Archive for category: Industry News

Brideoake, a former champion equestrian rider turned multiple Group 1-winning trainer has trained 40 winners this season, just short of his career-best mark of 42, but has always dabbled in the breeding game.

“I have always liked breeding and that goes back to a few of my equestrian horses. I kept a few of my really good mares and got results. I have kept the mares I have trust in and they have turned out to be really good producers,” he told TDN AusNZ.

“There’s nothing better than when you work the mating out, you breed one and it goes on and does something. Then you end up working with its progeny.

“I’m sure it’s a disease, but you do stuff for different reasons and that part of it does give me plenty of satisfaction.”

His most notable success as a breeder has been the G1 The Galaxy winner Griante (Good Journey {USA}), who he guided through a 29-start career to win over $1 million in prizemoney, including three stakes races.

Griante now takes pride of place among Brideoake’s broodmare band, producing the dual-winner Cadenabbia (Redoute’s Choice), who sold for NZ$800,000 through the draft of Cambridge Stud at the 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale. She has also had a Pierro filly go through the ring as part of Milburn Creek’s draft at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, where Spendthrift Australia paid $500,000 for her.

“She’s the number-one mare. She’s got a very nice Dundeel colt that will be at a sale next year. He’s a nice animal and I’m sure we will get something there. She’s now in foal to The Autumn Sun,” he said.

Given the success of Griante’s progeny through the sales, it is no surprise to see Brideoake aiming for another strong mating in 2021.

“She’ll go to Capitalist. She had oodles of speed and that should be a highly commercial option for her,” he said.

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A strong family hand

Brideoake lost Griante’s dam Grand Strategy (Strategic) last year but has a few options with that family having retained another of her daughters, Pomona (Teofilo {Ire}).

“Pomona was a terrific mare. She trialled up and showed me a lot of promise and then broke her back sesamoid and that was the end of her. She went to stud unraced and I guess that’s what you have to do, you have to trust your mare. I’m pretty happy to have her in the broodmare band,” he said.

“She went to Pride Of Dubai and I have a Street Boss on the ground which I will sell, probably through the Magic Millions.”

Across his 16 mares registered with the Studbook last year, Brideoake used 13 different stallions, mixing up his options across Darley quartet Territories (Ire), Frosted (USA), Impending and Blue Point (Ire), Coolmore duo Pride Of Dubai and Churchill (Ire), Vinery’s Headwater, Arrowfield Stud’s The Autumn Sun and Spendthrift’s Omaha Beach (USA) as well as Nostradamus, Danerich, Magnus and Fiorente (Ire).

“I do tend to cast my net wide. I enjoy picking the stallions out, and I always look for variety,” he said.

The Journey never ends

Brideoake also still utilises a stallion close to his heart, Good Journey (USA), who is based on his Violet Town property along with his mares. He is the sire of two of Brideoake’s three Group 1 winners as a trainer, Griante and Grand Journey, who is also part of his broodmare band.

“While he might be past his best in terms of fertility, I still breed a couple religiously to him. I bred those couple of really nice fillies by him. I wanted a bit more Nureyev, and I was always keen to find some females that went with that,” he said.

“We had one of his yearlings come back from the breaker the other day who is out of a mare called Street Blaze. I had a good mare called Raven Protector and she had a whole bunch of colts and one filly and that one filly is Street Blaze.”

Street Blaze (Street Sense {USA}) never raced but produced the multiple stakes winner Royal Mile (Danerich), who was last seen running fifth in the G1 South Australian Derby for trainer Lee Creek, who paid $26,000 for him as a yearling.

Brideoake takes just as much pride in horses he has bred winning for other trainers as he does when they win for him.

Double targets at Caulfield

That passion for breeding has been passed onto his son Tom, who is managing the farm, and who bred a filly called Bob’s Relish (Redente) who contests a 1200-metre race at Caulfield on Saturday for Brideoake Snr.

Bob’s Relish is one of two runners for the trainer at Caulfield, the other being Red Can Man (Gingerbread Man), who won the G3 Sir John Monash S. at his most recent start and takes on the G3 Bletchingly S. as one of the leading chances.

“He’s absolutely super and he’s come out of the Monash very well. He’s had a two-week break had a good gallop Tuesday and he’s got a good barrier, in three,” he said.

“Third run in, he’ll be just about at full steam. He’s a big, powerful horse and he’s a really good work horse.”

Red Can Man’s first start for Brideoake didn’t quite work out as planned after he finished seventh at Flemington, an effort Brideoake put down to it being his first-up run, after he initially struggled with the trip to Victoria.

“He came over in the summer and got a bit travel sick, so we abandoned the autumn. We nursed him back to health and away he went. That’s probably why he was a bit fresh first-up. He was a bit too bright that day, and so he needed an outing,” he said.

The G1 Memsie S. at the end of August shapes as an ideal target for Red Can Man, who Brideaoke has a lot of faith in.

“I’m pretty upbeat about a horse like this should he continue to progress the way he is going. He should get to the Memsie with a fair bit of good work under his belt and he’s just a fast horse. It’s a good combination,” he said.

The strong rebound which led to record results across the yearling and breeding sales in 2021 has understandably bolstered the confidence of studmasters when it comes to setting stallion prices ahead of the pending breeding season.

The trend of stallion fees is particularly interesting this year after the economic shock of 2020 saw a large-scale drop in prices due largely to the uncertainty of the early aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the thoroughbred industry has, until this point at least, weathered the economic aspects of the pandemic remarkably well, and confidence has returned to the market.

It’s worth noting that for the purposes of this article, and reflective of the practices in each jurisdiction, all Australian-based stallions are quoted with GST included, while the New Zealand-based stallions are quoted with GST excluded.

