Archive for category: Industry News

Rosemont Stud is confident Victorian bred and born stallion Starspangledbanner will return from Ireland for another season in 2023 after being given a year off from shuttling back to Australia.

The stallion was exported back to Ireland last December to stand another season at Coolmore where his service fee this year has risen to 35,000 euros (AUD$53,000).

Starspangledbanner stood for $16,500 at Rosemont last season where he served 70 mares. He covered his biggest book of Australian mares – 116 – in his first season at Rosemont in 2011 at a fee of $44,000.

Rosemont Stud’s general manager of bloodstock Ryan McEvoy said the son of Choisir had been shuttling backwards and forwards for several years and was having a super year in Europe where his service fee had skyrocketed.

“He has had a big couple of seasons up there and this season is probably his biggest to date there,” McEvoy said.

“Coolmore who effectively manages the horse and own the majority of him just felt he needed that breather for the season so that was probably fair enough.

“He is one of those, I suppose, reverse shuttle stallions that has been an effective stallion in both hemispheres.

“He is one of those rare and unique horses that was a champion sprinter in Australia and has been a super successful stallion in the northern hemisphere.”

McEvoy said Starspangledbanner, bred by Tony Santic of Makybe Diva fame out of his mare Gold Anthem (Made Of Gold x National Song), had a tough start to his stud career with some early fertility challenges which resulted in just 31 live foals from his season at stud.

He said it had been perhaps a challenge for breeders to now understand that had overcome those fertility issues and since gone beyond them.

“He has overcome those challenges and is quite an effective stallion in the barn and is exhibiting a high level of fertility now which is great,” McEvoy said.

“Unfortunately those challenges have sort of stayed with him and those breeders probably still need some work to educate them that the horse has turned the corner and as I said is an effective stallion from a fertility point of view.”

The now 15-year-old stallion served 72 mares in 2020 at a fertility rate of 73.4 per cent.

McEvoy said there were some management techniques with Starspangledbanner which had to be implemented to produce the best results.

“Those techniques have seemingly worked with him and he is not a horse that probably wants to get hammered and he is one stallion whose fertility is at its best when his covers are spaced and he is not faced with three, four or five mares a day,” he said.

“There are just little quirks. He is a stallion that likes to be sort of outside and doesn’t like to be cooped up in his box with his rug on. All those little sorts of things that you pick up on that you tend to correlate and form a pattern of what is working for him and what’s not.”

While it would have been satisfying to get a bigger book in the 100 range last season, McEvoy said the stallion still served some nice mares and it was pleasing to see his weanlings sell well.

The Irish bred State Of Rest has been a champion for Starspangledbanner, winning last year’s Group 1 Cox Plate for the Kilkenny-based Joseph O’Brien who had more Group 1 success when the four-year-old gelding won the GB Prince of Wales’s Stakes during the recent Royal Ascot carnival.

The famed English carnival was where Starspangledbanner gained his international reputation by winning the Group Ascot Golden Jubilee Stakes in 2010. A couple of weeks later he won the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket for Aiden O’Brien, the father of Joseph O’Brien.

Starspangledbanner was an exceptional galloper for Flemington trainer Leon Corstens who trained the gelding to victory in two Group 1 races – the Caulfield Guineas (1600m) and the Oakleigh Plate (1100m) – before the gelding was sold as a stallion to campaign for O’Brien.

And while the horse’s two Group 1 victories in England were both at 1207m, Corstens said that after training Starspangledbanner to the ultimate level at 1600m, he believes the horse could have won a Cox Plate if the race had been targeted.

It’s a thought that isn’t lost on McEvoy.

“Well he won the Guineas so dominantly,” he said.

“And of course So You Think finished behind him in that Guineas and he did go on and win a Cox Plate.

“It’s interesting because he is the sort of horse that would have skipped around Moonee Valley probably on speed. We saw a horse like Shamus Award do that as a three-year-old after coming out of the Guineas (he finished third).

“Three-year-olds that perform that well in the Caulfield Guineas tend to really show up in the Cox Plate. Also to spring to mind are Pierro and All Too Hard.

“I’ve got no doubt that he would have given them a sight.”

While Starspangledbanner has worked well with European mares, his statistics in Australia are strong and come off the back of not having big numbers like other stallions.

And McEvoy said not having big books of mares probably put him on the back foot, but the stallion still had what he says are some real proper horses in Australia at all distances.

He points to the Rosemont Stud bred and raced Brooklyn Hustle (Joint Aspiration) who is a Group 2 and 3 winner headed to the breeding barn this season after finishing 12th in last Saturday’s Group 1 Tatts Tiara (1400m) at Eagle Farm.

It was the 15th Group 1 contested by the five-year-old mare that fell just $160,000 short of $1m in prizemoney.

And Prime Star is a winner of the Inglis Millennium (1100m) which carried a first prize of $1.93m.

Godolphin’s Home Of The Brave won Group and Listed races in Europe before transferring to the stable’s Australian operations where he won two Group races.

“He can clearly get a high-class horse,” McEvoy said.

“The pleasing thing is that he is cementing himself as a proper stallion in the Hong Kong jurisdiction as well. That California Spangle looks like a real star and was second in the Derby and I think he is going to train on and be one of the real elite horses in Hong Kong for the next 12 months.”

And there’s plenty of interest in unraced two-year-old filly Starspangledancer (Karalli) who recently won an 800m Hawkesbury trial by 12 lengths for local trainer Blake Ryan.

