A Champagne stallion for Noor Elaine – Group 1 winner Nepotism to stand at stud in Victoria  

Group 1-winning two-year-old Nepotism has found a home at stud.

Victorious in last season’s ATC Champagne Stakes at Randwick, Nepotism will retire to Victoria’s Noor Elaine Farm this year after protracted negotiations between the son of Brutal’s owners and the stud were finalised on Thursday.

The son of Brutal, who had performed below par as a three-year-old, was marketed as a stallion prospect after his two-start autumn preparation was called to a halt by his trainers Michael, Wayne and John Hawkes.

It’s believed there had been interest from stallion farms in Victoria, NSW and Queensland in taking on Nepotism, but those talks cooled, leading to the rising four-year-old recently returning to pre-training on the outskirts of Sydney with plans to resume his racing career.

However, the stallion prospect’s owners, including Neil Werrett, Colin Madden, and the horse’s breeder, Rick Jamieson, recently resumed talks via bloodstock agent Mark Player with Noor Elaine Farm’s Akram and Daniel El-Fahkri, and the private consortium involved, who will stand the horse at the Euroa-based stud.

Victorian racing industry figure Rodney Rae has also been involved in navigating negotiations between the parties.

The 11th-hour agreement for Nepotism, who also won the Group 3 Baillieu and ran third on debut to Godolphin colt Tentyris in the Todman Stakes as a juvenile, was initially believed to have been reached late on Tuesday but it almost fell at the final hurdle 24 hours later.

Out of the unraced mare Brigite – a sister to All Too Hard and a half-sister to Black Caviar – Nepotism will stand for an introductory fee of $13,750 (inc GST).

He will become the 11th maternal descendant from the blue-hen mare Scandinavia to stand at stud in Australia. That contingent also includes Ole Kirk and Hanseatic.  

Werrett, Madden and Gilgai Farm’s Jamieson have vowed to support Nepotism, who retires as the winner of two of his nine starts, banking more than $900,000 in prize money. 

“He’s a lovely horse and he’s from a great family. He was an elite two-year-old and he deserves his shot at stud,” Player told The Straight.

“Rodney Rae and his team have put together a compelling offer that the owners have been delighted to take, so we look forward to him being an important part of the Victorian and Australian breeding industry.”

Player’s International Thoroughbred Solutions bought Nepotism for Werrett and partners for $160,000 from Gilgai Farm at the 2024 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale.

It’s the same sale where trainer Peter Moody bought a Jamieson-bred-and-sold Bel Esprit filly for Werrett and his friends to race. She would become the unbeaten champion Black Caviar.

Noor Elaine Farm’s Daniel El-Fahkri was pleased to have a new stallion with a pedigree closely related to Black Caviar on the stud’s roster.

“We are extremely excited about standing Nepotism at Noor Elaine Farm. He has outstanding credentials as a commercial stallion being a Group 1 winner from a proven stallion family,” he said.

“As a specimen, he is an athletic and well-balanced colt with good bone and very strong through the hindquarters with a beautiful long sloping shoulder.  

“He has very good conformation, a strong top line and a good depth of girth. 

“This all translates to a commercially appealing stallion prospect.”

The recruitment of Nepotism by Noor Elaine Farm coincides with the El-Fahkris’ European wonder mare Asfoora nearing retirement.

The rising eight-year-old disappointed in a race at Sandown in the UK last weekend, with her trainer, Henry Dwyer, confirming that Asfoora was booked to go into quarantine to return to Australia on July 31.

She could race again at Goodwood in a Group 2 five-furlong race that day as her career swansong, concluding a three-year European campaign which yielded Group 1 wins at Royal Ascot, York and Longchamp on Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe day in France last October. 

Akram El-Fahkri told The Straight late last month that he hoped to send Asfoora to a Victorian stallion for her maiden season at stud, but his influential son-in-law George Yannis is strongly advocating sending her to a highly commercial Hunter Valley-based sire.