The top end

As a rule, the top end service fees are where there is greatest volatility and this was the case in 2020 in Australia, where four of the top five priced stallions had their prices reduced.

In 2021, the upward trend of the previous five years has resumed with seven stallions to stand at a price of above $100,000, up from six last year. Six of those seven have had a price increase, including the highest-priced stallion in Australia, I Am Invincible, who jumps from $209,000 to $220,000.

Written Tycoon, who will stand his first season at Yulong Stud in Victoria at $165,000 and looks destined to claim his first title as Australian Champion Sire, has had the biggest jump in price of any stallion of $88,000. The average fee for those seven stallions which now stand in that six-figure price range has risen from $143,786 in 2020 to $158,714, this year.

Table: Australian-based stallions with the biggest service fee rise (inc GST)

In New Zealand, Waikato Stud’s Savabeel is the highest-priced stallion at NZ$100,000, the same as last year, while next on the pricelist is barnmate Super Seth at NZ$35,000, who is also unchanged in his second year. Cambridge Stud’s Almanzor (Fr), who had a brilliant season with his first yearlings through Australasian sales rings, stands at NZ$30,000, the same price as his new barnmate Hello Youmzain (Fr), and Waikato Stud’s Ocean Park (NZ).

It’s perhaps indicative of the more cautious approach and the less bullish nature of the New Zealand industry at the moment that Ocean Park is the only one of the above stallions to have had a price increase.

Table: New Zealand-based stallions with the biggest service fee rise (exc GST), prices are in NZD

Across the board

The commerciality of registered stallions does tend to drop away quite significantly towards the bottom end, which can distort or dilute statistics when it comes to comparisons on price.

For the purpose of allowing proper comparison, we have looked to filter data for the following section by analysing the 149 stallions which will stand at $7700 and above in Australia in 2021. That list includes 27 first-year stallions, 121 stallions which stood in Australia last year and one stallion, who is back after a year off, Maurice (Jpn).

Of those 121 established stallions, 24, or 19.83 per cent, have had a price rise from last year, 63, or 52.07 per cent, remained at the same price, and 34, or 28.1 per cent, saw their price fall.

A similar analysis of the 2020 stallion rosters saw just 5.26 per cent of stallion have their price increased, 30.8 per cent have their price unchanged and 63.94 per cent saw their price drop from 2019.

Going back to the pre-COVID era and in 2019, 12.65 per cent of Australian stallions had their price increased from the previous year and just 25.3 per cent had their price fall.

Table: Changes in the price of established Australian stallions – Percentage

Applying a similar NZ$7000-plus filter to New Zealand, it takes in 33 stallions, including 29 that stood in New Zealand in 2020. Of those 29, 10 have had a price rise, the biggest of which was the NZ$12,000 increase for Mapperley Stud’s Contributer (Ire), while only four had a decrease and 15 stayed at the same price.

Filtering the Australian list down further to the Top 50 stallions on price and we see the average price of a stallion in that bracket in 2021 is $61,710 with a median of $44,000. In 2020, the average of the Top 50 priced stallions was $51,975 with a median of $38,500, while in 2019, those figures stood at $52,580 on average and $33,000 on median.

The rising stars

The Australian stallion who had the biggest percentage rise in his service fee in 2021 is Capitalist, who had a brilliant first season from his progeny on the track, with 20 winners to date, headed by the G1 Champagne S. victor Captivant. Newgate responded to this success by bolstering his fee by 125 per cent to $99,000.

Barnmate Extreme Choice, who stood at $22,000 in 2020, would have likely been in line for an even bigger percentage rise after an exceptional first crop, led by G1 Golden Slipper S. winner Stay Inside, but Newgate opted to put him in the ‘Private’ category due to his ongoing fertility challenges, restricting him for shareholders to access.

Other notable Australian-based stallions to have their service fee at least doubled, include the aforementioned Written Tycoon, Coolmore’s So You Think (NZ), Darley shuttlers Street Boss (USA) and Frosted (USA) and Newgate’s Flying Artie.

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Gallery: Australian-based stallions to have their service fee at least doubled

The biggest jump in New Zealand in terms of percentage was Contributer (Ire) as mentioned, while Ocean Park increased 50 per cent to NZ$30,000 and Little Avondale Stud’s Per Incanto (USA) 66.7 per cent to NZ$25,000. Turn Me Loose (NZ), who is based at Windsor Park Stud, jumped 50 per cent to NZ$15,000, while at the lower price levels, Sweynesse, Time Test (GB) and Telperion all jumped significantly.

The new kids

The confidence in terms of pricing flows down to the 29 new stallions which will feature on Australian rosters in 2021. Of that group, 13 are priced at $22,000 and above, an increase of one when compared to the 2020 freshman class and six on how many first-season sires stood in that range in 2019.

The average service fee of the 29 first-season stallions in 2021 is $24,257, a slight rise on the average of last year. There are four freshmen in the $50,000-plus range, which is a relative rarity. That group is headed by Coolmore’s Wootton Bassett (GB) ($71,500), who is already proven in Europe but has never stood in Australia before and also includes Darley’s Bivouac ($66,000), Kia Ora’s Farnan and Vinery Stud’s Ole Kirk (both $55,000).

Table: New stallions above $20,000 in Australia – 2021

There was not a single freshman stallion over $50,000 in 2020, indicating both the quality of the top end of this crop of stallions as well as how confident the major studs have become when taking new horses to the market.

That confidence is also in evidence in New Zealand where Cambridge Stud’s new boy, Hello Youmzain debuts at NZ$30,000, while Circus Maximus (Ire) starts out at NZ$20,000 at Windsor Park. In comparison, there was just one first-season stallion, Waikato Stud’s Super Seth (NZ$35,000), who stood in the five-figure range in New Zealand in 2020.