The Rosemont bred filly was sold through the stud’s exclusive online sale for $5000 as a weanling and was then passed in on a $20,000 reserve at the 2020 Adelaide Yearling Sale before being sold.

McEvoy said Starspangledbanner had the unique ability to produce a star horse and he hopes to have the stallion back at Rosemont.

“We’ll get through this season and I suppose it’s about determining where he would fit commercially and how well his stock are selling and probably we are afforded the time to have a look at his stock and how they perform,” he said.

“But certainly from our point of view, we’d love to have him back. He is still a relatively young stallion that hasn’t been overworked and we feel like is coming into his prime.

“He is a horse that certainly has a special place in our heart and means a lot and we’d love to think he’d come back.”

McEvoy said they were looking forward to another big breeding season with their stallions headed by Shamus Award (Snitzel x Sunset Express)
“The rise and rise of Shamus, it was we call it,” he said.

“It’s been phenomenal the past 18 months and if you look at that time in isolation he has had five Group 1 winners. Four new Group 1 winners headlined by Incentivise, the highest rated horse in Australia.

“Duais is a super star filly that won the Queensland Oaks and was dominate with her two Group 1 wins this autumn and then it was backed up by the likes of El Patroness who was a dominate winner of the (Australian) Oaks.

“When they win Group 1s they seem to do it in pretty eye-catching fashion.”

McEvoy said Shamus Award was something of a freak as a stallion and one they believe can climb to the top of the Australian stallion ranks where he currently sits at number five and is the youngest at age 11.

Hanseatic (Street Boss x Itameri) was retired to stud last season when he served 195 mares and will cover another full book of mares this season at Rosemont.

The recently retired three-year-old Extreme Warrior (Extreme Choice x Heart Of Thrills) was retired after the Group 1 Goodwood Handicap in May.

“He is probably by the most commercial stallion in the country,” he said.
“What I like about him was that he exhibited Group 1 ability and horses like I Am Invincible, Written Tycoon and Not A Single Doubt displayed that too. You don’t necessarily have to retire with a Group 1 on your CV provided you exhibited that ability and he certainly did that.

“He was a Group 3 and listed winner and had great ratings from the experts. He is a good-looking horse with a great pedigree.”

McEvoy said another of Rosemont’s stallions, Strasbourg (I Am Invincible x Danish Spy), was a handsome horse and that’s why he sold for $750,000 as an Australian Easter Yearling.

He said they were buoyed to see other sons of I Am Invincible at stud, Hellbent and Overshare, in the top ten first-season stallion ranks.

Strasbourg served 109 mares in each of his first two seasons at stud.
McEvoy said it was exciting to see a gun stallion being supported by three up-and-comers.

Widden Victoria’s young stallion Thronum (Snitzel x Helena’s Secret) produced his first winner when the Jerome Hunter-trained Thron Bone scored impressively at Caulfield on Saturday.

Out of Thronum’s first crop, it was the third race start for the two-year-old gelding which was a $200,000 purchase for Graeme Gathercole who owns Rich River Meat Exports Pty Ltd and Graebar Park.

Hunter, based at Mornington, is long-time breeder Gathercole’s private trainer.

Thron Bone made his debut in January when he finished fourth in the Listed Blue Diamond Preview for colts and geldings (1000m) and was then sent for a spell before resuming with a third at Sandown, also over 1000m, on June 11.

Hunter admitted he was surprised that the gelding started at odds of $21 when he scored his win against a good field of youngsters in heat seven of the 2022 Next Generation Sprinter series which carried a VOBIS nominator’s bonus of $7,000 and an owner’s bonus of $23,000.

The trainer is now weighing up whether to back-up Thron Bone in Saturday’s final of the series at Flemington, over 1200m, which also carries VOBIS bonuses and the first prize of $82,500.

A victory would shoot Thron Bone past his purchase price at just his fourth start.

Hunter said he wasn’t surprised by the victory.

“It’s funny because he has shown ability and first up at Sandown he ran an enormous race and got too far back and ran the fastest 400m of the day,” he said.

“So I was going into that race on Saturday fairly confident because I knew we had the favourite to beat (Ghaanati ran second at $1.80) but what he has been showing, I knew he’d be competitive.

“I just couldn’t believe his odds because if you look at his run at Sandown and while I didn’t expect him to be favourite, I thought he’d be the second or third pick.”

Hunter said he knew Thronum as a racehorse and went to the 2021 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale with the colt picked out in his catalogue.

He said he rated the yearling as a lovely type when he paraded.

“And the price tag showed that,” he said.

“It was more on looks, as the stallion’s service fee wasn’t the most expensive.”

Hunter said he was surprised to learn that Thron Bone was Thronum’s first winner.

He has two horses by Thronum. The other is a filly – Bel Thronum – bred by Gathercole out of his mare Bel Price (Esprit x Kel Price) which was a city-winning mare also trained by Hunter.

Gathercole also bred the granddam Kel Price (Keltrice x High Price) which won three races for him. High Price (At Talaq x Reguri) also won four races for Gathercole.

Hunter said both Thron Bone and Bel Thronum were his first two-year-old runners of the season.

“I got them both up and running as two-year-olds and I was very surprised, but both of them have shown ability,” he said.

“Unfortunately the filly ran on a heavy 10 at Geelong but ran an enormous race to finish third.

“Both of them have shown capabilities of winning races. They are both very sound, strong horses.”

Hunter said Bel Thronum’s dam Bel Price was a handy sprinter.

