If your goal this spring is to choose a stallion that can breed you a nice winner with upside it might not be as expensive as you think.
When you drive through the gates at Coolmore, you know you are going to see some of the best stallions in the land and for a budget breeder, that can be a bit disconcerting given you know you can’t afford to go to them.
This spring there are two proven Group I winning and Group I producing stallions on the Coolmore roster priced at just $22,000 in Pride of Dubai and Pierro.
A son of Street Cry (IRE), Pride of Dubai was an elite juvenile winning both the G1 MRC Blue Diamond Stakes and ATC Sires Produce Stakes.
His stud career has unfolded in a somewhat unorthodox fashion for a stallion of his profile, but we are now in possession of all the facts and once you get a grip on that, what’s not to like.
Pride of Dubai can get you a seriously good horse and his five G1 winners include Australian Horse of the Year Pride of Jenni, Everest queen Bella Nipotina, globetrotting raider Dubai Honour (IRE) and two time G1 winner Desert Lightning, who will shoot for a third in the Stradbroke this Saturday.
Pride of Dubai has overall stats of 62% winner to runner with 4.3% SW to runner, but the thing to remember about this stallion is that he does not enjoy mares by Danehill line sires.
Pride of Dubai is from a daughter of Danehill and while some stallions thrive on close doubling up to Danehill, such as Zoustar, this guy underperforms, so if you are planning to use him keep that in mind.
A good example is Pride of Dubai over mares by Fastnet Rock, who is the champion Australian broodmare sire and given he too stood at Coolmore, this nick has had plenty of exposure.
It has had 13 winners from 25 runners (52% winner to runner) and the two SW’s bred this way are Listed horses Queen of Dubai and Hypothetical, hardly household names.
The two Pride of Dubai G1 winners – Bella Nipotina and Desert Lightning – that do have double Danehill, have it in a 3 x 5 arrangement.
In 2012, Pierro won the Golden Slipper and also the Sydney 2YO Triple Crown taking the Sires Produce and Champagne Stakes to finish his juvenile season undefeated with six starts for six wins.
In all the years since then, no juvenile has gone even remotely close to achieving what he did and then at three Pierro came back to win the G1 Canterbury Stakes, George Ryder Stakes and was placed in the Cox Plate and Doncaster.
Pierro is a remarkable thoroughbred and when his stud career kicked off it appeared he was destined for greatness in that area as well, but for whatever reason he has struggled to maintain the level of excellence he showed with his first three crops.
Current stats for Pierro have him at 72% winners to runners and 5.2% SW to runners with six Group I winners to his credit, three from his first crop, two from his second and one from his third.
He added a new millionaire to his honour roll last Saturday when evergreen gelding War Eternal claimed his second stakes victory at Eagle Farm and his 107 winners this season have racked up $8.4million in prizemoney and have come at a seasonal strike rate of 52.5%.
Leading the way for him this season has been Group winning 3YO colt Shangri La Boy, who was a close second in the G1 Spring Champion Stakes and has banked nearly $770,000 in prizemoney.
Pierro is also developing a new string to his bow as a broodmare sire with his daughters producing 11 SW’s to date including dual G1 winner Jacquinot and G1 winning half-sisters Fireball Miss and Femminile.
Forgive me here for venturing a little off track, but you will soon see where this is going.
Over the winter, I have been exploring the Paramount stable of excellent TV series and one that I’ve just finished is Landman, the Texas based oil industry saga starring Billy Bob Thornton.
One of the story arcs centres on the market moving on from played out oil wells, but with new technology and innovative thinking these wells become a goldmine for a shrewd investor.
Am thinking Pride of Dubai and Pierro are a little like that, the market might have moved on, but the oil is still there.
Breednet Value Sires – Part 1- Zousain
Breednet Value Sires – Part 2- Brutal
