In his weekly Monday column, senior journalist Tim Rowe examines the major trends and news stories from the bloodstock and breeding industries, through the prism of the week’s racing.
This week, the success of shuttle stallions is in the spotlight as well as the conundrum facing those who decide to keep or sell a promising horse.
The influence of shuttle stallions on the Australasian racing industry was again on display at Caulfield on Saturday with Harry Angel colt Angel Capital taking out the Group 3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude and Justify filly Lilac winning the Listed John Moloney for trainers Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald.
Both three-year-olds appear capable of winning at a higher level this spring, with Angel Capital making it two-from-two this preparation.
Trainer Clinton McDonald has to decide whether to press on to the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas with his exciting colt or freshen him up for a tilt at the Coolmore on Derby Day.
For Godolphin Australia’s newly installed managing director Andy Makiv, whose appointment was made official last week, the continued emergence of Angel Capital follows on from first crop four-year-old Arkansaw Kid winning the Group 2 Bobbie Lewis at Flemington the previous Saturday, the gelding’s second stakes win in three starts this campaign.
Angel Capital, who was bred by South Australia’s David Peacock and raised at Mill Park Stud, was purchased by Upper Bloodstock’s Ross Lao and Andy Lau on behalf of Gregory Ho for $400,000 at the 2022 Inglis Premier sale.
His sire has covered triple figures in his five southern hemisphere seasons at stud and he will again this year but his rostermate, champion Australian first season stallion of 2023-24 and Broadsiding’s sire Too Darn Hot, was rested from shuttle duties by Darley in consultation with Watership Down Stud.
Makiv says Too Darn Hot could return to Australia next year.
“He's obviously a very valuable horse, he's doing a great job in both hemispheres, so it is possible,” Makiv said.
“Street Cry missed two years some years ago. He had a couple of years off and came back and sired Winx amongst other horses when he returned.
“Then there was Street Boss who missed a year at some stage early in his career and he's obviously come back and sired a horse like Anamoe and others such as Pinstriped and Pericles and the other good horses that are going around at the moment.
“A year off here and there doesn't necessarily halt a great stallion's momentum.”
Coolmore’s Justify was also rested from shuttle duties in 2022, but returned last year, covering 188 mares. The decision was made not to shuttle him again and it’s unlikely he’ll come back to Jerry’s Plains given his immense value in the northern hemisphere.
But just as Too Darn Hot is currently covering a band of mares at Dalham Hall Stud at Newmarket in the UK to southern hemisphere time, so too is Justify at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud Kentucky.
If they don’t resume shuttle duties, maybe that is the way of the future for those highly credentialed, proven stallions who are increasingly covering mares to southern hemisphere time from their ‘home base’.
“I think in various years there's been up to 58 southern hemisphere covers to Frankel (at a fee of) $200,000 Aussie or whatever it is, so they're still earning a lot of money by not putting him on a plane,” Makiv says.
“So, there is going to be Justifys, Frankels and Palace Pier covered for one year out here … and he might have a bit of an impact in which case he might be a horse that people end up using similarly to Frankel or whatever it might be.”
Darley has sent a batch of mares to the north to be covered by Too Darn Hot and his sire Dubawi.
This year’s The Galaxy winner Zapateo, a daughter of Brazen Beau, is among those mares to be covered by champion sire Dubawi.
Last year’s VRC Oaks winner Zardozi, a daughter of Juddmonte’s Kingman who is also the sire of Widden’s first season Group 1-winning sire King Colorado, was bred by Godolphin and her dam Chanderi imported to Australia with the Group 1 winner in utero.
“There's certainly that element of moving mares around,” Makiv says.
“It all comes down to results. If not much comes of it, you stop doing it, if a lot comes of it, you continue to do it.”
Three-time Group 1 winner Broadsiding is set to resume in the Golden Rose where he will take on Justify’s son Storm Boy.
Meanwhile, New Zealand-based international stallions, Little Avondale’s Per Incanto and Cambridge Stud’s Almanzor, also made their mark at Caulfield.
Per Incanto, twice a champion sire by winners in Hong Kong who has more recently been on the radar of Australian buyers via Lost And Running, Little Brose and Roch ‘N’ Horse, had his son Jimmysstar return to his best form first-up in a Benchmark 100 (1100m).