While Gathercole likes to breed from his band of broodmares, Hunter said they breed more than what they buy.

“But we always go to the sales and might pick up two or three a year but the majority are homebreds,” he said.

“Like I said, he (Thorn Bone) was a lovely type and he was our pick in the catalogue and saying that, I didn’t expect him to go for the price he did.

“We might get our money back when a hell of a lot don’t.

“The average for the sale was about $180,000 so he wasn’t overly expensive.”

The gelding is out of the four-time winner Thorsborne (Hinchinbrook), a sister to Group 2 winner Diamond Tathagata, the dam of dual Listed winner Ancestry (The Brothers War) which has won nine races and $539 490.

Thorsborne’s 2020 colt by Palentino was a $5,000 buy for Hyam Racing and Cameron Cooke Bloodstock at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale earlier this year.

And her 2021 filly by Fiorente was bought by Gathercole for $8000 at the Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale earlier in June.

It was no option for Hunter not to have Thron Bone gelded as he was getting too heavy.

“We were probably lucky when we gelded him when we did and he isn’t the tallest horse but was getting very chunky,” Hunter said.

“We’ll see how he pulls up and whether we go to the final (on Saturday), it’s no big deal if we don’t and we’ll pick races for him and we’ll see how he goes and there’s always a two-year-old race floating around.

“Whether he is up to black-type standard, we don’t know but I’m sure if he wins easy at his next start, we might start looking at the early three-year-old spring races.”

Hunter said they had already booked in a couple of their mares to Thronum this season based on the two they’ve raced.

Thronum was a $300,000 purchase at the 2015 Australian Easter Yearling Sale offered by Sun Bloodstock.

The colt went on to win the Group 2 Australia Stakes (1200m) and finished second in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes (1200m).

He was retired from the track in May of 2018 with five wins and two seconds and two thirds from 14 starts.

Widden inherited Thronum when they took over Sun Stud in Victoria last year.

In Thronum’s first season at stud in 2018, he served 122 mares, at a service fee of $17,600, but struggled with his fertility which was just under 50 per cent.

While his fertility has increased, his numbers have dropped along with his service fee which for the third season in a row is $7,700.

Widden Victoria’s Adam Henry said that will limited numbers to race from a first crop that produced 50 live foals, Thron Bone’s win will give the stallion a boost.

“It was a good win and he put the writing on the wall when it ran fourth in a Stakes race at its first start,” Henry said.

“I think he has got Stakes class.”

Henry said that Thronum is from the family of Street Cry and Shamardal and ticks a lot of boxes on pedigree and performance.

“He has done a pretty good job and I think he has only had half a dozen runners for one winner and three placegetters,” he said.

“I am hearing good things from trainers and they like the ones they have.”

The fertility problems Thronum experienced in his first season were perhaps the result of not immediately handling the transition from the track to the breeding barn, according to Henry.

“But he was much better second season,” he said.

“He is doing the job and while he is not the most fertile stallion on the roster, he is still getting them into foal.”

And while Henry said Thronum’s first season fertility problems didn’t help, it wasn’t a “death sentence” by any means and the stallion was adequate in the breeding barn.

Henry said Thronum was an affordable horse for breeders and his progeny had sold for $50,000 to $60,000 in the yearling market again this season.

He said the stallion was a good breed to race option as well.

“He is a son of Snitzel with a good female line,” Henry said.

“He was a good racehorse that good better. He won two at two and won the first Stakes race for three-year-olds in Sydney in early August and won his Group 2 as an older horse and was Group 1 placed as well.”

Henry said people tend to sit on the fence until they see a new stallion’s progeny run and Thronum had shown enough for people to take a punt on him now.

And Hunter and Gathercole had great success with Barb Raider (Rebel Raider x Graebarb) which had a fantastic campaign that ended with a second, beaten a length, in the Group 1 Queensland Oaks at the start of June

Another homebred for Gathercole, the three-year-old filly was also second in the Group 1 Australasian Oaks, beaten a head, but did win two Group 2s and a Group 3 this campaign.

“It was sensational and we had a great campaign and she had seven starts and only once finished worse than second and that’s when she hit a heavy 10 which she didn’t like,” Hunter said.

“It’s just a pity we didn’t get the Group 1 but there are plenty of Group 1s around as she gets older.

“She is in the paddock up in Queensland and she’ll have a light spring and we’ll aim her for the autumn again and there are a lot of mare’s races.

“We are not fussed with what happens over the spring and we might run in one or two but we’ll aim for the autumn.”

Hunter said the Queensland conditions had been perfect for Barb Raider as she takes a break from an extremely lucrative campaign.

He said he wasn’t in any rush to bring her back to Melbourne’s harsh winter weather.

The mare has raced 13 times for five wins, four seconds and two-thirds. She has banked $899,175.

Widden Stud owner Antony Thompson described it as a little bit of unfinished business when he was trackside at Royal Ascot to watch Nature Strip reaffirm his title as the world’s best sprinter by taking out the Group 1 King’s Stand (1000m).

Now with a mind-boggling $18.4m in prizemoney, Thompson bought into Nature Strip’s sire Nicconi before the stallion tackled the King’s Stand back in 2010 when he finished an unlucky fourth, beaten 2.6 lengths for trainer David Hayes and jockey Frankie Dettori.

Nicconi (Bianconi x Nicola Lass) had his last race just 24 days later when he beat four runners home, with jockey Damien Oliver, in the Group 1 July Handicap (1207m) at Newmarket.

