Record-breaking Grade 1-winning speed machine Cogburn, arguably the “world’s fastest horse”, will stand at Widden in the Hunter Valley in 2025 in a landmark alliance between Australia’s oldest thoroughbred stud and one of America’s biggest breeding operations.
The first horse to shuttle to Widden since Anabaa, who arrived in 1997 and stood for 11 seasons, and Belong To Many, who joined the roster in 1998, Cogburn’s blistering sprinting attributes and appealing pedigree were compelling enough for studmaster Antony Thompson to breakaway from his successful focus on colonial sires for much of this century.
Thompson’s re-entry into the international stallion market led to a deal between Widden and leading US operation WinStar Farm being reached in recent weeks to stand the high-class sprinter in Australia from 2025.
Laying claim to being the fastest horse on turf, Cogburn ran a world-record time of 59.08 seconds for five-and-a-half furlongs (1106m) at Saratoga in June in the Group 1 Jaipur Stakes, the same race that was won by the influential shuttle stallion Elusive Quality in 1998.
“There's a lot of horses we get offered or look at, but not many horses we think really work (in Australia) and this was a horse that ran a world record time, breaking the minute for 1100 really caught our attention,” Thompson told The Straight.
“So, that had us intrigued and Not This Time is a stallion that's really put himself up in lights in a big way with his achievements. For a young horse, off a cheap fee to do what he's done, he's an incredible stallion, he's upgraded his mares and he's really going to make a big mark.”
Cogburn’s own sire Not This Time, who has had six Grade 1 winners and is running at an elite 11 percent stakes winners-to-runners from just five crops of racing age, has drawn comparisons with Australia’s champion sire I Am Invincible for his meteoric rise from a US$15,000 service fee to a 2025 fee of US$175,000.
Trained by Steve Asmussen, Cogburn is the even-money favourite to double his Group 1 tally in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar, having won six of his past seven starts from 1000m to 1200m.
"He's unbelievably impressive. He's an absolutely different horse since being switched to the turf,” Asmussen said.
“We moved him to the turf because I didn't feel that he had met his potential the way that he had trained.
“He'd run solid on the dirt, but we expected better from him. Then, we moved him to the turf, gave him a freshening and he's come back an absolute monster.”
Australian agent Will Johnson, who brokered the deal in conjunction with American agent Bradley Weisbord and inspected the stallion prospect while he was in the US last month for the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, believes Cogburn is the epitome of an elite Australian sprinter.
“You'd describe him as the perfect Australian sprinting type, a lot more muscle with a great hip and hind leg on him, with great depth and a nice shoulder and a very athletic horse, not too overbearing - and the furthest thing from what you'd think of as a dirt horse,” Johnson told The Straight.
“If he was walking around the Golden Slipper enclosure before the race, he wouldn't look out of place and that's so important when you're breeding in Australia.”
“If he was walking around the Golden Slipper enclosure before the race, he wouldn't look out of place and that's so important when you're breeding in Australia," - Will Johnston
WinStar Farm president and CEO Elliott Walden, whose operation has had a close association with fellow Australian stud Newgate Farm over the past decade and raced numerous colts including dual Group 1-winning sprinter Wild Ruler, is confident that Cogburn has the credentials to add a point of difference to the Australian Stud Book.
“We shuttled More Than Ready for many years, and I think Cogburn has a big chance Down Under,” Walden said.
“I was in awe of his performance in the Jaipur and his balance and conformation are spectacular and his type will suit the Australian market.
“Being by Not This Time, and having tremendous speed, he is a great fit for Australian breeders.”
Johnson says the paternal descendent of Giant’s Causeway - also the sire of the influential Shamardal and Lope De Vega - will provide Australian breeders with an important outcross option for the Danehill-proliferated broodmares.
“I think a common denominator when booking in mares to stallions on behalf of breeders is the lack of options for Danehill-line mares and also horses that are well priced,” he said.
“So, as a complete outcross, he's going to be very appealing and it's all about trying to create the next generation of sound, durable horses.”
Thompson will be among a large throng of Australian industry figures who will be travelling to the US for the Breeders’ Cup and the Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton breeding stock sales in Kentucky early next month.
“There will be a good few Aussies over there for the Breeders' Cup and the sales, so we'll get them out to WinStar to have a look at him,” the Widden principal said.
WinStar Farm acquired breeding rights in the five-year-old entire Cogburn in July, just weeks after his astonishing Jaipur Stakes performance. He will retire from racing in time for the start of the northern hemisphere breeding season in early 2025.
Service fees for next year’s northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere breeding seasons have not yet been announced.
