In today's Rowe On Monday, Tim Rowe reports on the annual Hunter Valley stallion parades as the Australian breeding season approaches, while it's been a dream start Mongolian owner Ganbaatar Dagvadorj and trainer Danny O’Brien.
The weather cleared, the floodwaters dissipated and the first signs of spring were evident in Australian thoroughbred breeding heartland of the Hunter Valley as studmasters threw open the gates at the weekend.
After trudging through the depths of winter, headlines about the rising costs of racing and breeding horses, the lush Hunter Valley paddocks glistened as the sun blazed down and the stallions shone.
With the breeding season just a week away and the foaling numbers increasing, there was no better way for broodmare owners to finalise their mating plans or, in some cases, reverse their decision to take a year off by enjoying the hospitality of the various stallion farms, all unique in the way they conduct their spring-eve stallion showcase.
Widden was cut off by a flooded creek on Friday, prompting a reshuffling of the schedule to Sunday, while Kia Ora, with its Golden Slipper-winning stallion Farnan quickly rising up the stallion ranks, was forced to cancel its Saturday parade due to the heavy rain in the lead-up.
Seeing the waterlogged paddocks at nearby farms, it was no wonder. The Hendricks gin at Kia Ora will have to be kept on ice until next year.
Of the eight first-season sires who are standing in the Hunter Valley this year, just four were colonial bred: Switzerland and Private Life (Coolmore) and Broadsiding and Traffic Warden (Darley).
Fledgling farm Riverstone Lodge (Starlust), headed up by ambitious young horseman Nick Taylor, Arrowfield’s Vandeek, Coolmore’s City Of Troy and Widden’s speed machine Cogburn are all northern hemisphere-bred.
It points to two factors: the deeds of stallions such as Too Darn Hot, Wootton Bassett and Justify have led to shuttlers being in vogue and to the difficulty in acquiring Australian-bred stallion prospects.
Firstly, they are either already owned by a stud-aligned syndicate, such as Rosemont’s Schwarz or Yulong (Growing Empire, First Settler and so on) and, secondly, Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng can afford to pay prices for colts over and above what Hunter Valley farms can justify.
The last-start Group 1 Galaxy winner Private Harry, who is a leading contender for The Everest, is exhibit A.
It might be an exaggeration, but as one studmaster put it, “if we get a $20 million stallion wrong, it’s shut the gate”.
That said, outside the obvious freshman sires such as Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Switzerland and the impressive Broadsiding, who were both eye-catching to say the least, studmasters are reporting that their first-season stallions are proving popular in a risk-averse bloodstock climate.
Taylor’s Grade 1-winning sprinter Starlust, a northern hemisphere-bred son of Zoustar, epitomises Australian speed despite his overseas origins and the studmaster is confident he will fill a book of 140 mares.
Group 1-winning juvenile sprinter Vandeek, who landed the Middle Park Stakes and Prix Morny over 1200m at two, is also popular and close to book full, we’re told, while champion colt City Of Troy was imposing, to say the least, as he paraded to the dulcet tones of James Bester at Coolmore on Sunday.
For the first time in more than three decades, Widden has a champion Australian sire on its roster in Zoustar, but for the best part of the past 15 years, Antony Thompson has focused on colonial speed to stock his Hunter Valley stud.
But late last year, Thompson went out on a limb by acquiring shuttle sire Cogburn, a Grade 1 winner on turf in the US, and Australian breeders have responded in the belief that he looks like “an Australian sprinter”. He will cover a restricted book of mares.
At Darley, Andy Makiv took the microphone for his first Kelvinside stallion parade in charge of Godolphin Australia and he is in an enviable position.
With Too Darn Hot returning, Anamoe’s first yearlings heading to the sales next year, Pinatubo’s two-year-olds to race this season and Broadsiding fully booked, the future looks bright for Darley in the post-Exceed And Excel and Lonhro era.
It’s a long and big investment made by stallion farms, but it can also change quickly. At Vinery, Ole Kirk is that horse.
Last season’s champion first-season sire, with 13 individual winners and four at stakes level, he will be a busy boy this year at an increased fee of $99,000 (inc GST). Those breeders who backed him from the start are laughing; those who didn’t are now believers.
With Harry Mitchell overseas, MC’ing duties were left to Arthur Mitchell to extol the virtues of I Am Invincible, not that it is required, while Hellbent continues to achieve and the best is likely still ahead for Brave Smash, whose first Yarraman Park-conceived crop are yearlings.
Newgate didn’t have a new stallion this year, but a lot rests on the new season two-year-olds for first-season sires Stay Inside, Tiger Of Malay, Profiteer and Wild Ruler.
All it takes is just one good horse - and everyone in the Hunter Valley at the weekend can agree on that.
Two from two for Mongolian owner
Mongolia’s Ganbaatar Dagvadorj and Danny O’Brien have maintained their perfect start to their owner-trainer relationship, with Mongolian Mission winning on debut at Wangaratta on Saturday.
The victory by the Dubious three-year-old colt in a 1100m maiden at the Victorian country track made it two from two for Dagvadorj and O’Brien.
Mongolian Gobi, a colt by Ribchester, won his first start in a 1200m maiden at Sale in July.
The pair, along with three other two-year-olds, were purchased by Dagvadorj at last year’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale.
The quintet are all in training with O’Brien, as is the US-bred 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale graduate Mongolian City, an unraced half-brother to American Listed winner Batucada.
Dagvadorj also purchased two Ghaiyyath colts at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale earlier this year.