Just a couple of months after his English assault, Nicconi started what was to become an illustrious stud career when he served a book of 156 mares at Widden Stud in his first season.

Last year he was relocated to Widden’s Victorian stud where he served 188 mares at a service fee of $27,500.

Thompson said he hadn’t been surprised with what Nicconi had been able to achieve as a stallion.

“He was a high-class sprinter himself and ran very well at Ascot and was unlucky,” he said.

“We came away with David Hayes and the Devitt and Gordon families, who raced him, feeling like there was a bit of unfinished business.

“So to come back and see Nature Strip win at Ascot is fantastic and something, I guess, fills a bit of a hole.”

Thompson said the relocation of Nicconi had been a big boost to the Victorian breeding industry.

“A lot has been said about the rise of the Victorian breeding industry and with the stallion power they’ve got and certainly Nicconi is a huge addition, I’d say,” he said.

“He is a horse that statistically has been very solid with his winners to runners and with his yearlings, he is a very commercial horse.

“He has got the world’s best sprinter and he has got a very good filly (Graceful Girl) for Bob Peters that we’ll see back soon, so he is coming into his own.

“He is a very solid stallion and trainers love them. They have great temperaments and I just think they are a horsemen’s horse and those who have Nicconis enjoy them and a lot of them who have bought them and had luck with them are trying to buy another one.”

Thompson attributes Nicconi’s success in the sales ring as a result of his consistency and his ability to produce such a good type.

Rising 17-year-olds, Thompson said the stallion was hitting his straps and starting to fire up.

“With the breeders working out how to mate them and the trainers working out how to train them, they are starting to come out into their own,” he said.

“He works with a pretty good cross-section of mares and when you go through it there is plenty of history and options that work with him.”

Hayes, who now trains in Hong Kong, was a part-owner of Nicconi and trained the entire to two Group 1 victories and rated the horse as the fastest colt to come out of Lindsay Park and the best sprinter he has trained.

And he was always confident Nicconi would become a good stallion after winning the Group 1 Galaxy (1100m) and the Group 1 Lightning Stakes (1000m).

“He was a magnificent looking horse,” Hayes said.

“I was part-owner of the horse and have stayed in him with the Gordon and Devitt families.”

Hayes said that after starting favourite in the King’s Stand, Nicconi blew it at the start when he came out last.

“I think that if he was a gelding, he would have been like a Nature Strip.

He would have been a very, very consistent sprinter and at the top level.

“He was Group 1 but badly needed gelding but went to stud.”

Hayes said they got a good price for Nicconi as a stallion and were able to remain in the ownership.

He said Nature Strip’s timing to beat the best sprinters and win races like The Everest had been amazing and his ability to return every year to win at the same carnival had also been amazing.

“His stake money is incredible,” Hayes said.

Nature Strip (out of Strikeline, by Desert Sun), which has a race record of 38: 21-7-1, has won the last three editions of the Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes (1200m).

And like his sire Nicconi, the seven-year-old is also a winner of the Group 1 Lightning Stakes (1000m) at Flemington in 2021.

The 2010 Lightning Stakes was Nicconi’s last win and he had four more starts later that year – including two in England – before being retired to stud.

Nature Strip didn’t have much luck in this year’s Black Caviar Lightning Stakes and was beaten a short half head by stablemate Home Affairs who faded in this year’s King’s Stand.

Hayes said he doesn’t have any horses by Nicconi in his stable but says there are a few that a winning and doing quite well in other Hong Kong stables.

Nicconi, which served 118 mares last season, has sired 22 Australian stakes winners that have won 52 stakes races.

His service fee has been set at $22,000 this year.

Nature Strip destroyed a crack field of international gallopers in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes (1000m) at Royal Ascot to remind the world that when it comes to breeding sprinters, there’s no place quite like Australia.

The son of Widden Stud’s Nicconi became the fifth Australian horse to win one of the globe’s most prestigious sprint races on the opening day of one of world racing’s most revered meetings.

Nature Strip wowed a huge crowd on a gloriously sunny afternoon with a sustained show of speed down the famous Ascot straight to claim the ninth Group 1 of a glittering career.

Whilst he may not boast a race record as unblemished as that of Black Caviar, the last Australian horse to triumph at Ascot 10 years ago, there is no doubt that the Chris Waller-trained speedster can now be considered amongst the fastest horses the country has ever produced.

With Nicconi now standing at Widden Stud’s farm in Victoria, the victory was also another feather in the cap for the state’s buoyant breeding industry.

Speaking after the race, a characteristically emotional Waller paid tribute to a supreme equine athlete which, had it not been for the mighty mare Winx, would have been considered the horse of his lifetime.

“I don’t know what more I can say about him,” he said.

“This means an awful lot to me and my whole team. We don’t get the opportunity very often to take on the rest of the world, so to bring a horse over here and win is very special. It was breathtaking.

“Nature Strip has been a very good horse for a long time, I guess he is now in the twilight of his career but he has learned what it takes to be an exceptional racehorse. He was tricky in his early career, but he has improved with age and it’s an honour to train a horse like him.

“Australia has a massive breeding and racing industry, and to showcase our breeds to the world is very important. Ratings stack up and he is one of the highest-rated horses in the world, but until you do it on the main stage they’re just numbers really. It will remind everybody how strong Australian racing is.”

Part-owner Steve Hansen, who enjoyed a glittering coaching career for the New Zealand All-Blacks, was equally caught up in the excitement of a moment he ranked amongst the greatest of his life.

