READY AYE READY

Traffic Guard (USA)
(Photo : Greig Muir)

“The Western World’s current standard-bearer of the Halo-line,
More Than Ready”

Stallion masters are always on the lookout for the sons of emerging sires of sires, and there’s no horse right now with better dual hemisphere credentials in this department, than the Western World’s current standard-bearer of the Halo-line, More Than Ready. The jet black hero of America’s greatest stallion-maker, Saratoga’s King’s Bishop Stakes (Gr.1), has shown his mettle in both hemispheres, and looks to be America’s counterpart to Japan’s Sunday Silence in the perpetuation of the strain.

As matters stand, his unbeaten son Verrazano, is the ruling favourite for America’s marquee horse race, the Kentucky Derby (Gr.1), while Down Under, his sons Sebring and Perfectly Ready, have already made their marks with their debut crops. Leading the charge is the Golden Slipper ace, Sebring, whose son Criterion overcame a wide run to claim the laurels in last week’s Black Opal Stakes (Listed) in Canberra. In doing so, the David Payne-trained chestnut guaranteed himself a berth in next month’s Golden Slipper (Gr.1) and a shot at the $2million first prize. A day later, the Sebring fillies Bring A Ring and Australia Day finished first and third in the Sporting Bet Classic (Listed) on Adelaide Cup day at Morphettville, placing Sebring bang in the mix for first season stallion honours with Real Saga.

Across the Tasman, Perfectly Ready shaded Darci Brahma for the Freshman Sires’ title in the 2011 season, some feat considering Darci Brahma is considered one of New Zealand’s brightest hopes of finding a replacement for the aging Zabeel.

The Verrazano story is interesting, if only because his acquisition by the Irish reveals the state of play in the broader international battle for world dominance of the stud scene between the game’s two titans, Coolmore and Darley. Four years ago, Sheikh Mohammed made his intentions clear when he corned the market’s outstanding prospects, splurging more than $200million on the top four colts of their American generation, Breeders Cup and Kentucky Derby hero Street Sense, the King’s Bishop victor Hard Spun, dual Group One winner Any Given Saturday, and champion sprinter, Street Boss, all of them going to stud in the same year as Sheikh Mohammed’s outstanding homebred, Bernardini. Of these, Bernardini is the obvious standout, while Hard Spun has featured promisingly, though for the time being, you’d have to describe him as the “nearly” horse. More recently though, the Arab contingent have gone quiet relatively speaking, while Coolmore have been alert to every opportunity, with a stream of top class stallion prospects in Europe, as well as getting first bite of the cherry among the generation leaders of the past couple of seasons in the United States. Coolmore already have a top son in Majestic Warrior, they have secured consecutive juvenile champions, Lookin’ At Lucky and Uncle Mo, besides A.P. Indy’s highly performed son, Stay Thirsty. And now, as exciting as any, Verrazano.

They continue to be active wherever they can find them, and they have the added ace up their sleeves in the Aussie-bred Fastnet Rock, whose numbers at stud are eclipsing even those of his phenomenal sire, Danehill, and whose sons by a stretch are the most sought after commodity in the Southern Hemisphere, almost to the exclusion of all else. It would be intriguing to know what bookmakers are quoting on the outcome of this one.

P.S. Europe’s best performed son of More Than Ready is Traffic Guard (Timeform rating 123) who commenced duties here last season.

Enquiries :
Linda Norval +27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

It's official: no room for mere mortals

The battle that rages now on five continents for supremacy in the world stallion stakes has finally driven the price of stallion prospects beyond the reach of almost anyone but the richest of the rich.

Against a background of falling stallion service fees at the very top end of the American market (where the likes of Storm Cat has had his fee slashed from US$500,000 to US$300,000), the value of the best new prospects, which in the real world of the past was determined against a multiple of the stud fee, has catapulted in the opposite direction.

The impact has been to put these horses right out of reach of almost every stallion operation (yes, including arch-rival and mega stallion operator, Coolmore), and it signals the extent to which Darley’s high priest, Sheikh Mohammed, is willing to go to in what, whichever way you choose to look at it, amounts to unequivocal notice of his intention to put an end to the decades-long dominance of Coolmore’s founder, John Magnier.

Stated in its most brutal form, it’s a matter of what one of the richest men on earth is prepared to pay to beat another very rich man.

Sheikh Mohammed’s Dalham Hall StudThe estimated price paid by Sheikh Mohammed for just three of his newest recruits for his American farm, (three of 2007’s top four, three year olds, Street Sense, Hard Spun and Any Given Saturday) is US$90 million, and measured by their combined starting stud fees (US$165,000) this figure equates to about 545 times that amount, according to our old pal and stallion sage, Bill Oppenheim.

In a world in which, till quite recently, a stallion’s potential value (even that of a “shuttler”, which has the ability to earn “two” incomes annually, one in the Northern hemisphere, the other in the South), was measured at 100 times the fee. Then, somehow it got to 250 to 300 times (and only intense competition, and some might say, avarice, could’ve got it there), yet now the Sheikh has shown his willingness to double the odds.

And he’s doing it in numbers, retiring eight new prospects in two seasons, against just one (ordinary one) by Coolmore in America.

John Magnier’s Coolmore StudMagnier’s failure to return the fire (hardly a single shot outside the purchase of significant numbers of yearlings at the American sales this year), either signals an intent to concentrate on and shore up his dominance in Europe from his home base in Ireland (which is very un-Magnier), or is a statement that at these numbers, he’s just not a player because, after all, he’s just mortal, like the rest of us.

You have to give credit though, for Magnier’s strategic astuteness and his consistency, because he came to the realization quite quickly that it was senseless, at these numbers, to try and compete, and he has stuck to his original plan where it started out long ago, and that is in the yearling market. His rationale is that you can prove your own stallions on the racetrack, having bought them at figures that at least have some connectivity with reality, provided you’re good enough at picking them, an area where Coolmore have been distinctly more successful than Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin team in the past four or five years. Of course, there’s greater risk attached to this approach, but such is the genius of John Magnier, that he’s succeeded with the policy for almost three decades now.

Sheikh Mohammed’s foray into the market is bound to be met with derision from the other major stallion stations in the USA, who must now acknowledge that to compete, they’ll have to accept relegation to a new, second tier of prospects (which isn’t where they’re used to shopping), in the hope that recent history, which has thrown up some of the USA’s best young sires from this second tier, repeats itself.

Click for more articles relating to Coolmore, Darley and Godolphin.

The Breeders' Cup World Championship of Racing: A bit of a damp squib

                                                            Curlin (Charles Pravata-Horsephotos)

Bucketing rain turned the racing surface for the Breeder’s Cup Championship event at Monmouth Park into something resembling more of a swimming pool than a racetrack, and the results unfortunately reflected the lack of predictability that inevitably emerges in these conditions.

The first major upsets occurred when Dylan Thomas, a four-time Group 1 winner this season, and the outstanding Champion of Europe, failed to get a place in the major Turf event, while the Classic itself, billed as one of the races of the decade, turned into very much a procession for CURLIN, who obviously adapted best to the conditions, but who had been comfortably bested by the likes of Street Sense and Any Given Saturday in earlier encounters.

Watch the Breeder’s Cup Classic (Gr1) 2007.

Get a spectator’s view from Monmouth Park grandstand.