As good as our Australian thoroughbreds have become, there is always room for improvement and the addition of quality US speed bloodlines into the mix has long been a proven recipe for success and we need look no further than the opening juvenile stakes races this season to see the fruits of that line of thinking.
The 2022 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale runs from November 7 – 16 in Kentucky and features 3,691 horses to be offered after Keeneland hosts the Breeders’ Cup World Championships the preceding Friday and Saturday.
A heady mix of world class racing followed by the world’s biggest breeding stock sale will draw buyers from all over the world and Australians are sure to find plenty to excite both on the track and in the sale ring.
Inspiration to delve into the US market is not hard to find with three of our early spring juvenile stakes-winners claiming input from North American bred mares.
Godolphin enjoyed an immediate success with Exceed and Excel colt Zulfiqar, who scored a debut win in the Listed VRC Maribyrnong Trial giving his dam Sayf Shamal (USA) the perfect start to her stud career.
He is the first foal of the imported daughter of Elusive Quality, who was bred in the US by Darley and actually comes from an Australian female family, while his champion sire Exceed and Excel is by the mighty Danehill from imported mare Patrona (USA).
The Group III ATC Gimcrack Stakes at Randwick was won on debut by Zoustar filly Platinum Jubilee, who is a half-sister to Group III winner Queen of the Ball being the second stakes-winner from stakes-winning Fastnet Rock mare Miss Debutante, who is shaping as an exceptional producer for Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock Australia.
Miss Debutante was bred and sold by Kia Ora Stud fetching $430,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and she is the first Australian foal from brilliantly fast More Than Ready filly More Than Real (USA), who won the Group II Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
The most impressive juvenile winner seen out so far has been exciting I Am Invincible colt King’s Gambit, who thrashed his opposition in the Listed MRC Debutant Stakes at Caulfield to win by daylight.
Bred by Gooree Stud, King’s Gambit is the first stakes-winner from Group III winning Encosta de Lago mare Sultry Feeling, whose dam is the imported Silver Deputy mare Visual Emotion (USA).
Gooree Stud have enjoyed tremendous results over a long time period with a good deal of that success coming from their careful cultivation of female families that have sprung from North American imported mares.
The jewel in the crown for Gooree has been Northern Meteor, a Group I winning colt by Encosta de Lago from Explosive (USA) that has left a lasting legacy at stud despite standing for just four seasons before his premature death in 2013.
Northern Meteor’s champion son Zoustar now stands at a fee of $198,000 and recently sired his first Northern Hemisphere bred Group I winner Lezoo putting him in rare company as an Aussie bred sire to achieve elite success in both hemispheres.
Just last Saturday we saw another new stakes-winner bred from a US import with progressive filly Zoe’s Promise winning the Group II MVRC Moonee Valley Fillies Classic (1600m) on Cox Plate Day.
Bred by Spendthrift Australia, she provided her young Redoute’s Choice sire Swear with his first stakes-winner and is the nest of two winners from stakes-winner Kinz Funky Monkey (USA), a daughter of Storm Cat line sire The Green Monkey.
Australian breeders seeking to broaden their horizons and add diverse speed to their broodmare band would do well to look hard at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, click here for the catalogue.