“I didn’t think I would get this emotional, but I’m actually quite choked up,” he said.

“It’s difficult to compare it to my rugby career, but this is certainly right up there with the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had.

“To do it with such a great group of owners makes it even more special, we’ve had the best time since we got here and even if Nature Strip hadn’t won today, I would still have taken some great memories away. But for him to put on a performance like that, it’s just a dream come true really.

“And for the horse to be trained and ridden by fellow Kiwis, and two champion guys, it just tops everything off.”

They say that timing can be everything.

And there’s been a double dose involving seven-year-old stallion Gold Standard (Sebring x Coniston Gem).

The stallion grabbed the attention of breeders when two-year-old Sheeza Belter (Saxabelle), from Gold Standard’s first crop, won the Group 2 Sires Produce Stakes (1350m) and then won her next start by taking out the Group 1 JJ Atkins Stakes (1600m) at Eagle Farm last Saturday.

Sheeza Belter is the first filly to win the JJ Atkins Stakes since Linky Dink (Keeper x Gimmick) in 2009.

The former Perth galloper, now trained at Randwick by Peter and Paul Snowden, has raced seven times for four wins, a second and a third.
The filly has already put more than $1.4m in the bank for owner Justin Warwick who paid $50,000 for the filly at the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale last year.

Bred by prominent Melbourne breeder Robert Crabtree, the Group 2 winning Gold Standard started stud duties at Spendthrift Farm in Victoria but was relocated to Widden Stud when Spendthrift closed down its Australian operation.

While lamenting the loss of Spendthrift to the Victorian industry, Widden has benefited greatly from Sheeza Belter’s outstanding performances.

Despite serving a modest book of 26 mares at a service fee of $5500 last season, there has been an incredible rush for the stallion whose biggest book was 71 in his second season in 2019.

Widden Stud Victoria’s Adam Henry said the rush has come off the back of Sheeza Belter’s Produce Stakes at Eagle Farm on May 28.

“She started her career by winning the WA Magic Millions in her first prep and then went over to the Snowdens and won the Group 2 Sires and now the big Group 1,” Henry said.

“It’s pretty amazing.”

Henry said there were only 25 bookings now left for Gold Standard whose service fee was increased after Sheeza Belter’s JJ Atkins win.

“His service fee has been increased,” he said.

“He was announced at $8,800 but that has since gone to $17,600 and we are honouring all existing bookings in the system but anything going forward will be done at the $17,600.”

Henry said Gold Standard’s book had been capped at 150. He has served 195 mares in his four seasons at stud.

“Pretty much we announced him on the Friday and Sheeza Belter won on the Saturday and I reckon we took 80 bookings over the next couple of days after that,” he said.

“We made the announcement on the 27th of May that he would be standing at Widden Victoria and then on the 28th, the next day, Sheeza Belter won the Group 2 Sires Produce – the million-dollar race.

“And from there the enquiries haven’t stopped. It’s a pretty amazing feat.”

As of Monday, Henry said Gold Standard ($1,537,640) was only $155,000 short of being champion first season with just six runners.

He said the leader Russian Revolution ($1,692,720) has had 40 runners.

Henry said he wasn’t sure why Golden Standard had a small book of mares last season but says the stallion’s lower profile back then was probably a contributing factor.

“But it’s all about what they can do with their progeny,” he said.

“What he is doing at the moment is off 42 live foals and then he has got another 42 (from 2019) to come for next year and then he’ll be serving 150 mares this season.

“Extreme Choice has shown that you can do it from a small book if you are good enough and it looks like Gold Standard is heading in that direction.”

Henry said Gold Standard was attracting a better type of broodmare and had shown what he could do with limited numbers and probably not the best mares in the Stud Book.

He said they were also excited to have another two former Spendthrift stallions – Dirty Work (Written Tycoon x Maidel) and Overshare (I Am Invincible x Savannah’s Choice) – on the roster.

Dirty Work served 155 mares in his first season last year.

“And then we saw through the Magic Millions sale how mares in foal to him were in high demand,” Henry said.

“There were ten that made two hundred grand or more that were in foal to him.

“It’s high demand for him, a son of Written Tycoon.

“And Overshare has had a great start to stud with three runners for two winners and a placegetter, including Annabel Neasham’s filly (Lady Laguna) which has had a couple of Group 2 placings in two-year-old races.

“Overshare has had a great start as well.”

Henry said they were happy to take the baton from Spendthrift and build on what they’d done with the stallions that had been relocated to Widden.

And Henry believes they’d probably be the only Victorian stud to have three stallions – Magnus, Star Witness and Nicconi – on the roster to each have 100 or more winners for the season.

“I don’t know if anyone else could boast that off the one roster in Victoria,” he said.

Quilly Park’s Richard Anderson is having success in Macau with two horses, including three-year-old Aeroport which is by the stallion De Gaulle that he part-owns.

Anderson bred Aeroport which is out of Quilly Park’s mare Varone (Holy Roman Emperor x Sorren Tessa).

After five starts in South Australia for a second, Anderson decided to try his luck in Macau.

But it’s been four-year-old Yuanno (Pierro x Volted) that has been the star for Anderson and majority owner Yuan Wenzhong.

The four-year-old won a 2000m maiden at Ararat for Cranbourne trainer Trevor Rogers who raced the horse seven times.

“In Australia, we need the speed on all the time,” Anderson said.

“They stack them up here and because he had a few knee issues, if he is striking the ground hard, he jars up.

