trainers with the most stallions standing in Australasia at above $10,000
| Trainer | Stallions |
| John, Michael and Wayne Hawkes | 12 |
| Peter (and Paul) Snowden | 11 |
| Chris Waller | 10 |
| Aidan O’Brien | 8 |
| Ciaron Maher (and David Eustace) | 7 |
| Mick Price (and Michael Kent Jnr) | 7 |
| James Cummings | 6 |
| Gai Waterhouse (and Adrian Bott) | 6 |
| Gerald Ryan (and Sterling Alexiou) | 5 |
| Danny O’Brien | 4 |
| Darren Weir | 4 |
| John O’Shea | 4 |
| Anthony (and Sam) Freedman | 4 |
There are three Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winners at stud who were trained from Tulloch Lodge, currently operated by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. They are Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) (Kia Ora), Vancouver (Medaglia D’Oro) (Woodside Park) and Pierro (Lonhro) (Coolmore). Proisir (Choisir) (Rich Hill Stud), who is set to end Savabeel’s (Zabeel) long domination as New Zealand’s champion sire this season, is another former Waterhouse-trained horse, as are In The Congo (Snitzel) (Newgate) and Gold Standard (Sebring) (Widden).
James Cummings, with the support of Darley behind him, has made quick progress in getting Godolphin stars to stud. Anamoe (Street Boss) and Paulele (Dawn Approach) join the fold this year at Darley alongside Microphone (Exceed And Excel) and Bivouac (Exceed And Excel). Encryption (Lonhro) (Eureka Stud) and Tassort (Brazen Beau) (Newgate) complete the set of six Cummings horses with fees at $10,000 or above.
Gerald Ryan is another trainer with a strong reputation for unearthing stallions, highlighted by four-time Australian champion and Arrowfield resident Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice). He also trained Snitzel’s sons Trapeze Artist, who is at Widden Stud, and Menari, who is at Corumbene Stud, along with Swettenham Stud’s Rubick (Encosta De Lago) and Twin Hills Stud’s Peltzer (So You Think), the latter in partnership with Sterling Alexiou.
Others with four on the list include Danny O’Brien, Darren Weir, John O’Shea and Anthony Freedman.
Note: By The Numbers will be published weekly on Mondays through July, but will resume its thrice-weekly publishing cycle in August.