Starspangledbanner rises to €75,000 as Coolmore unveils 2027 Irish fees

Coolmore has lifted Australian-bred Starspangledbanner’s Irish fee to €75,000 (about A$121,700) for 2027, up 25 per cent from €60,000 (A$97,300), as his Irish 2000 Guineas-winning son Gstaad joins the roster at a fee of €25,000 (A$40,600).

It is the second successive rise for the Castlehyde stallion, whose fee went from €45,000 (A$73,000) to €60,000 for 2026 after he was introduced in Ireland at €15,000 (A$24,300 at current rates) in 2011. He supplied four individual northern hemisphere Group 1 winners this year in Gstaad, Precise, Senorita Bonita and Kensington Lane.

Gstaad, the champion two-year-old of 2025 after winning the Coventry Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, retired with four wins from 12 starts, his Irish Guineas win breaking a race record that had stood for 28 years.

No Nay Never remains the most expensive stallion on the 2027 schedule at €120,000 (A$194,700), up from €100,000 (A$162,200), while Sioux Nation doubles from €37,500 (A$60,800) to €75,000. Group 1 winner Puerto Rico also starts at €12,500 (A$20,300).

The rises went to proven sires. Of the 19 stallions standing in both 2026 and 2027, five go up, nine come down and five are unchanged. Delacroix, Camille Pissarro and Henri Matisse are all cut for their second seasons, Auguste Rodin drops to €25,000 with first-crop foals heading to the sales, and Gleneagles, Paddington and Australia fall by 25 per cent or more.

“We are fully aware of how challenging the current market can be for breeders, so we have worked extremely hard to ensure real value across the roster,” Coolmore nominations director Mark Byrne said.

Holy Roman Emperor, 22, and Footstepsinthesand, 24, have been retired and will remain at the farm.

“They have both been magnificent servants to Coolmore and to breeders globally over very long careers,” Castlehyde Stud manager Paddy Fleming said.