Novara Park’s King Of Comedy (Ire) and White Robe Lodge’s Ancient Spirit (Ger) are the other freshmen in 2021 and both will stand their first seasons at NZ$7000.

Table: New stallions – New Zealand – 2021, prices are in NZD

Article Courtesy of TDN

Through a successful business career, Hirsch, the co-founder of United Petroleum, has kept a low-public profile, preferring to let his commercial acumen do the talking, and it’s a similar story with his involvement in the thoroughbred industry.

He and his late brother Jack, who bred G1 Australian Oaks winner Rose Archway (Archway {Ire}), set up Hirsch Racing and initially from the family property at Yarra Glen, raced a host of horses with both John Sadler and John Salanitri.

Hirsch had already built up his broodmare band considerably when in early 2019 he ramped up his thoroughbred investment with the purchase of then Newgate stallion Foxwedge, who was brought to Victoria to stand at Woodside Park, then owned by the Rowsthorn family.

A few months later, Hirsch purchased the pre-training facility which Woodside Park had developed at a property adjacent to its stud operations in Tylden, and moved its racing operations to the facility, renamed Hirsch Park, with Salanitri as the resident trainer.

Given his ongoing association with Woodside Park, it wasn’t a complete surprise that Hirsch was keen to further his investment after it became clear that the Rowsthorn family were looking for possible buyers for the stallion farm.

While it took some time to work through the details, the sale was finalised earlier this month, with the stud’s three resident stallions, Foxwedge, Rich Enuff and Tosen Stardom (Jpn) retained on the roster.

Respected former Inglis Bloodstock Consultant Mark Dodemaide has worked closely with Hirsch for a number of years, playing a major role in the acquisition of Foxwedge back in 2019, and he has been brought on-board by the new ownership to head up nominations for the upcoming season.

“I was at Inglis for over 30 years but I’ve known Eddie for at least a half a dozen years. I’d helped him buy some mares and we were both involved with Foxwedge together,” Dodemaide said.

“Eddie had bought the training track 1km down the road and he saw that the Rowsthorns were looking at moving on from this part of the operation. He’s got his mares down at Yarra Glen, so he thought he could centralise them all, and so he decided to take over this place.

“Eddie is really keen to make this work. It’s a very positive move for him and he’s keen to make a mark.”

Having completed the sale on the eve of the breeding season, the focus at Woodside Park Stud has quickly turned to continue the business. Hirsch will lend his experience and acumen but has also entrusted Dodemaide and Stud Manager, David Collison to keep things on track.

“Not a lot needed to be done in the transition,” Dodemaide said.

Stallions standing on their own reputation

The timing of the change of ownership has put a little bit more pressure on Dodemaide when it comes to securing nominations for the upcoming breeding season, but he is confident that the stallions speak for themselves.

“Foxwedge has had 22 stakes winners and five Group 1 winners. His oldest are only seven, so he’s not an older horse. There are not many young stallions who get up to that percentage of stakes winners within their first handful of years at stud. He’s had 50 stakes-performers all up,” he said.

Foxwedge, a Group 1-winning son of Fastnet Rock, increased his book from 67 in his first year at Woodside Park to 115 last year at his fee of $11,000 (inc GST), where he stays this year.

The past season has seen him sire 92 winners, the fourth season in a row that he has produced 90-plus winners. His four Australian stakes winners for this season include G1 Australian Guineas winner Lunar Fox, while he has also had Run Fox Run claim the G1 Cape Flying Championship in South Africa.

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His first Victorian-bred progeny will hit the yearling sales in 2022.

Rich Enuff stands his sixth season at $8800 (inc GST) off the back of a season where he has had 31 Australian winners, the eighth-most of any second-season sire.

“His oldest progeny are three and he’s got two early stakes winners and got two unbeaten stars that have got big futures,” Dodemaide said.

“He’s got Dosh, with Grahame Begg, who has had two starts for two wins in Group 3 races. He’s also got Orbisyn in Queensland, and they have already knocked back big offers for him. He’s in the markets at around $34 for The Everest. I’m not sure he is at that level, but they are pretty wrapped up in him.”

Orbisyn (Rich Enuff) has won all four starts for trainer David Vandyke by a combined margin of over 15l.

“When you look at stallions and you say ‘they just need a horse or two’, Rich Enuff has already got those horses. If they come back improved from last time in, he will have those high-profile horses,” Dodemaide said.

A son of former Woodside Park Stud resident Written Tycoon, Rich Enuff was a triple stakes winner, whose marquee career performance came in the G2 Danehill S. where he won down the Flemington straight in an ultra-quick time of 1:08.13, not far off the track record set by his grandsire Iglesia, and in one of the fastest times for a 3-year-old.

Tosen Stardom’s first crop are set to hit the track in the upcoming season, with the dual Group 1-winning son of Deep Impact (Jpn) set to stand at $7700 (inc GST) in 2021.

“He was a horse that won the Toorak H. and then won the Mackinnon S. like Phar Lap, but he was also a ¥250 million yearling, which works out to about AU$3 million,” Dodemaide said.

“He was also an unbeaten 2-year-old stakes winner. He had that star quality and he’s a son of Deep Impact with a big female pedigree.”

Tosen Stardom has covered books of 123, 108 and 80 in his three seasons at Woodside Park and Dodemaide expects that first crop to make their presence felt in the upcoming season.

“I couldn’t imagine him necessarily getting spring 2-year-olds, but if one or two popped up in the autumn, he’ll be in a good position,” he said.

Planning for the future

Dodemaide said Hirsch is pleased with the mix of stallions they have on the farm, but confirmed that if the right product was to present itself, he would be keen to add to the roster.

