Sun Stud's chosen son

Images: courtesy Sun Stud

National Defense (GB), a former Group 1-winning 2-year-old in France, has shuttled from the Irish National Stud to stand his first season in Australia, offering the Invincible Spirit (Ire) blood that’s served I Am Invincible so spectacularly.

Melbourne Cup hero Fiorente’s (Ire) early offspring continue to shine, and the first crop of Palentino, the dual Flemington 1600 metre Group 1 winner, are now strutting around as (reportedly very impressive) yearlings.

Hope, of course, springs eternal. But already, not too many places can lay claim to as big a role in as big a chapter of the Australian turf as this picturesque property in the Macedon Ranges.

The early days

In 1999, breeder and part-owner Lee Fleming retired his sprinting mare Scandinavia (Snippets) to what was then his Eliza Park Stud.

The daughter of Snippets and Song Of Norway (Vain) had distinguished herself with one Group 2 win and two Group 1 placings. At only her seventh start, at three, she ran a close third in the 1998 Newmarket H. behind Queensland’s General Nediym, trained essentially by a young Peter Moody, as Bill Mitchell’s Brisbane foreman.

Fleming invested heavily in Victorian breeding, though he’d come from Sydney racing royalty, as a son of former Sydney Turf Club chairman Jim Fleming. The older Fleming - after whom a Rosehill grandstand is named - built a fortune from the Jewel Supermarkets chain.

This funded a turf passion which included breeding 1993 Golden Slipper winner Bint Marscay (Marscay) from his boutique operation, Tyreel Stud, on the Hawkesbury River.

Eldest son Lee viewed Victoria as a go-ahead breeding region, and in the late 1990s bought Dorrington Park from influential owner/breeder Rob Crabtree, renaming it Eliza Park. The property’s buyer and vendor stayed linked, racing Scandinavia together.

Soon before her retirement, Fleming had boldly bought, out of New Zealand, the British stallion Desert Sun (GB), sire of a filly who’d won seven of her 11 starts, Sunline (NZ).

Keen to make a splash, Fleming and Crabtree put their fine mare Scandinavia to Desert Sun. The result, born at Eliza Park in 2001, was a filly who would never race. Bought as a yearling for $115,000 by Rick Jamieson from Gilgai Farms, she was called Helsinge (Desert Sun {GB}).

Two years after her birth, Fleming made his second major stallion purchase, in dual Group 1-winner Bel Esprit (Ire). In his second season at stud, in 1995, Helsinge was returned to Eliza to be covered by the sprinter in her first mating.

And in case there’s anyone who still hasn’t connected the dots, the offspring was a filly, foaled in August, 2006, who would end up bridging a few degrees of separation by being trained by Peter Moody: Black Caviar (Bel Esprit).

(And thus, in case some have forgotten, two great champions were bred on the reverse cross: Sunline (NZ) being by Desert Sun out of a Nijinski-line (USA) mare in Songline; and Black Caviar being by a Nijinski-line sire out of a Desert Sun mare. Seems to work either way!)

Much has changed at Eliza Park. Fleming was forced to sell out, his stock being dispersed in 2013 (only after he’d bred Redzel (Snitzel)). The property was then bought – appropriately, given Helsinge’s sire, by the Macau-based Sun International Group.

The beginnings of Sun Stud

It became Sun Stud, one piece of an international group, a corporate-style operation now standing 10 sires, far removed from its more modestly-budgeted predecessor.

But one thing hasn’t changed. Bel Esprit is still standing there, aged 20, having been Victoria’s champion sire no fewer than seven times.

Sun Stud is still, like so many others, chasing that superstar sire. They’ll hope it might be National Defense. Or Fiorente. Or Palentino.

But whatever happens, while age now restricts his book to around 60 mares, Bel Esprit will be doing what he’s always done, providing ample hope of success among those sending mares his way.

“Bel Esprit and Desert Sun really kicked Eliza Park off – and Bel Esprit is still going at 20,” says Sun’s Operations Manager David Grant, who’s been at the farm since its early days, in 2004.

