Straight Up – Getting in early in the race for a future stallion

In today’s Straight Up we focus on the stallion game.

It can be a roller coaster and few know this better than the Thompson family at Widden Stud, who have been at the caper for over 150 years.

This week Widden principal Antony Thompson secured his newest future stallion, doing a deal which will see emerging three-year-old I Am Unstoppable retire to the famous stud at the end of his racing career.

Widden secures I Am Unstoppable’s stud future

I Am Unstoppable has become the latest three-year-old stallion prospect to be secured by a major stud, with Widden Stud buying into the I Am Invincible colt.

The StraightBren O’Brien

Interestingly, it is the third time in the past six years that Widden will end up standing a runner-up of the Coolmore Stud Stakes. The plan is for the son of I Am Invincible to hopefully frank his stallion value when he targets sprint races down the Flemington straight for trainers Lloyd Kennewell and Lucy Yeomans in the autumn.

The market for potential stallions is arguably hotter in Australia than anywhere else in the world. Increasingly studs are striking deals well before a colt secures a Group 1 win, similar to what Newgate did to get into the ownership of Ozzmosis before he won the Coolmore this year, beating I Am Unstoppable.

The varying nature of these stallion deals, and the bonuses on offer, is something Duncan Grimley and I discussed in an article we launched with last week, and it is worth reflecting on after the Widden deal.

Stallion deals and the best three-year old prospects – In conversation with Duncan Grimley

The major three-year-old races in Australia each spring unearth not only the future stars of the turf, but also stallion prospects worth tens of millions of dollars.

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More and more, studs are having to use analysis to identify and secure potential Group 1-winning colts before they hit their peak. If they don’t, they risk missing out, or getting caught in a bidding war.

The upsides can be enormous. Darley famously bought into Exceed And Excel for a reported $22 million in 2004. It seemed a ridiculously high figure for the son of Danehill at the time, but it has enabled them to build a dynasty on both sides of the world over the past two decades.

Exceed And Excel is the most successful Australian-bred stakes-winning sire of all time, marking his 214th black-type success when his two-year-old filly Eneeza won the Merson Cooper Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.

Across 48 countries, Exceed And Excel’s progeny have won over 6000 races since 2007, amassing over $267 million in prizemoney.

Significant in that success has been his two-year-olds and with Eneeza’s win on Saturday, he has now had a juvenile stakes winner from each of his 17 Australian crops, a record unmatched by any other stallion.

His remarkable record is further explored in this week’s Run The Numbers in Review.

Run The Numbers in Review – Exceed And Excel extends extraordinary record

Saturday’s stakes racing added another chapter to the amazing record that Exceed And Excel has with his two year-olds.

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Regards

Bren O’Brien

Founder and Managing Editor