“But if he is free-flowing and rolling, he doesn’t feel it so we thought we’d send him up there to Macau and have a go at the Macau Derby.”

Since arriving in Macau last year, Yuanno has so far raced six times for three wins, one second, one third and a fourth and has collected more than AUD$120,000 in prizemoney.

And Yuanno is set to tackle some rich races after his recent victory in the Macau Derby Trial (G3).

The gelding’s next target races are the Macau Guineas on 18 June and the Macau Derby on 17 July.

Yuanno’s Derby Trial victory secured the gelding’s place in the G1 Derby (1800m) which carries prizemoney of around AUD$400,000.

Anderson said Aeroport won his maiden and beat two horses that had won a million dollars in local money.

Aeroport gave De Gaulle, which stands at Bombora Downs, his second winner.

“Madame Du Gast gave him his first winner (in January) at Flemington, so the stallion has had seven runners for two winners and three placegetters,” Anderson said.

“I decided to send Aeroport to Macau because he is a front-runner based on all his track work and everything he was doing. When he was with Jon O’Connor (Morphettville trainer) he had to lead or had to be sitting up on the speed and he just wants to go one speed this horse.”

Anderson said all the attention had been on Yuanno who had become something of a superstar since arriving in Macau.

He said they had to make sure he acclimatised to the conditions and luckily he did.

“If there is a chance of winning the Macau Derby then there is the chance of going to Hong Kong to race because you’ve raced and won,” Anderson said.

“And that’s the dream of Mr Yuan (Wenzhong).”

Anderson is hopeful that Aeroport’s win will attract some local interest in the stallion’s progeny in Macau.

And he said that Warrnambool trainer Symon Wilde had bought Madame Du Gast’s full sister for $115,000 at this year’s Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale.

Anderson said it was a great return on a $5500 service fee.

Locally bred Maserartie Bay picked up his second city win in three starts and his third win in four starts when the son of Stockwell Thoroughbreds stallion Artie Schiller (USA) won the fourth heat of the Banjo Paterson Series Handicap (2520m) at Flemington on Saturday.

The five-year-old gelding has good options in the coming weeks, including the $150,000 series final over 2600m at Flemington on July 2 and the $175,000 Flemington Cup 1849 (2800m) on July 16.

After winning the Yarra Valley Cup (1950m) in March and then backing it up with a next start victory at Caulfield (2400m), Maserartie Bay struggled on a heavy track in the Listed Warrnambool Cup (2350m) before bouncing back at Flemington for his eighth win from 23 starts for $430,750 in prizemoney.

Trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, the stable was represented at Flemington by their Ballarat stable’s assistant trainer Jack Turnbull who said the horse had to show he’d recovered from a tough Warrnambool Cup run.

“It was far too soft at Warrnambool, and it took him a while to get over that run. Thankfully the connections have been patient and this race looked ideal for him,” Turnbull said in his postrace interview, Turnbull suggested Maserartie Bay could be targeted at the Flemington Cup.

“He can have a nice breather from now and until then. Hopefully, he can go into that race in as good a form as he was today,” he said after the Flemington win.
Maserartie Bay was bred by Rushton Park’s Kayley and David Johnson who bought the broodmare Navica (Snowland x High Heels) for $30,000 at the 2016 Australian Broodmare and Weanling Sale. The maiden winning mare, sold by Gooree Stud, was in foal to Artie Schiller with what was to become Maserartie Bay.

David Johnson said they were disappointed when they only got $60,000 for him as a yearling at Melbourne Premier in 2018.

“He was a lovely colt, an absolute ripper,” he said.

“And Ciaron (Maher) had seen him up at the farm and when he saw him at the sales he said he bid on him because he thought he was pretty cheap.

“He has been an absolute ripper and is from that really good family. His mum is a half-sister to Desert War (Desert King) and Laser Hawk (Artie Schiller) who were both Group 1 winners.

“It’s a proper staying family.”

After Maserartie Bay, Navica wasn’t served in 2016 and then a mating with Sooboog produced a filly that was purchased cheaply by Adelaide trainer John Hickmott.
The mare remained at Rushton Park to foal down to Sooboog and an attempt was made to put her back into foal to Artie Schiller, but it failed twice and the mare didn’t produce a foal in 2019 or 2020.

Navica was sold again and had a filly to Queensland stallion Knight Exemplar (Exceed and Excel x Charmview).

“She was getting a bit of age on her, the old girl,” Johnson said.

“We struggled to get here into foal again.”

Johnson said Artie Schiller (El Prado x Hidden Light) had been a great sire that had been underrated.

“He is certainly getting on in years now but he has done a very good job for a very long time,” he said.

“He can still get a good horse – he doesn’t know how old he is.

“And Maserartie has been a great horse. Dave Eustace introduced us to the group of owners at Flemington one day and it’s great to see a good bunch of people with a nice horse on their hands.

“They are looking at some cup races and some black-type races going forward. I think he would be a really good country cup type of horse.”

Johnson said Maserartie Bay was a big horse and had taken a long time to furnish.
He said the horse was sold at the Inglis Classic sale branded the Blue Riband session which was for yearlings that based on pedigree would be best as three-year-olds and at distances of 1600m and beyond.

“He has certainly lived up to that,” Johnson said.

Stockwell Thoroughbreds Mike Becker said Maserartie Bay had become a good horse after taking a while to mature and develop his right racing patterns.

Becker said the gelding is well-bred, out of a good mare and his breeders Gooree Park Stud had always been a good supporter of Artie Schiller, a former shuttle stallion now permanently based at Stockwell Thoroughbreds at Diggers Rest.