A return to stakes grade during the spring seems likely for the Ciaron Maher-trained five-year-old, while Almanzor’s second-crop daughter Positivity took out the Group 3 MRC Foundation Cup, better known as the Naturalism.
Co-bred by the late Sir Patrick Hogan, the Andrew Forsman-trained Positivity, runner-up in last season’s New Zealand Oaks to the subsequently Yulong-purchased Pulchritudinous, has proven to be an astute $160,000 purchase by Singapore-based Hong Kong businessman Ben Kwok who has extensive bloodstock interests throughout Australia and New Zealand.
The sire of ten stakes winners from three southern hemisphere-bred crops to race so far, including Positivity, Almanzor’s first yearlings set alight the sales ring at Karaka and those in Australia in 2021, averaging $180,594 and selling up to $800,000, such were the impressive “types” he left.
Those who sent mares to him in his first season at Cambridge Stud, at a fee of NZ$30,000 (plus GST), were on a commercial winner such was the demand for his first crop, but the popularity of his yearlings arguably proved to be a double-edged sword.
With sale results came high expectations. The agents, owners and trainers who had gone “long” with Almanzor, were demanding stakes winners. He had Te Akau’s Dynastic win the 2022 Karaka Million, but the horse never went on with it after that.
Manzoice, for trainer Chris Waller, won that year’s Victoria Derby in what was effectively his first racing preparation. He, too, has struggled to recapture that Group 1-winning form.
With a bit of patience, softer tracks (Caulfield raced as a Soft 5, instead of the listed Good 4, according to form provider Ratings2Win) and more affordable prices paid for the Alamanzors, he may well be back on the radar of Australian buyers, the key export market for the Kiwis.
Almanzor’s fee in 2024 has been reduced to NZ$30,000, having reached as high as $50,000, and he can prove to be a valuable stallion for Australasia now that his future is assured in the southern hemisphere.
Cambridge Stud’s Brendan and Jo Lindsay completed a deal to buy out Haras d'Etreham to keep Almanzor in New Zealand. He had shuttled for six consecutive years.
Street Cry’s sire son Per Incanto, a Group 3 winner in Italy who was owned by Shadwell, has been a permanent resident of New Zealand since his arrival at Sam and Catriona Williams’ Little Avondale in 2011 at a modest fee of $4,000. He has done it the hard way, now in his 14th year at stud, at a fee of $50,000. In contrast to Almanzor, there were much lower expectations placed on his stock.
In Sydney at the weekend, Autumn Glow maintained her unbeaten record by taking out the Group 2 Tea Rose to make it three wins from as many starts. Jockey James McDonald took luck out of the equation by pushing forward on the Chris Waller-trained filly to sit outside Manaal and the filly demonstrated her superiority in the closing stages.
There will be more to be said and written about Autumn Glow, a $1.8 million Inglis Easter graduate, most likely in a fortnight where she is the short-priced $1.80 favourite in all-in markets for the Group 1 Flight Stakes on October 5.
Fellow The Autumn Sun filly Snow In May ran on well to finish second. Could the John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-trained three-year-old be an Oaks filly at Flemington in early November?
Arrowfield sire The Autumn Sun is sitting out the current breeding season due to a pelvis injury suffered in a paddock accident in March.
Stay the course or take the money and run?
For Godolphin, it’s about making stallions, but for other owners and trainers, trading horses to Hong Kong can prove to be a lucrative business model.
The Australasian two-year-old sales, conducted by Inglis, Magic Millions and New Zealand Bloodstock, will be conducted in October and November but private sales of raced and barrier trialled horses is also a key part of the market.
Pakenham trainer Charlotte Littlefield’s phone would have been running hot on Friday afternoon.
Her three-year-old first starter Big Swinger, a three-quarter-brother to Group 3 winner Sylvia’s Mother by Trapeze Artist, made quite the impression in winning a Ballarat maiden (1200m).
Jockey Craig Williams made the trip to take the ride and the gelding, an Arrowfield-bred $180,000 Magic Millions purchase by his trainer, and the horse more than justified his and his trainer’s patience.
Williams doesn’t go to country and provincial meetings to make riding fees: the clue was there, as was precedent.