“If the right stallion was to pop up in the next few months, we’d definitely look at it for next season. We will definitely be in that market,” he said.

Hirsch is by no means the only one to ramp up his investment in the Victorian thoroughbred industry of late, and that surge of broader confidence is something which backs up his decision to buy Woodside Park Stud, according to Dodemaide.

“You’ve got to respect the amount of investment that has been made. You’ve got Yulong leading the way and Rosemont are having a real go and plenty of others as well. When you go to these big sales, Victorians are there throwing their weight around and that can only be a good thing,” Dodemaide said.

Article courtesy of TDN.

Jeremy Payne is a relatively newcomer to the breeding industry, and it’s perhaps his good fortune that one of the first horse’s he bred didn’t meet the sale reserve.
Instead of heading to a new home, the son of Written Tycoon – which races as River Views – returned to Payne’s Diamond Park Breeding and Racing farm at Longwarry.
Payne, who operates a construction business and says he has horses on the side, has raced the Mick Price and Mick Kent Jnr trained
two-year-old six times for one win, two seconds and a third.
The gelding broke his maiden in spectacular fashion at Caulfield last Saturday when he scored a 1.1 length at odds of $41. The Price/Kent equal $4.40 favourite, Sunfall, finished third.
Payne admitted, like the trainers, that he didn’t expect the victory in the VOBIS Gold Ingot (1400m) which carried a first prize of $82,500 and a Super VOBIS nominator’s bonus of $7000 and an Owner’s bonus of $23,000 to take the horse’s career earnings to $130,660.
“While I didn’t expect it, we’ll definitely take it,” he said.
“We passed him in at the Premier sale for $150,000 after I think we got to about $110,000, and we thought it had cost us more than that to breed it, and we might as well race him.
“It’s worked out pretty good.”
And Payne reveals that there has been a little bit of interest since the race from buyers in Hong Kong.
“It might turn out a good result,” he said.
“If not we’ll race on and give it a go and see if we can do it again.”
Payne said the breeding of River Views came about after he’d bought a mare named Our Mohave in foal to Written Tycoon and had planned to foal it down in NSW and then put her in foal to More Than Ready.
But he got a call at 3am on a Saturday to say that the foal had died during the birth.
“That was our introduction to the breeding game,” Payne said.
“Then we went out and bought Sparks Alight and Woodside were good enough to give us another nomination so we didn’t have to pay.
“It was a free return and we bred River Views from Sparks Alight and were lucky.”
Payne said Our Mohave spent a couple of weeks in Scone Veterinary Hospital and later returned to his farm but never had another foal.
He said after explaining the situation to Woodside Park, they quickly offered a free service to Written Tycoon.
“It would have been a nice package coming back, a Written Tycoon colt and in foal to More Than Ready,” Payne said.
“It would have been a beauty.
“But we are getting there and have been going for five years and are starting to get a few winners here and there.”
Payne said they had good success at this year’s Melbourne Premier Sale, selling a Merchant Navy colt and a Winning Rupert colt, both for $210,000.
He said they were heading in the right direction.
“We run about 15 mares, and we like to race and have about half a dozen racehorses,” he said.
“If we don’t sell them, we’ll keep them and race them.”
Getting involved in horses began for Payne back in 2014 when he and a friend bought a horse, Jabali (Exceed and Excel x Balalaikia) which finished second in that year’s Blue Diamond and then went onto win its only race – the 2015 edition of the Group 2 Queensland Guineas (1600m).
“We ended up selling it to stud, and once we did that, I was sort of hooked,” Payne said.
“It sort of grabbed me.”
Payne said the farm’s first foal for this season was due in two weeks, another colt by Written Tycoon and the second one, also a colt, is by Jabali, who now stands in Queensland.
Mick Price, who trained Jabali, also trained the stallion’s first winner from just his second runner when Jabali Ridge (Single Princess) won a two-year-old handicap at Flemington in January of last year. The gelding is raced and bred by Payne and his partner Alannah Ockwell.
With the popularity of Written Tycoon’s progeny ever on the increase because of the stallion’s amazing achievements, Payne is hoping that the forthcoming colt by the sire will be another “beauty.”
The mare producing the Written Tycoon colt is by Snitzel – Paris Lights (City Song). This will be her first foal.
And while Payne has experienced the highs and lows of breeding horses, he said he appreciated the help of Inglis’ bloodstock consultant Will Stott who found Sparks Alight (Ratki x Dual Spark) for them.
Sparks Alight, a city winner at Moonee Valley, has a foal by Russian Revolution and is in foal to Yulong stallion, Alabama Express.
Payne said he’ll probably send Sparks Alight to Darley’s Brazen Beau this season
He said there were plenty of good choices for Victorian stallions.
River Views wasn’t the only big VOBIS winner at Caulfield last Saturday.
The Michael Kent trained Royal Crown (Helmet x Princess Regina) won the VOBIS Gold Stayers (2412m), picking up $82,500 for first prize and a Super VOBIS nominator’s bonus of $7000 and a Super VOBIS owner’s bonus of $23,000.
The four-year-old Royal Crown, now a winner of five races from 17 starts, was bred by Nigel and Meredith Berry’s Illowra Bloodstock.
The Berrys also race the gelding with a large group of other owners.

Set to stand his third season at Mike and Brodie Becker’s Stockwell Thoroughbreds at Diggers Rest, stallion Al Maher gave a little reminder of his worth to breeders when handy mare Chassis won at Flemington on Saturday.

The Victorian bred mare was a $40,000 purchase from the Supreme Thoroughbreds draft at the 2018 Melbourne VOBIS Gold Yearling Sale for Cranbourne trainer John Price.

Supreme Thoroughbreds took the filly home when she was passed in on a $50,000 reserve as the 2017 Great Southern Weanling sale and then sold her as a yearling.

