Retired from stud duties at the end of last year and now living a pampered life, Godolphin owned Reset provided a reminder of his reputation as a great stallion when Kiwia completed historic back-to-back victories in the Ballarat Cup.
The six year-old son of Reset became the sixth horse to complete successive cups to give young trainer Archie Alexander the joy of winning his hometown’s biggest race.
While the 19 year-old is no longer serving mares, Godolphin’s Victorian general manager Andy Makiv has a strong belief that the stallion hasn’t finished the job just yet of producing another horse of great quality.
“Kiwia is his current horse,” Makiv said.
“Something else will bob up. I bet something bobs up. There will be a horse there for someone.
“He had a couple of nice yearlings two years ago at Melbourne Premier that would now be three year-olds, so there will be something that will pop up for sure.’’
Unbeaten in his racing career of five starts, including the last two at Group 1 level in the Australian Guineas (1600m) and Futurity Stakes (1400m), Reset was always destined to be a Victorian based stallion.
While his race record for owner Lloyd Williams was unblemished, Reset struggled with his fertility in the breeding barn.
“I think in his last year he would have covered probably 35 mares and got 18 in foal,” Makiv said.
“Of those 18 he got in foal last year, there might only be 10 foals.
‘’He was covering 50 or 60 mares in his later seasons but was getting about half in foal.”
Makiv said Reset always had a little knock on his fertility, but he was good enough to be around on a commercial roster from 2004, when he started as a four year-old, until 2018.
“That was probably always a bit of a limiting factor for him, his fertility,” Makiv said.
“So in terms of him really excelling and hitting the upper echelons of the stallion ranks, his fertility probably held him back.
“But he had a Cox Plate winner, a Derby winner, an Oaks winner and a Caulfield Cup winner. As I always said at stallion parades, he got you there on the big day. He was good enough but always had a relatively small foal crop.’’
Makiv conceded that the commercial breeders didn’t use Reset as much as other stallions because of his fertility which kept his numbers down.
Age doesn’t improve fertility and as his years advanced, it deteriorated further and he was getting smaller books.
Despite his problems, Makiv said a feature of Reset was his ability to get stakes winners from 1200m to 2800m and from two year-olds to eight year-olds.
He got them over all distance ranges and his progeny trained on.
“He was as really handy stallion and if I could have asked for anything it would have been better fertility,” Makiv said.
“He had a great temperament.”
“He was basically bought for Victoria and kicked off the same year as Exceed and Excel kicked off. Exceed went to New South Wales. A son of Danehill went to NSW and a son of Zabeel went to Victoria.
“Exceed is still going, God bless him.
“Reset was a very good stallion who got us a very good horse in Hauraki. He was a top liner.
“What I liked about him was that if he got a good one, they were really a good one. Fawkner was a proper one and Hauraki was a proper one. Those big top liners won a lot of money.”
Makiv said an exciting aspect now about Reset is he’s developing a reputation as a broodmare sire as he enjoys retirement in an adjoining paddock with Carlton House which was owned by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11.
“We retired him up at Woodlands Stud in the stallion facility up there,” Makiv said.
“It used to be a stallion farm back in the Ingham days so it has stallion barns, etc.”
“He and Carlton House are up there together. They have paired up and are mates and are on side by side paddocks.
“It’s a wonderfully deserved retirement and he is enjoying it up there. Good on him as he is a favourite of ours.’’
Makiv said Reset’s longevity in the breeding barn was proof that he’d been “a pretty handy stallion.”
The Ballarat Cup win was Kiwia’s first since last year’s Ballarat Cup victory and took his prize money to more than $1 million.
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