Big Swinger’s victory, and the way he did it, immediately prompted memories of his year older stablemate Modown.
It was only in the spring of last year that Littlefield and her husband Julian Hay unearthed another exciting progressive horse, the son of Toronado in Modown, who was also ridden early in his career through the grades by Williams.
Bloodstock agents with wealthy Hong Kong clients immediately had Modown in their sights as the winner of a Sale maiden and stakes-placed behind stallion prospect Schwarz in the Springtime Stakes at Flemington on Champions Day, the gelding’s third start.
Hay and Littlefield, who bred Modown, knocked back significant offers for the horse to be sold to Asia. Figures bandied around were north of $500,000.
Big Swinger makes an enormously impressive debut for Charlotte Littlefield.
— Racing.com (@Racing) September 20, 2024
The son of Trapeze Artist has a touch of quality about him ✨@CWilliamsJockey pic.twitter.com/K2qB02gQZV
A small stable such as Littlefield’s needs banner horses and they’re hard to find. So, they took their chances and went to the Sandown Guineas. He finished last and the offers dried up.
Do they keep Big Swinger in the hope that he can go on to be that genuine Group horse or take the money? There’s a saying often used: it’s better to sell and regret than keep and regret.
What may complicate matters is the fact that, unlike Modown, Big Swinger is owned by a large syndicate and any financial windfall may not be life-changing to many of those owners who would prefer to chase glory.
And no one can blame them, either, but it’s an enviable conundrum nonetheless.
Adena of global significance
Last week, The Straight revealed that premium American thoroughbred property Adena Springs, nestled in the US breeding heartland of Kentucky, is back on the market.
When it was first placed on the market in 2022 by Belinda Stronach - whose father Frank Stronach first proposed the idea for slotrace The Pegasus, the blueprint for The Everest - it had a price tag of US$55 million (A$80.8 million).
There’s now a renewed call for offers campaign underway through Icon Global.
So, why is the potential sale of a lavish thoroughbred property half a world away relevant to Australia?
Tim Rowe
The fact is, the racing and breeding industry is getting smaller and the big players, the movers and shakers, are getting bigger and increasingly thinking on a global scale.
Coolmore and Godolphin have led the way in that regard, operating multiple stud farms in both hemispheres and shuttling stallions between the two, and Zhang Yuesheng’s Yulong empire has plundered bloodstock markets in every major jurisdiction over the past five to ten years.
So, if Adena Springs is sold to a thoroughbred investor, as is Belinda Stronach’s desire, the new owner will almost certainly be looking to invest in bloodstock from around the world, including Australia.
Sires on song in Asia
Also internationally, on the track at the weekend an Arrowfield-bred Shalaa three-year-old colt Invincible Papa took his record to three wins from five starts at Nakayama on Sunday.
The $200,000 Inglis Easter graduate, who is trained by Daishi Ito, won an allowance race on the dirt under jockey Christophe Lemaire.
Invincible Papa’s dam Shwaimsa is now owned by Bert Vieira who has supported his Widden-based sire Trapeze Artist with her for the past two seasons.
— Team Iwata (@JayRAye02) April 14, 2024
Shalaa, the sire of this month’s Moir Stakes winner Mornington Glory, now resides at service station mogul Eddie Hirsch’s Woodside Park Stud in Victoria.
The George Rapisada-bred Deep Field gelding The Golden Scenery won the Group 3 Celebration Cup, the firs group race in Hong Kong for the season.
He raced as Dominant King when racing for Steven O’Dea in Rapisada’s colours in Australia and is now trained by Tony Cruz. He is the 36th global stakes winner for his now pensioned Newgate sire and his fourth in Hong Kong.
In Malaysia, Too Darn Hot also sired his maiden winner in the Asian jurisdiction with three-year-old Duma scoring in impressive fashion at his first start at Selangor Turf Club on Sunday.
A $45,000 purchase at last year’s NZB Ready to Run Sale from the draft of Prima Park, Duma is out of a stakes-placed Bel Esprit mare Podravina.
Duma, who is trained by expatriate Aussie Frank Maynard, may be taking on average company but he appears to have the potential to quickly go through the grades in Malaysia.