“He has taken a while but they’ve been patient and they’re getting the rewards,” Becker said of Maserartie Bay who shuttled to Australia from America.

Becker said Artie Schiller doesn’t get much support – he served 18 mares last year – and conceded his commercial days have finished.

“It’s through my own fault as much as anything,” he said.

Artie Schiller was second to Written Tycoon as Australia’s leading first-season sire with what Becker described as a limited crop of modest mares.

A top crop of three-year-olds gave Artie Schiller the title of Australia’s leading second season sire in 2012.

“I didn’t bring him back to Australia in his fourth year and it turned out to be a terrible mistake. It was going to be hard to get mares in that fourth year with the competition and a bit was happening,” Becker said.

“No sooner than he didn’t come than he started getting winners everywhere, so he missed a crop and then by the time he came back the following year he’d gone through the roof.

“Emirates had bought 50 per cent of the horse and I lost control of him which was a shame.

“The world goes by.”

Becker said that an injury and remaining in America in 2010 virtually cost the stallion one and a half missed seasons in the breeding barn.

He said Artie Schiller had missed his commercial opportunity but the reality is that his strike rate has never altered and the stallion has a high percentage of runners to winners and black type runners to winners.

Becker said the stallion’s statistics put him in elite company.

“But he just doesn’t have the numbers running now but he has got a few nice ones coming through the system that I have been following and they are shaping up well,” he said.

“He had three runners in Hong Kong on Sunday and all had good chances, so they are better than average horses.”

Becker said the now 17-year-old Navica was a big, powerful mare but not an easy breeder and it wasn’t through lack of trying that she couldn’t produce another Artie Schiller foal.

“Getting her in foal was one thing but keeping her in foal was another,” he said.
Becker said Gooree Park Stud bred Artie Schiller’s first Group 1 winner in Australia – Laser Hawk – and supported the stallion with mares.

While Artie Schiller was now “flat out” getting 30 mares a year, he said they were comfortable with it.

“His fertility is still good, his libido is still good and he is still Artie,” Becker said.
“I’ve worked with a lot of stallions over the years but I have learnt more off Artie Schiller than I have learnt off any stallion.

“He is a different beast in a lot of ways. If he thinks a mare is ready to be covered, he’ll cover it with gusto. He doesn’t care what the vet says when they should be covered, he makes up his mind when they should be covered.”

Becker said Artie Schiller’s sire, El Prado (IRE) was an amazing story and at one stage, along with Scenic (IRE), was the only two-year-old winning son of Sadler’s Wells – and both were Group 1 winners.

He said for whatever reason El Prado didn’t go to stud in the UK but instead was shipped off to California where had limited opportunities but after a few years became the champion sire of America which was an extraordinary rise to the top and became even greater when moved to Kentucky.

“Artie was a son of Sadler’s Wells and at that time Sadler’s Wells in Australia was a dirty word because a lot of his staying sons had been trotted out and they didn’t work,” Becker said.

“Bringing a grandson of Sadler’s Wells, which he was, to Australia was a bit of a risk.

“But Artie himself was such a great racehorse. He was a sprinter miler which I think makes a stallion. He had won 10 times from his 22 starts and he only finished out of the first four once and that was as a three-year-old in the Breeders Mile when he got knocked out of the race but came back the next year and won it.

“He was everyone’s dream of a racehorse, a real beast.

“His first three dams were all very tough Group 1 winning mares.”

Becker said Artie Schiller had been a marvellous old stallion but sadly most of the owner breeders had disappeared from the industry and those were the ones best suited to breeding a horse by him.

He said the stud’s other stallion Al Maher was a similar story to Artie Schiller.
“He is still proving he can get a good horse, gets a lot of winners but commercially, like Artie, their days have passed them and we understand that.”

He said Artie Schiller and Al Maher, both 20-year-olds, were wonderful stallions and a lot of the new kids on the block would never emulate what those two had achieved.

With strong positivity and high interest in Leneva Park stallions following the 2021 season, both Fierce Impact and Royal Meeting will stand at unchanged fees in 2022.

Fierce Impact, the exceptional three-time Group 1 winning son of Deep Impact, will stand his second season at stud at $16,500 (inc GST) after covering a quality book of over 140 mares in his first season.

Following the phenomenal success of Japanese bloodlines in Australia in season 2021/22 with Deep Impact siring Group 1 winners Profondo and Glint Of Hope, Fierce Impact represents outstanding value with high fertility during his first season.

In an exciting announcement, early bird breeders will have the chance to win a nine-day trip for two to the Japan Cup simply by booking a mare to Fierce Impact in 2022 – for details follow this link to the Leneva Park website.

Royal Meeting progeny have turned heads at weanling sales around the country and the Group 1 winning two-year-old returns for his third season at stud at an unchanged fee of $11,000 (inc GST), giving breeders an undeniable chance to capitalise on this son of Invincible Spirit.

Enjoying a significant increase in covers in 2021, Royal Meeting is extremely fertile and has been supported by some of the smartest breeders in Australia; with his stunning first crop weanlings on the ground it is not hard to see why.

With weanlings averaging $64,900 at public auction this year with a top price of $160,000 for the colt ex Mistress McDowell at the Magic Millions National Sale, Royal Meeting is the number one bull for breeders looking to turn serious profit with commercial weanlings and yearlings.