Price, who is manager of a syndicate made up of around eight Western Australians and a couple of Victorians, has a clear path mapped out for the rising five-year-old who is out of Poco Gusto (Hussonet x Kachina), a winner of three country races for Caulfield trainer Colin Little.

Price plans to chase some black type for the mare and when her racing career is over will offer her for sale in foal to an as yet decided stallion.

And it’s a plan that Mike Becker fully supports as he continues to see the facts and figures that confirms Al Maher – the Group 1 winning son of Danehill – as a sire of broodmares.

Price said that as a future broodmare, Chassis was perfectly suited.

“She is a beautiful, big correct mare and has got a good hip and rein on her,” he said.

“Her win was very good and we’ll find another one for her down the track somewhere.”

With four wins from just 18 starts, Price said the mare had done well to score victories at Caulfield, Sandown and Flemington.

Although she is yet to race at Moonee Valley, Price said it was a good achievement to win at three metropolitan tracks and even better if she could do it on four.

“There was a discussion whether we freshen her up a bit and then save her for that coming mare’s series as it would help her value enormously,’’ Price said.

“The series begins in about four weeks, I think, and starts off at 1200m then 1400m and then a mile and they are all Group 2s and 3s.

“Even a place in them would really enhance her value and get a different category of studs to look at her.”

Price said the mare left her tank pretty empty on the line over 1400m at her latest win at Flemington last Saturday when she won by just under half a length.

“She is a beautiful horse to ride in a race and I just think the 1200m to 1400m and possibly a mile are suitable,” he said.

Price said he didn’t pay a lot for the mare but it was easy to see that she was going to be a lovely, rangey filly that stood over plenty of ground.

“I don’t pay a great deal of money for the type of horses that I buy,” Price said.

“She was a no brainer and like I say she has got broodmare written all over her.

“There is no hurry to go to stud and we were thinking along those lines.”

While there has been a trend among some trainers to breed some of their own stock, Price it wasn’t something they’d do with Chassis which he owns “a fair chunk of” with some long term clients.

He said the plan was to put her through a good broodmare sale and it would be exciting to go the Gold Coast and watch her being sold in a foal to a good stallion.

“We’ll watch our pennies and find out what she crosses well with and go from there,” he said.

“It’s another little challenge and with a lot of people in her, breeding doesn’t suit everyone. It’s so long and drawn out and suddenly something doesn’t go right and there’s two years from getting an earn out of a horse.”

Price said anyone who wants to buy Chassis will instantly like her on looks.

He said that Chassis, which has won more than $330,000 in prizemoney, will get the chance to gain some black type in the coming months.

And Price was more than happy to buy progeny by Al Maher.

“What I love is the longevity in him,” he said.

“He has been around for a long time and is still producing and although he never reached any super star status, he has lasted a long time. He is a well performed sire.”

Chassis was bred by Victorian breeder Dennis Nichol who raced Chassis’ dam, Poco Gusto, which he later sold in foal to Star Witness.

Nichol is a long time breeder who he estimates he has breed between 40 to 50 horses, most of them with New Zealand links.

He also bred and raced Chassis’ half-brother Indernile (Street Boss) which has won four races and was recently sold to Queensland. The gelding finished third on debut in the Blue Diamond preview (1000m).

Nicol said the best horse he raced was the mare Floria (Savabeel x Aia) which won the Group 2 Brisbane Cup (2400m) in 2014.

It was an interesting day at Flemington on Saturday for the Becker family when Literati finished a narrow third in the last race.

Literati is by Artie Schiller which stands alongside Al Maher at Stockwell Thoroughbreds.

And by coincidence, Literati’s dam, Beijing Bound (Quest For Fame), is out of Kachina which is also the dam of Chassis’ mother, Poco Gusto.

Literati was beaten a head by a short half head.

“It was a good day for the family with the half –sister winning and our Artie Schiller finishing third,” Mike Becker said.

“Rod Fitzroy owned a lot of that family back in the day.

“And we got Beijing Bound off Rod.”

Becker said it would have been even more special if Literati had won at Flemington as the race was named after Ken Cox who was the legendary business man who developed Stockwell Stud.

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“He was Stockwell Stud with George Smith as the manager all those years ago when Showdown was there. Ken Cox went to England with Tommy Smith and they bought Showdown.

“To be honest I am surprised that here isn’t a stakes race named after Ken Cox. He was a prolific breeder.”

Becker said Artie Schiller and Al Maher were similar stallions in that they could always find a good horse.

“And they just keep punching above their weight really.

“Al Maher is a magnificent looking horse and no wonder he can throw a good type and his stats have been very good. He runs a high stakes per cent to runners which puts him in elite company and not many can do it.

“And he has done it consistently right through his life.”

Becker said another thing about Al Maher was how quickly he was becoming recognised as a sire of broodmares.

“He has really made a great start as a broodmare sire as well and he is a bit of an all-rounder, the boy,” Becker said.

Becker said they had been keen to get Al Maher to Victoria as they saw him as an ideal VOBIS level horse for the state and he was getting a bit lost in the Hunter Valley.

Now a rising 20-year-old, Becker said it wasn’t easy for the stallion who doesn’t get big numbers of mares.

“The sexiness of stallions goes off very quickly, the same as Artie Schiller and suddenly it’s harder to get into the better sales with the progeny,” he said.

“But the two of them keep batting away and keep finding a good horse. Artie had a city winner on Saturday at Adelaide (Hilumiere) and they just do it week in and week out.

“And I wish ours had have won on Saturday. He led everywhere but the last stride but he is a good honest horse who has cost nothing.”

Becker said that by any standard, both Artie Schiller and Al Maher were extremely successful stallions.

