Victoria’s Rosemont Stud has possibly had better launches into spring, but General Manager Bloodstock, Ryan McEvoy, would be hard pressed naming one.
Last Saturday McEvoy – and the rest of Team Rosemont – cheered on as Shamus Award 5YO, Incentivise, stamped his bona fides with a brilliant display in the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington. With 7 wins from 10 outings, McEvoy is confident the horse will only get better and equates that projection with Incentivise’s sire.
After all, the Makybe Diva was the fourth individual Group 1 success by Shamus Award progeny in the last 12 months and, while you still might be a chance to get a booking to Shamus Award this season, you could have more hope with Lotto.
Ironically, Shamus Award’s stablemate, Starspangledbanner, has arguably garnered more ink about fertility than his record at stud, which is a great shame given that he’s had well over 200 winners and a double figure strike rate with his stakes horses.
Last Saturday Starspangledbanner chimed in with a city double on either side of the Tasman and, since the start of August, he’s produced Group 1 Saratoga Derby winner (State of Rest) and a Listed win in Europe with his 2YO, Flotus.
Making life a whole lot easier for McEvoy too is the latest addition to the Rosemont roster – 3-time stakeswinning 2YO and Group 1 Blue Diamond runnerup Hanseatic – who has had the ‘book full’ shingle hanging outside his box for months. Happy days.
Yet, despite all that’s happening around Shamus Award, Starspangledbanner and Hanseatic, McEvoy is clearly excited about the first foals of I Am Invincible’s Group 2 winning 2YO, Strasbourg.
“Look, no-one should get too carried away with foals this early in the breeding season, but we really couldn’t be happier with what we’ve got on the ground here at Rosemont, along with the reports we’re getting from a lot of other farms,” McEvoy enthused. “The five we have here at the stud are very much in the mould of their sire who, it’s worth remembering, was a $750,000 yearling.
“You’d be hard pressed finding a stud that doesn’t – publicly at least – say that the first foals of their stallion aren’t terrific, but the Strasbourgs really do have a lot of quality about them.
“But at the end of the day, it’s not what I say. Strasbourg is on track to cover a bigger book of mares than he did last spring (109), but a good percentage of those are return mares … obviously based on what he’s producing. Let’s face it, that’s the greatest endorsement you can get.”
