All roads led to the Hunter Valley last week for the annual round of stallion parades when studs open their gates to the public and broodmare owners get a chance to make last minute decisions on just which stallion to choose for a favoured mare, it’s a fun mix of horses and social activity offering a great insight into the Australian breeding industry.
Anamoe was the undisputed star of the show at Darley and deservedly so as the most successful Group I winner ever raced by Sheikh Mohammed. He is fully booked at a fee of $121,000.
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Captivant is one of three stallions at Kia Ora Stud and is the pride and joy of his breeder Senga Bissett, who was in the crowd on Saturday to snap a picture of her Group I winning colt.
“You never dream you will breed a colt that’s good enough to stand at a farm like this,” she said.
“They will give him every opportunity to succeed and I’m just so proud of him.”
Bissett sold Ashleigh Thoroughbreds and is now retired, but has much to look forward to as she retained an interest in the yearling brother to Captivant that was bought by China Horse Club / Newgate / Go / Trilogy for $625,000 at the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale this year.
Detour, the mother of all traffic jams on Saturday morning at the rickety bridge when the crowd departed from Arrowfield to head across to Kia Ora and Darley led us to a more scenic route that took us past Lake Glenbawn, have never seen it before but worth a look!
Exciting! no stallion made a better entrance all weekend than Newgate Farm’s In The Congo, his flashy good looks and a cracking soundtrack worked it’s magic!
Fangirl was a topic of conversation everywhere we went given my daughter Jasmine strapped her when she won the Group I Winx Stakes and her owner breeders Debbie Kepitis and her family were also on the stallion parade trail last weekend.
Interestingly when we were at Widden, Antony Thompson revealed Fangirl’s dam Little Surfer Girl was set to visit their Sebring son Supido this spring, a mating that will producer a three-quarter sibling to the $3.9million earner.
Got up close and personal with the Snitzel statue at Arrowfield, which is phenomenally good!
Horse statues are not easy and for a horse lover they can often miss the mark, but this one is brilliant.
Headquarters for Hindquarters – one look at the back end of Graff and you can see why Mick Malone has coined this phrase at Kitchin Hills.
I Am Invincible has been the Champion Australian Sire by earnings for the past two seasons and is Australia’s most expensive stallion, not that anything has changed much at Yarraman Park. The Mitchell family are as they always are, humble and happy to welcome a big crowd to share celebrating a stallion that has changed many lives.
How did they pick him? That’s no mystery as Harry Mitchell explained, “We were broke and he was all we could afford!” A Group III winning son of a shuttle sire (Invincible Spirit) that had limited opportunity in Australia and limited success here … go figure!
Jacquinot was the new young gun at Widden Stud this year and handled himself like a pro.
Terrific temperament and a lovely athlete, he could have as easily been going back into work for a crack at the Golden Eagle as about to embark on a stud career.
Kevin, only two other people know why this is funny, but trust me it is!
Lineage is a big thing and you see a lot of father and son action at the big studs, in fact all of them are standing champion sires and their sons. Coolmore’s grand old man Fastnet Rock opened their parade on Sunday and was followed by his brilliant speed son Acrobat, read more on them here.
Muscle bulk is something you notice straight away about Coolmore’s exciting I Am Invincible son Home Affairs, who is letting down into a formidable stallion.
No question the Vinery Stud parade and breakfast is always popular!
Ole Kirk was looking fabulous at Vinery and there is a lot of excitement about this dual Group I winning son of Written Tycoon from the family of champions Black Caviar and All Too Hard. He’s Danehill free and has three lines of Vain, but has won up to 1600m, so speedy squib he is not.
Prague was holding court at Kia Ora while Caroline Searcy and Shane Wright waxed lyrical about his prospects and they made reference to the fact he had covered the dams of two runners in the G3 San Domenico Stakes.
That fact became an important one when one of those mares turned out to be Electric Charge, whose son Libertad won the race! She produced a colt by Prague last spring for Rheinwood Pastoral and is due to foal to him again now.
Question- is there a Group I winning, Group I producing sire and sire of sires standing in the Hunter Valley for less than $10,000?
Roadkill, the extremely dry start to spring has drawn a lot of wildlife close to roads in search of grass and that seldom ends well.
So You Think has finished second the last two years running to I Am Invincible on the Australian General Sires List by earnings and James Bester is predicting it might be third time lucky!
Trees – Henry Field is as proud of his trees as he is of his horses – “When we bought this place we planted thousands of them and look at them now.”
He’s got a point and Kia Ora Stud have taken a leaf out of his book and that rejuvenated historic farm is going to look amazing in ten years time when their trees also hit their stride.
Ugly foal – nobody has ever had one of these born at their farm… at least not by any of these stallions!!
Victoria Derby, Australian Guineas and Australian Derby – these are the G1 races won by Arrowfield Stud’s new recruit Hitotsu, an exceptional racehorse and the first Australian son of Maurice (Jpn) to go to stud.
Winning is what all of this weekend is ultimately about and Darley had the silverware on show at their parade – Cox Plate, Caulfield Guineas, George Main Stakes and Sires Produce Stakes.
Xtremely frustrating – some of the best stories you hear and things you see can’t be shared as they are in the vault!
Yearlings – Widden Stud have four stallions that will have their first yearlings sell next year and paraded one youngster each by Anders, Doutland, Russian Camelot (IRE) and Dirty Work – it was not hard to work out which was by Anders!
Zoustar is the king at Widden Stud and there are exciting times ahead with his barn mate and sire son Zousain set to have his first runners this season.