“But the sexiness just goes back into the unproven first year horses and that’s where the market is at, sadly, but that’s reality and we can’t change it and it is what it is,” he said.

“But for owner breeders, they are just two magnificent horses that aren’t going to cost you an arm and a leg.”

Eddie Hirsch’s takeover of Woodside Park Stud and the Rowsthorn family move to their 1100-acre farm Morningside at Nagambie has provided the Victorian breeding industry with some significant changes in recent weeks.
Australian rich-lister Hirsch, who co-founded United Petroleum, sees the acquisition of Woodside Park has as a long term proposition.
Already the owner of Foxwedge, Hirsch looks forward to also standing stallions Rich Enuff (Written Tycoon x Hotnuff) and Tosen Stardom (Deep Impact x Admire Kirameki) at Woodside Park.
Hirsch purchased Woodside Park’s nearby training property at Tylden in 2019 and spent significant money to upgrade the property – since named Hirsch Park – and more significantly a 1700-metre training track where his trainer John Salanitri is now based.
Former Inglis employee Mark Dodemaide is Woodside Park’s stallion’s nominations manager and acts as a trusted adviser to Hirsch, who he helped buy Foxwedge.
He believes Hirsch’s long term vision for the stud includes the possible purchase of another stallion, if the right one is available, to complement Rich Enuff, Foxwedge and Tosen Stardom.
“We are not going to jump into any new stallion, but if the right one comes along, we are definitely interested,” Dodemaide said.
“I think the three stallions that we have now are a nice mix in that Foxwedge is proven with his 22 stakes winners and five Group 1 winners. He is a very proven product.
“Rich Enuff is up and coming. His oldest are three-year-olds, and already he has two stakes winners. Grahame Begg has got Dosh which is unbeaten and will be running this spring.
“And there is Orbiysn in Queensland, which is unbeaten in four starts.
“Tosen Stardom to me is underrated. He was a $3 million yearling and was an unbeaten two-year-old stakes winner in Japan and won the Toorak and Emirates like Phar Lap.”
Dodemaide said he believes the three stallions are a good mix and are all at slightly different stages of their careers
And Hirsch couldn’t be happier with his increased involvement in the industry which has guaranteed the continuation of the Woodside Park business and its three stallions.
“I’m thrilled to have both my racing and breeding businesses now based in Tylden. All the current Woodside Park Stud staff will remain part of our team and we are excited for a prosperous future in the stud business,” Hirsch said in a statement.
The deal for Hirsch to acquire the Woodside Park business was several months in the making but only finalised last week.
Will and Tom Rowsthorn will head the new Morningside business, which will see the family diversify into cattle as well as breeding from their band of broodmares and continuing to offer yearling preparations and other associated services.
Tom Rowsthorn said the family would continue to support Woodside Park’s three stallions. Super stallion Written Tycoon previously stood at Woodside Park before moving to the Hunter Valley for one season last year, but has since returned to Victoria after being acquired by Yulong at Nagambie.
Rowsthorn said the changes and the Morningside move had been discussed for months when they talked about the future of their stallions and where their business was heading.
“With Written (Tycoon) getting on and the others boys with a bit of a job to do, we sort of looked at where we heading,” he said.
“When we purchased this Morningside property, there was infrastructure for pre-training, breaking in and that sort of stuff, but there was nothing you could facilitate a stallion operation with.
“It was that sort of decision that we put all the chips in and move the stallion operation here or just focus on the other side of the business, which is obviously prepping and selling yearlings and having a broodmare band.
“We just decided to go down that path and just sort of, I guess, streamline the whole business and cut down everywhere else.”
Rowsthorn said that the previous owner of the property, which has 6km of Goulburn River frontage, was veterinarian and horseman Dr Bill Burns who turned to farming Wagyu beef.
He said they now had about 100 head of cattle on the farm, which when being sold was marketed that the property bred, trained or educated more than 35 Group 1 winners, including Melbourne Cup victors Efficient and Shocking.
“The cattle are all due to calf in the next little bit, and then we’ll focus on our broodmare band, which we have 30 at the minute, and we’ll probably got up to around 40,” Rowsthorn said.
“There are some down the bottom end that we will continuously try to upgrade. Between 30 to 40 would be the number that we’d like to sit with.”
Rowsthorn said that before Burns turned to cattle, he educated a lot of horses and many went onto Hong Kong after quarantining at the property.
Morningside was purchased by the Rowsthorn family about two years ago.
Rowsthorn said the stallion business was a tough capper and they were honoured to stand Written Tycoon before he moved to the Hunter Valley last year.
“Obviously we loved doing the stallions, and it wasn’t a decision we took lightly,” he said.
Rowsthorn said he would assist older brother Will, who is the general manager of Morningside, and they had only one other employee, Karen Vaughan.
“We have gone from a team of probably 40 employees to just the three of us who work with the horses, plus a couple of maintenance people and some gardeners, so it’s a bit of a different vibe around the farm,” he said.
“It’s something we had in motion for about a year now.”
And Rowsthorn said it was exciting to see Written Tycoon’s progeny coming through from when he stood at Woodside Park, and it would be great to look back in another decade and reflect on the impact the stallion has had on the Australian breeding industry.

Mac ‘N’ Cheese served up a tasty treat for owners Spendthrift Australia when the richly bred filly produced a timely performance to break her maiden with success in the Listed Oaklands Plate at Morphettville.

Trained by Tony and Calvin McEvoy, the 2-year-old displayed an encouraging serving of the family ability when she made light of a slow beginning to come with a well-timed finish under jockey Barend Vorster and claim major honours.

“I had a chat with Tony and we were hoping she would jump better,” Spendthrift Australia General Manager, Garry Cuddy, said. “Speaking to him after the race, the horse inside her shifted out and the horse outside shifted in.