“He’s been a great performer. And he would’ve seen 30 or so stallions come and go here.”

One of them, in fact, was his son - Black Caviar’s full brother Moshe - who stood at Sun until this year.

Although some have been turned off by the imperfect forelegs of many of Bel Esprit’s offspring - fortunately for him on seeing Black Caviar, Moody wasn’t one of them - the son of Royal Academy (USA) has been a constant star for many breeders. He especially came to the fore when the EI crisis of 2007 halted the interstate movements of horses, covering no fewer than 265 mares that season.

“He finished 26th on the general sires list last season. That’s a tremendous effort for an old boy like him,” says Sun’s Newmarket (England) reared sales and nominations manager, Phil Marshall.

“Everyone who breeds to Bel Esprit is hopeful of a Black Caviar. Obviously, those chances are slim, but most breed to him simply because he’s such a consistent source of good performers. He takes a huge element of risk out of breeding, knowing you’ll get horses that try, and can win races at all grades.”

The same could be said of another of Sun’s sires, another product of Scandinavia, the ex-Moody trained Group 1-winning sprinter, Magnus.

“He’s very similar to Bel Esprit, with just over 70 per cent winners to runners,” Marshall says. “Not many stallions can boast that sort of ratio. He’s a good horse to breed to. He can produce a good type, produces winners, and produces a very good sprinter-miler, which is exactly what this industry likes.”

While Magnus was in fact the best performed of Sun’s sires last season, finishing 23rd, since he’s now 17-years-old Sun’s future may lie with its younger stallions. The signs are good.

The Chosen Son

National Defense had a false start to his Australian career last year, with plans for him to shuttle abruptly scuttled, by a kick from a mare. But a year on, the northern hemisphere 5-year-old has, since September 1, been chipping into his first Southern book, of around 170 mares.

Grant worked with Invincible Spirit at the Irish National Stud and sees “a lot of similarities”. One difference, however, is that National Defense won a Group 1 at 2-years-old – Chantilly’s Prix de Luc Lagardere – whereas his father did not.

“I think it’s obvious the Invincible Spirit line is going to be the next dominant sireline in Australia, following on from Danehill, Redoute’s Choice and Snitzel,” Grant says. “Plus there’s so many Danehill mares in Australia now, breeders are probably looking for a slight outcross.”

National Defense is booked to serve mares including New Zealand Oaks-winner Miss Mossman (NZ) (Mossman), and Group 2 winner Avienus (Reset). But there’s one, very obscure, unraced mare creating intrigue, a 9-year-old covered on the stallion’s first day at “work”, called Miss Valentina (Nadeem).

“She’s very interesting, because she’s from the same female line as National Defense, so they’re duplicating some very good female lines,” Marshall says.

National Defense and Miss Valentina both have the Mill Reef mare Anna Matrushka, dam of several stakes winners, in their maternal side, as Miss Valentina’s third dam, and National Defense’s fourth. Watch this space.

Alongside Sun’s other stallions including Fighting Sun, Ready For Victory, Thronum and Squamosa, hopes are particularly high around Palentino.

“He’s siring some absolutely outstanding types, which is why breeders are coming back to him,” says Marshall of the 7-year-old son of Teofilo (Ire). “They’ve got everything you want to see in a racehorse: bone, size, quality, great actions. It’s very exciting.”

While Palentino is still an unknown quantity, there’s another sire that Sun staff are expecting to blossom: Fiorente.

The Monsun 12-year-old was seventh among second season sires last season, his best being Victoria Derby runner-up Stars Of Carrum, and Group 2 winner Hawkshot, who’s now in Hong Kong.

“Fiorente is bucking the trend a bit, in terms of everyone wanting 2-year-old sprinting types,” Grant says. “A lot of people see him as a possible replacement to a sire like Zabeel (NZ).

“He’s a chance for people to breed to a top staying horse with a great pedigree. Monsun is a phenomenal stallion in Europe, and it just suits so much of the mare population in Australia. There’s not a lot of that blood in the Southern Hemisphere.”

With a bit of luck in running, for the farm where Black Caviar was bred, there could be yet more history on the horizon.