The Australian breeding season is now in full swing and while the big commercial farms are the first port of call for most ambitious breeders, three of the best Group winners last weekend highlight the fact that not all Group I winners cost a fortune to produce.
Spritely 9YO gelding Eduardo is one of the best sprinters in the country and showed he will be an Everest force again this spring when resuming from a spell to win the Group III ATC Concorde Stakes (1000m). Read more here.
The Joe Pride trained Eduardo was never offered for sale as a yearling and did not race until he was four with that patient no pressure approach paying real dividends now with over $6million in prizemoney for his owners, who include his breeder Jane Kaufmann.
His dam Blushing was bought by Kaufmann for $4,000 in 2010 at the Inglis March Thoroughbred Sale and the service fee to his sire Host (now deceased) when he was conceived in 2012 was $5,000.
A Group I winner at two, Rothfire has had an interrupted racing career due to injury, but at age five his trainer Rob Heathcote might be about to see the best of him judging by his brilliant return in the Group II MVRC McEwen stakes (1000m). Read more here.
Not accepted into Magic Millions as a yearling, he was bought privately by his trainer for $10,000 from his breeders Gleeson Thoroughbreds and has won $1.3million.
He is the last foal of his dam Huss on Fire, who died in 2018 and he was conceived in 2016 when his sire Rothesay stood at a fee of $11,000. Rothesay is available this spring at Lyndhurst Stud at a fee of $4,950.
Talented 5YO gelding Mr Brightside ended his last campaign winning the Group I ATC Doncaster and his two runs back have resulted in wins with a facile four and a half length victory in the Group II MVRC Feehan Stakes (1600m) last Saturday earning him a crack at the Cox Plate. Read more here.
With prizemoney just shy of $3million, the Lindsay Park team have a horse capable of earning a lot more before this season ends.
The Kiwi import was originally trained by Ralph Manning in Cambridge and had one start before being sold privately to clients of the Hayes stable via Australian agent Wayne Ormond.
Manning and good friends Shaun Dromgool and Ray Johnson purchased Mr Brightside as an unraced two-year-old off gavelhouse.com for just $7,750, with some insight into the youngster.
Johnson, with his late wife Martha, had bred and sold the son of Bullbars as a yearling at the 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock May Sale for $22,000 via Janine Dunlop’s Phoenix Park before he had failed to meet his $50,000 reserve when re-offered at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale.
Mr Brightside was bred from Lilajay, who was bought as a weanling for $1400 and his sire Bullbars stood at Highview Stud, where the half-brother to triple Group I winner Helmet struggled for popularity and stood for just $7,500.
These three horses are all Group I winners already and can add to their records this spring, so if breeding on a budget is where you are at… don’t limit your thinking of what can be achieved!