“She jumped a bit better than it looked, but she still ended up back where we didn’t want to be. When you have that class edge you can end up anywhere and she showed that she had that field well and truly covered.”

Mac ‘N’ Cheese was last in the early running before Vorster urged her forward near the turn and she finished generously to sail past front-runner Tonneofgrit (Winning Rupert) and win by 2l with Gosden (Not A Single Doubt) taking third.

“She’s now a stakes-winning 2-year-old and we’ll celebrate that for tonight. We’ll catch up with Tony during the week and see what his main aims are and how we can best get to those races in the spring.”

Bred by Nick Vass, Mac ‘N’ Cheese was offered at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and was knocked down to Spendthrift for $300,000.

She is a daughter of Bonnie Mac (NZ) (Thorn Park), who was a talented mare and the winner of five races including the Listed Proud Miss S., but she has really blossomed off the track in the broodmare role.

Her first live foal was the G1 Coolmore Stud S. winner and G1 Golden rose S. runner-up Exceedance, who now stands at Vinery Stud, and his brother Oxley Road (Exceed And Excel) won this season’s G3 Zeditave S.

Mac ‘N’ Cheese was the next foal produced by Bonnie Mac, whose Capitalist colt sold to Greg Hickman for $1,050,000 at the Inglis Australian Yearling Sale earlier this year.

“It was our first year back buying fillies for a while last year with the intention to target those with nice pedigrees that could be added to our broodmare band in time,” Cuddy said.

“We were lucky enough to get her and Mum’s had three runners for three stakes winners now so it’s fantastic.”

Article Courtesy of TDN

The equine interests of the Rowsthorn family will now be branded as Morningside, aligning its name with its world-class property located at Nagambie, Victoria.

The Woodside Park Stud business has been sold to interests associated with Eddie Hirsch while the breeding operation of the business will be retained by the newly named Morningside.

“We took the decision to become a boutique operation and focus our efforts on breeding high quality progeny” says owner, Mark Rowsthorn.

“While we enjoyed our time in the stallion business, the strategy to diversify our operations at Nagambie, to include cattle and cropping, meant we were better off leaving stallions to the bigger operations both in Victoria and the Hunter Valley.”

“Importantly, Morningside will continue to support the stallions at Woodside.”

“We thank all the clients who supported Woodside Park Stud over the years.”

Will and Tom Rowsthorn will lead the Morningside business and look to improve the quality of our broodmare band with further investment over the next few years.

Morningside’s General Manager, Will Rowsthorn, is excited about Morningside’s prospects and commented, “the Morningside property has a long history of producing group winning progeny and we are keen to emulate that success”.

Group 1 winning Cranbourne trainer Robbie Griffiths is also an astute business man who realised many years ago that the costs of buying a quality yearling at the bigger sales were quickly going way beyond his budget.

Griffiths had for years always only breed from fillies and mares that he’d raced, often in partnership with stable clients.

Now in a training partnership with Mathew de Kock, Griffiths bred his first horse more than 20 years ago and hasn’t stopped since.

Griffiths breeds from his band of eight broodmares and has small shares in about another 10 outside mares.

“It all started on a very, very low scale many years ago when we had an extremely talented filly that only had two starts which was Vaingt Trois (Noalcoholic x Foretell),” Griffiths said.

“She is the grandmother of Halvorsen and won her first start by five lengths and looked like being something totally out of the box.

“Then she broke down at her second run and we put her in foal and she bred terrific horses for us, including Beltrois (Bel Esprit) that ran fourth in the Group 1 Goodwood.

“She breed a filly called Flourishing (Not A Single Doubt) that was quite fast and a Flemington 1000m winner and she is the mother of Halvorsen (Magnus) who has won $600,000 and the Group 3 Standish Handicap (1200m) and so on.

“That is the short version of the 20 years that has passed us by.”

Griffiths said that Vaingt Trios kicked off the stable’s breeding venture which continued with the mare’s daughter Flourishing producing Halvorsen. Of the 11 foals Griffiths bred from Vaingt Trios from an assortment of sires including Rancho Ruler, Rubiton, Encosta De Lago, Desert King and Lago Delight, a filly by Rubiton named Ruby Trois was a city winner who scored seven victories. And she has so far produced six foals.

“From those early days of starting with Halvorsen’s grandmother, I gradually got the taste for it and also the economics for it because the yearlings were getting so expensive,” Griffiths said.

Griffiths said he liked to breed to certain genetics, mixes, crosses, likes and dislikes and formulas that people have their own opinions on.

“Throw into the mix, the big clincher was that what I was liking at the sales I was getting out bid on, so I started to breed with mares I believed had good talent but might not have reached their true potential because of racetrack injuries or for whatever reason,” he said.

“We would retain them either in partnership with their ownership group or alternatively if they weren’t breeders, reach an agreed price and buy them and then breed with those ones too.”

Originally all the mares that Griffiths bred from had been in his racing stable.

“We haven’t gone out and intentionally sourced a mare, but in recent times I have bought into a couple of international broodmares with Darren Dance (Esker Lodge).

“He bought a beautiful Dansili broodmare (Thai Noon) from overseas and she bred a beautiful Frankel filly that Ciaron Maher trains and she (Steinem) raced in the Oaks in Adelaide this year.

“The filly was sold for $400,000 at the Sydney Easter Yearling Sale and I didn’t have enough clients to buy her, but I would have liked to have bought her.

“She was favourite for the Oaks. The full brother was the one Michelle Payne paid $500,000 for after the soccer player (Sardar Azmoun) watched the movie Ride Like a Girl.

“I have bought into a couple of little ones like that with Darren Dance but as a rule I have only basically bought back or retained fillies that have come through the racing stable that we have trained.”

