Images courtesy of Westbury Stud
We have ended this year’s VRC Carnival much more sanguine about the supply of high-class stamina in the Australasian breeding industry than has often seemed the case in recent years.
Obviously a home-grown Lexus Melbourne Cup winner helps, with Vow And Declare (Declaration Of War {USA}) helping to consolidate the far-from-initially-obvious claims of Declaration Of War (USA) (War Front {USA}) as a star sire of stayers, coming hot on the heels of Warning’s victory in the G1 AAMI Victoria Derby and the success earlier in the year of Winning Ways in the G1 Treasury Brisbane Queensland Oaks.
Hopefully Declaration Of War will resume shuttling duties next year. Whether he does or doesn’t, though, there have still been several other stallions advertising their merit recently, none more so than Reliable Man (GB), sire of the terrific filly Miami Bound (NZ) who looked so good in completing the time-honoured G2 Wakeful S. / G1 VRC Kennedy Oaks double.
Miami Bound (NZ) claimed the G2 Wakeful S. and G1 Victoria Oaks over the Spring Carnival at Flemington
A dual hemisphere career
At the outset, Reliable Man was an obvious horse to shuttle for the best of all possible reasons: he was a Group 1 winner in both hemispheres. Trained for his breeder Sven Hanson by Alain de Royer-Dupre, he was arguably France’s best 3-year-old colt of 2011, taking the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club over 2100 metres at the end of the spring and the G2 Prix Niel (beating the G1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Meandre (Fr) (Slicky {Fr}) by 2l) over 2400 metres in the autumn.
"At the outset, Reliable Man was an obvious horse to shuttle for the best of all possible reasons: he was a Group 1 winner in both hemispheres." - John Berry
His 4-year-old campaign in 2012 was disappointing, notwithstanding that he finished a good fourth of 11 runners in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. at Ascot, hard on the heels of So You Think (NZ), Carlton House (USA) and Farhh (GB).
Gallery: Reliable Man (GB) winning the Prix du Jockey | Image courtesy of Scoop Dyga
Sent to join Chris Waller in Sydney, though, he rediscovered his best form, slamming a strong field headed by Dundeel (NZ), Happy Trails and Silent Achiever (NZ) in the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. over 2000 metres at Randwick in the style of a horse who might be able to win the Cox Plate the following spring.
Sadly that didn’t happen as it was soon apparent that Reliable Man had sustained a career-ending injury in the race.
A mouth-watering stallion prospect
Reliable Man was clearly a mouth-watering stallion prospect, over and above being a Group 1 winner in both hemispheres. One could hardly ask for a pedigree better tailored to produce a top-class sire of middle-distance horses.
Along the top line, his sire Dalakhani (Ire) and grandsire Darshaan (GB) had both won the Prix du Jockey-Club, just as he did; while the next two stallions, Shirley Heights (GB) and Mill Reef (USA), had both won the Derby.
On the bottom half of his pedigree, his dam On Fair Stage (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells {USA}) was a stakes-winning daughter of Fair Salinia (Ire) (Petingo {GB}) who had won the Oaks.
Reliable Man (GB) x Arapaho Miss (colt) at Westbury Stud | A full brother to Miami Bound (NZ), the winner of the G1 VRC Kennedy Oaks
Westbury Stud acted quickly to secure his services and he duly began his stud career there in September 2013. Inevitably European studs were keen to stand him too, so in 2014 he joined the roster at Gestut Rottgen in Germany. (Since 2017 he has spent his European seasons in France, with Haras du Thenney hosting him last year and Haras d’Annebault doing the honours in 2019).
Coincidentally, when Reliable Man began covering at Westbury in September 2013, his sire Dalakhani, who had been at the Aga Khan’s Gilltown Stud in Ireland since retiring there subsequent to his 2003 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe victory, also embarked on his first Southern-Hemisphere season, shuttling to Cornerstone Stud in South Australia.
Reliable Man (GB) | Standing at Westbury Stud
Dalakhani had already produced several stars in Europe including the G1 St Leger, G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. and dual G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf hero Conduit (Ire). Latterly he has proved to have been a valuable, albeit belated, addition to the Australasian sires’ ranks, most notably producing this season’s high-class 3-year-old sprinter/miler Dalasan, successful this spring at Flemington in the G2 Danehill S. over 1200 metres and the G3 Carbine Club S. over 1600 metres.
Reliable Man has done even better and, pertinently, has time on his side to become a major influence in the antipodes (unlike his father, who had only three seasons at Cornerstone before being pensioned in 2016).
The progeny
With his oldest European-bred offspring currently aged four, Reliable Man has already produced some smart horses up there including Erasmus (Ger) who took pole position among his father’s first crop of 2-year-olds with his 8l victory in 2017 in Germany’s top juvenile race, the G3 Preis des Winterfavoriten at Cologne; Narella (Ire) who also registered a black-type juvenile victory that year, taking the G3 Steinhoff Zukunftsrennen at Baden-Baden; Akribie (Ger) who recorded her second black-type triumph when taking this year’s G2 Schwarzgold Rennen/Diana Trial at the Hoppegarten in Berlin in June; this year’s G1 Preis der Diana runner-up Naida (Ger); and Master Brewer (Fr) who took Arqana’s valuable sales’ race, the Criterium de la Vente d’Octobre, at Longchamp last year.
Gallery: Some of Reliable Man's (GB) progeny
In New Zealand, though, Reliable Man has been even more successful, thanks in part to the excellent support given to him by Westbury Stud proprietor Gerry Harvey, breeder of several of Reliable Man’s best offspring including not only Miami Bound but also Aalaalune (NZ) who failed by only a short head in last season’s G1 Ellerslie Sires’ Produce S.
Miami Bound is Reliable Man’s second Oaks heroine this year, following the success at Ellerslie in March of Sentimental Miss (NZ), bred by The Oaks Stud, in the G1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai NZ Oaks.
"Miami Bound is Reliable Man’s second Oaks heroine this year." - John Berry
These two top-class fillies have been backed up in the past two seasons by some other Group 1-performed 3-year-olds including Battenburg (NZ) who bustled up Shadow Hero (Pierro) and Castelvecchio (Dundeel {NZ}) when third in this season’s G1 Spring Champion S. at Randwick; Sully (NZ) who had finished third in the same race two years previously before finishing second in the G1 AAMI Victoria Derby; Belle Du Nord (NZ) who finished second in that season’s G1 Levin Classic; and Hypnos, who dead-heated for second place in the same race last season after having taken the Uncle Remus S. at Ellerslie the previous month.
One of several high-class stallions who are helping Australasian breeders to launch a counter-attack against the Northern Hemisphere-bred stayers who have enjoyed rich pickings in recent years, Reliable Man looks perfectly placed to help New Zealand to regain its former cherished position as one of the world’s most fertile sources of high-class stamina.
