Run The Numbers – All-in on Alabama as Yulong bids to create Australia’s next superstar stallion

When Yulong jumped at the opportunity to secure champion-stallion-in-waiting, Written Tycoon in 2021, it was seen as a major signal of intent from Zhang Yuesheng’s outfit that it wanted to be one of Australia’s best stallion farms.

It was a big play, but in the context of breeding timelines, a relatively short-term one, given he was 19 years old and entering his 15th year at stud.

Written Tycoon served 199 mares that first Yulong year, 172 in 2022, then slid back to 96 and 77. The current figures for 2025 are at 39, although that data is only preliminary. It is well known that his fertility is declining at age 23.

In those books, he has benefitted from access to Yulong’s formidable broodmare band, which has been bolstered to enviable quality by investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars over the past five years.

While the strategy to secure Written Tycoon has been a successful one and it has yielded at least one Yulong-bred sire son in First Settler, it was always a measure to buy time until Yulong could foster its own stallion.

Twelve months before its high-profile Written Tycoon deal, Yulong purchased a recent Group 1-winning colt with significant stallion potential, Alabama Express.

In the son of Redoute’s Choice, it saw a potential champion stallion who could capitalise on Yulong’s ambition and rise with the tide.

He wasn’t anointed alone. Tagaloa and Pierata have also received substantial support, both in numbers and quality, during their time at Yulong.

But significantly, Alabama Express was the first of that trio to produce a genuine star in four-time Group 1 winner Treasurethe Moment. That home-bred filly has carried the Yulong colours with great distinction in a career which has featured 10 wins and five placings from 16 starts.

The reward for Alabama Express has been unparalleled support from Yulong’s best mares in 2025. Having been Australia’s busiest stallion in 2024 with 241 covers, the rising star stallion was given a third straight 200-plus book last spring.

But what also stood out in his book, the details of which were released by the Studbook earlier this month, was that of the 212 mares he is reported to have visited last year, nearly 10 per cent, 21, were Group 1 winners.

The record number of Group 1 winners served by a stallion in a single season is not readily kept, but a quick look at the books of Group 1-winning mares to I Am Invincible (nine), Zoustar (seven) and Too Darn Hot (17) last year gives some comparison and context.

Alabama’s Express book featured most of Yulong’s absolute top-line mares.  

Imperatriz, who at $6.6 million holds the record as the highest-priced mare to be sold at public auction in Australia, was mated to Alabama Express in the spring, having produced a Pierata filly with her first crop.

Espiona, who cost $4.15 million, followed the same path, with a Pierata filly before visiting Alabama Express, while Tofane, a four-time Group 1 winner who cost $3.1 million, was another one to visit the son of Redoute’s Choice.

Also on Alabama Express’ book were fellow seven-figure Group 1-winning mares Atishu, purchased for $2.7 million last May, Chain Of Lightning ($2.5m), Icebath ($2.3m), Kimochi ($2.2m), Mariamia ($1.8m), Pennyweka ($1.6m), Sheeza Belter ($1.35m), Velocious ($1.625m), and Viddora ($2.55m).

Other elite winners on the list include Belclare, Dear Demi, Deny Knowledge, Entriviere, Full Count Felicia, Hinged, Moira and Pulchritudinous.

That’s without looking at the mares he served who have already produced Group 1 winners like Berimbau, Baggy Green, Harlech, Calaverite and Extremely.

It would be a stunning list for the highest-priced stallion in the land, but it seems almost unfathomable for one standing at $66,000.  

Coolmore has gone on major spending sprees before to support stallions such as Justify and Wootton Bassett, but both came with huge reputations, having been purchased themselves for in excess of $50 million.

While there are no guarantees in breeding, the sheer volume of elite mares Yulong sent to Alabama Express last year sets him up to make a massive impact in the coming years. If you were going to program a champion stallion, this is exactly how you would do it.

His fourth and biggest yearling crop to date, 135, hits the yearling sales this year with 19 catalogued at this week’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

He has 161 in the current crop of foals, and assuming continued fertility will have in that 150-plus range again in 2026.

It will be interesting to see if his sales average increases, given that it sat at $114,000 last year, $105,000 in the year prior and $100,000 with his first crop.

They are solid but hardly spectacular numbers, and given the best bred of his crops are generally homebreds by Yulong, it will be fascinating to see if those progeny of elite mares make it to the sales at all, or are retained.

Of the offerings at the Gold Coast, 16 of the 19 are being sold by Yulong, with one, Lot 383 out of Inspirational Girl, from a Group 1 winner.