Griffith said he takes advice on breeding and tries not to be narrow minded and listens carefully to bloodstock agent Peter Ford who has great respect and a friendship with over many years.

He said Ford also has a good friendship with Gilgai Farmer owner Rick Jamieson who is renowned as one of Australia’s must astute breeders. Griffiths has also trained for Jamieson over the years and trains talented galloper Token Spirit which was breed by Jamieson who retained a share in the gelding.

“So I like to talk to people who have got a lot of experience in breeding and I love speaking to any of the breeders who have been successful,” Griffiths said.

“If you can learn anything from any of the people that have been successful and you are lucky enough to learn anything that comes out of their lips, you grab it with both hands and both ears and you think you beauty, I have learnt something today.”

Griffiths said the two most successful horses he has breed are Group 3 winner Halvorsen and stakes winners Beltrois who have both progressed to Group 1 level.

“Halvorsen ran Gytrash to a close second and he has got to a Group 1 and has won the Standish and so on,” he said.

“Don’ttelltheboss (Street Boss x Canterbury Hill) is a good mare and has run up the backside of Loving Gaby and has multiple Group placings so she is very talented.’’

Griffiths also raced Canterbury Hill (Heradasun x Cancanelle).

He has more of his homebreds coming through the system with what he describes as his relatively young portfolio of broodmares.

“But everything has won and they’ve all been winners and done their job because the mares are relatively young and are going to the nice young stallions so we are hoping we can continue to do well,” he said

“When we bred Flourishing she was one of the first Not A Single Doubts and we tried to identify value by going to the young stallions before they get expensive.

“All the horses we have bred have been winners and a lot of them have been metropolitan winners in town.

“Flourishing’s first foal to race was Halvorsen and he has won $600,000 and that was off about a $10,000 service fee – I think Magnus was a $10,000 or $12,000 service fee that year.”

Griffiths said with Halvorsen, a lot of owners who had raced the dam, Flourishing, had decided to stay in her other progeny, Trygve (Magnus) and Halvoya (Unencumbered) which are both winners and still racing. The mare has had another two colts by Magnus and is also in foal to the stallion.

While Griffiths said they’ll send their mares interstate to a suitable stallion, they predominately support Victoria stallions and the VOBIS schemes are also a big incentive to stay local.

“Flourishing is by Not A Single Doubt and he was based in Sydney, but when you put him to Magnus it’s just a beautiful mating,” he said.

“And Magnus happens to be in Victoria which makes it economical,” he said.

“What suited one of my mares (Canterbury Hill dam of Don’telltheboss) was Street Boss and he happened to be in Victoria in the Seymour part of Darley. It’s perfect if they are in Victoria as I am very much Victorian proud and very much a supporter of the VOBIS scheme.

“In a perfect world we want to be in Victoria but it is important that the stallions are what we think is compatible with the mares and we adopt that philosophy.

“VOBIS provides so much more revenue to the owners and you just have to do it to stay in the business and give your owners the chance of having a self-funding model.”

At the moment Griffiths has bred progeny by Toronado, Akeed Mafeed, Supido (which they had to go Sydney for but he has returned to Melbourne), Starspangledbanner, Shamus Award, Frosted and Cable Bay.

And this year Griffith’s’ mares are being sent to several Victorian stallions, including Magnus, Hanseatic, Doubtland, Omaha Beach and Swear.

He has already booked his talented mare, Dance With Fontein, into Spendthrift Australia’s Triple Group 1 winning, American stallion Omaha Beach (War Front x Charming).

Griffiths said he was excited to mate his sprinting mare – which won eight races – with the legendary son of War Front which stood his first season at Spendthrift last year, serving 104 broodmares.

“I really like Omaha Beach and reckon he will be a good stallion,” Griffiths said of the shuttle stallion.

“I also have one on the ground by Swear, out of Prospect Royale, and she is also in foal to him again.”

Griffiths said while they’d previously bought weanlings out of the paddock privately from breeders, this year they had identified weanlings at sales which they had missed out on but bought one at last week’s Great Southern Sale.

He said the Capitalist weanling which they bought fell into their price range and he had a beautiful commercial pedigree and is a half to a filly (Madame Bolli) that had won three in succession.

“He was a really good value buy because in six months when the yearlings all start selling on the Gold Coast, you’d be flat out buying a Capitalist for under $200,000 or $300,000,” he said.

“We got one for $85,000 and by putting him to our ownership group now, everyone can grab a share for basically his service fee. We think we are giving our owners a chance to get in at a very, very affordable rate and we thought it was good shopping.”

As well as the satisfaction of breeding a winner, Griffiths said with the price of yearlings it was easy to see why he started to breed his own.

“My wife and I thought we were crazy not to have a breeding arm as part of it,” he said.

But you’ll still see Griffiths buying stock at the sales.

King Magnus scored his fifth win with a victory at Caulfield last Saturday over 1400m, but Griffiths said he can’t take any credit for breeding the five-year-old gelding.

“They (owners) actually bred him so I can’t take any credit for that,” Griffiths said.

“They own the mum (Influential Miss) and they bred him and they also bred the bigger (full) sister, Influential Girl, which also ran on the same day and ran third.

“They have bred those two and all going well, the mare will go back to Magnus this year.”

Griffith said Widden Victoria’s Magnus (Flying Spur x Scandinavia) had been a beauty as a stallion who he dubs as Triple M – Magnus Means Money.

“That’s our slogan,” Griffith said.

“They have been brilliant for us and we love them. They have been inexpensive to breed or buy and they have been such great money-spinners for their ownership group.

“They get better with age.”

Griffiths said the stable had raced 26 by Magnus for an amazing 25 individual winners.