The Super Seth strategy: How Coolmore will capitalise on its $70 million sire

On a late summer’s day in February this year, the ink was still drying on the biggest stallion deal in Australasian history.

Coolmore, whose stallion roster had been dealt a major blow by the shock deaths of proven sires Wootton Bassett and So You Think last spring, had orchestrated the A$70 million coup to bring Super Seth to Australia.

The Caulfield Guineas winner had spent his first six seasons at the Chittick family’s Waikato Stud in New Zealand and had emerged as the farm’s heir apparent to 10-time champion Savabeel with four Group 1 winners in his first two crops.

It led to comparisons between Super Seth and Danehill, statistically at least, something Waikato Stud’s Mark Chittick had alluded to in an interview with The Straight only a week prior to the massive deal taking place.

The Kiwi studmaster didn’t let on something was afoot with Super Seth, nor the sleepless nights he was enduring as he contemplated the magnitude he and the stallion’s fellow shareholders were facing.

Even Coolmore’s Tom Magnier and his colleagues were unsure the deal could be completed when he met with Chittick and inspected Super Seth and his young stock in the Waikato paddocks only weeks after New Zealand’s 100th National Yearling Sale was held at Karaka.

With a roster of promising young stallions headed by Home Affairs, whose first crop colt Guest House won the Golden Slipper in March, Shinzo and Switzerland, Coolmore was in need of a proven sire to do justice to its incredibly valuable broodmare band.

Tom Moore, from Coolmore’s nominations and marketing team at Jerrys Plains, says although purchasing Super Seth was a new benchmark for Australasia, it’s not without precedent.

“We never thought it’d be possible that we might be able to lure him to Coolmore, but it’s something that’s happened in the past with Wootton Bassett, for example, who was procured from France to come to Ireland,” Moore told this week’s Straight Talk podcast. 

“Obviously, he sadly passed away last year and we lost So You Think as well, and Fastnet Rock is no longer with us, so we needed a proven stallion and the opportunity arose to be able to buy into or take over the services of Super Seth. 

“Within a very little amount of time between the horse being put to us, the deal was done.” 

Coolmore has never publicly disclosed the exact details of the contract to buy Super Seth, but he was syndicated to breeders at $1.75 million per share, valuing him at A$70 million.

It’s not a bad return on the NZ$18 million Super Seth had cost Waikato Stud and shareholders by the time he served his first mare on September 1, 2020.

Chittick retained equity in Super Seth as part of the Coolmore agreement while prominent breeder Jonathan Munz, who raced Super Seth to win the Caulfield Guineas, maintained his full complement of breeding rights rather than cashing in on the rise of the Dundeel stallion.

In this part of the world, only Yulong has spent more than Coolmore on high-end mares over the past six years.

Home Affairs, whose service fee will be a roster-high $176,000 (inc GST) this year, will command a high proportion of the farm’s best mares, but so too will Super Seth, whose fee of $137,500 is also a career-high.

“He seems to fit into our stallion roster really well and probably equally as importantly, he’s a point of difference to a horse like Home Affairs, who is another emerging young proven stallion,” Moore said.

“We have to identify stallions and proven stallions to send our own broodmare band to, and we’ve invested a lot of money in that, so to have access to a horse like Super Seth for our own mares, as much as anything, is extremely appealing.”

Given the proliferation of O’Reilly and Savabeel mares in New Zealand, and particularly at Waikato Stud, Super Seth has covered a big proportion of mares by those stallions.

Randwick Guineas winner Linebacker, though, is out of an Oasis Dream mare and Queensland Derby winner Maison Louis is a son of a Makfi mare.

His other stakes winners are out of mares by Thorn Park, Royal Academy and Exceed And Excel.

But his transfer to the Hunter Valley is expected to provide Super Seth with a bigger book of sprinting-bred mares.

They are set to include high-class Tiz Invincible, Estriella, Coolangatta, Booker, Champagne Cuddles, Avantage and Shout The Bar, whose Home Affairs colt made $3 million at last year’s Inglis Easter sale.

“We really think that he’s capable of producing the types of horses that people go to the sales wanting to buy, which is horses that can win races like the Golden Rose and even the Coolmore and the Golden Slipper,” Moore said.

“He was a Guineas winner himself, but he won five races and four of them were over 1200 metres. His granddam was a fast mare by Rory’s Jester, so we think he’s more than capable of producing those fast, early, precocious horses that the market so desires here in Australia.”

With two Waikato-conceived Super Seth crops to come, the market can expect a greater presence of his progeny being offered at the Australian sales from next year onwards, according to Moore.

“A lot of the success that he’s had on the track has been here in Australia. New Zealand’s premier sale at Karaka in January is a great sale, but I don’t think there’s room for 100-odd Super Seths, so they’re going to have to be spread out amongst some of the Australian sales,” he said.

“We’ll have a conversation with the Chitticks as to what the best way is to manage that, but in terms of the Australian yearling buying bench, there’s a huge appetite for them and some of the major stables throughout the country have had great success with them. 

“So, it makes sense to supply the Australian sales at Inglis and Magic Millions with some of the better Super Seths and, certainly, we’ll be seeing more and more Super Seths as the years go on, starting in 2029 with the Coolmore brand on them.”