To book your mare or to discuss details on limited early bird deals on both Fierce Impact and Royal Meeting, speak to the Leneva Park nominations team today.

Mitchell Brown: 0447 366 790 // mitch@lenevapark.com.au

Tom Havers: 0459 482 176 // tom@lenevapark.com.au

With more than $1 million raised from the broodmares that went through the ring this week, Blue Gum Farm can reflect on another very successful visit to the Gold Coast.

Headlined by their Redoute’s Choice mare Seattle Dancer, who was sold in foal to Written Tycoon, Blue Gum’s six-strong team of broodmares fetched $1.115 million to complete a very satisfactory week’s work.

Widden Stud shelled out $525,000 for Seattle Dancer (Redoute’s Choice x Fleur De’here), which came as little surprise to Blue Gum’s owner/manager Phil Campbell, who had expected the well-bred mare to catch the eye of some of the sale’s bigger buyers.

“We thought she’d be very popular when she went through the ring,” said Campbell.

“She was always the standout, and she sold accordingly. She’s got a great pedigree and she is such a great style of mare. She’s very easy on the eye and has a great pedigree, she paraded beautifully and plenty of people came back for second and third looks, so I thought she’d sell for around that figure.

“I’m not sure who she’ll be served by, but Widden have a terrific roster of stallions on their books so I’m sure she’ll have every chance with her matings going forward.”

Friar Fox (Blackfriars x Pearlesque), Cop a Clip (I Am Invincible x Dylan’s Promise) and Let’s Dazzle (So You Think x Personification), who like Seattle Dancer is also in foal to Yulong’s superstar Written tycoon, also sold for six figure sums.

With no yearlings on sale on the Gold Coast next week, Campbell is heading back to their farm at Euroa to prepare for the Great Southern Weanling Sale, which brings the curtain down on the 2022 sales season at Oaklands Junction from June 9-10.

“We have nine weanlings going through the ring at the Great Southern, including a lovely Tivaci filly, a very nice Fiorente colt, a Blue Point colt and a colt by Manhattan Rain,” said Campbell.

“They’re all lovely types and I’m sure they’ll prove popular, so hopefully we can end the season on a high note.”

Buoyed by the $1.6 million sale of Mac ‘n’ Cheese to Yulong at the end of the opening day of the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, Spendthrift Australia enjoyed further success on day two with their combined lots selling for more than $3 million.

Group 1 winner Santa Monica (Per Incanto x Monarch) got the ball rolling early on the second day at the Gold Coast, selling to Corumbene Stud for $500,000.

Like Santa Monica, Solar Star (Zoustar x Petty Cury), who signed off from her racing career with victory in the Listed Gai Waterhouse Classic, is in foal to Dirty Work and she was sold for $520,000 to Glenlogan Park.

But Spendthrift saved the best for last when they sold Baccarat Baby (Casino Prince x Meerlust), who is also in foal to the striking son of Written Tycoon, to Dermot Farrington Bloodstock for $900,000.

The David Vandyke-trained mare reeled off five wins in a row at the start of her career, before adding a pair of Stakes wins over a mile – firstly in the Listed Ascot Princess Stakes, and later in the Group 3 Sunshine Coast Guineas.

Spendthrift bought the mare off the track for $650,000, turning a tidy profit and showing the esteem in which Dirty Work – who now stands alongside the likes of Nicconi and Russian Camelot at Widden Stud’s Victorian farm – is held.

Another Spendthrift lot which attracted plenty of interest in the ring was Skaggerak (Dawn Approach x Itameri). The mare only enjoyed moderate success during her racing career, but as a half-sister to Rosemont stallion Hanseatic she was in high demand and was eventually sold to B2B Thoroughbreds for $400,000. A $250,000 purchase by Spendthrift, Skaggerak again represented an outstanding result for the farm which was purchased by David Moodie’s Hesket Thoroughbreds operation earlier this month.

Josh Rix, of Spendthrift Australia / Hesket Thoroughbreds, was understandably delighted to secure such premium prices for their dispersal.

“It’s been enormous for the whole crew,” he said.

“They have put in an awful lot of work, and we’re seeing the fruits of their labour. The preparation work started months ago, and the results so far have made all that hard work worthwhile. We bought most of these mares at the sales over the past couple of years, we knew their pedigrees would make them attractive propositions and that’s been proved in the sale prices, which have been even bigger than we could’ve hoped for.

“I was very confident Yulong would buy Mac ‘n’ Cheese, that result gave the team a lift and got them up and about and it’s rolled into today. Yulong are getting their hands on every mare with a pedigree, and if she goes to Written Tycoon it gives her the best possible start to her broodmare career.

“Dirty Work covered 155 mares with us last year, he’s now well on his way and he’s found a fantastic home with Widden. They’ll support him with some great mares and they have a reputation for a reason, so interested parties could buy our mares in foal to him with confidence knowing that Dirty Work is proving his worth at stud.

“Skaggerak was a huge result for the team after we paid $250,000 for her. She looked incredible and the guys at the farm did an outstanding job with her, as they did with all the mares.

“We’ve been smashed this past week, the grass down our aisle has been wrecked which goes to show how popular our weanlings and mares have been during the inspections, and thankfully that has translated into some spectacular results.”

Including Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Spendthrift have so far raised more than $4.5 million in sales and still have 16 lots to go through the ring on the final day on Thursday.

Of the remaining mares, Rix expects their multiple Stakes winner Madeenaty (Exceed and Excel x Set for Fame), another mare in foal to Dirty Work, to fetch the highest price.